Boulder officials are looking to gather community feedback on two major transportation projects that are part of the city’s Core Arterial Network, a system of interconnected transportation improvements along arterial roads intended to reduce the risk of serious crashes.
Members of the public are invited to attend two upcoming open house events on the Iris Avenue Transportation Improvements Project, which aims to enhance safety and connectivity along the stretch of Iris Avenue between Broadway and 28th Street. There will be an in-person open house from 10 a.m. to noon on April 27 at Columbine Elementary School, 3130 Repplier St., where attendees can learn more and offer feedback on conceptual design options for the project.
Additionally, a virtual open house and online questionnaire will be available from April 27 through May 27, and the city plans to do other community engagement activities through the early summer.
Community members can also give input on the Baseline Road Transportation Safety Project, which spans from 30th Street to Foothills Parkway, starting next month via a virtual questionnaire. The city has begun the second phase of the work, which will include completing protected bike lanes with “tall curbs” featuring designs by local artists.
In Boulder, a majority (67%) of serious injury or fatal traffic crashes happen on arterial streets such as Baseline Road and Iris Avenue. Segments of both streets are in the city’s High Risk Network — the 7% of the city’s streets where 48% of fatal and serious injury crashes happened between 2016 and 2020.
Work on the Baseline Road project is already well underway, but the city has yet to release its concept designs for the Iris Avenue projects. Transportation advocates have said they want to see features that make intersections safer along with a protected bike lane along the Iris corridor.
“Right now, simply because of the fact that there’s not that many intersections, it becomes a high-speed road, which makes it dangerous for everyone. The higher speed you travel, it’s not only more dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians, it’s also more dangerous for cars, and it’s louder for the neighbors,” said Sue Prant, executive director of Community Cycles, an organization that advocates for bicycle-based transportation.
In addition, Prant said, that stretch of Iris Avenue could be a candidate for a four- to three-lane conversion, which changes four-lane roadways to three lanes (one lane in each direction plus a center lane that can be used for left turns or passing).
The City Council is scheduled to hear an update on the Iris Avenue project on June 6.
Boulder has long had designs of making its roads safer. The goal of the city’s Vision Zero program, launched in 2014, is to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes on city streets by 2030.
At a City Council meeting on Thursday, Devin Joslin, principal traffic engineer for Boulder, said that while the total number of severe crashes — or those that cause serious injuries or fatalities — each year has been “relatively steady,” the city is making progress in reducing severe crashes in certain areas.
Part of the city’s Vision Zero strategy is to target the high-risk network of streets where severe crashes are most likely to happen.
“Managing risk and mitigating crashes on the high risk network will have an outsized impact on reducing fatal and serious injury crashes in our city,” Joslin said.
Joslin also highlighted that Boulder was awarded $23 million in grant funding last year from the U.S. Department of Transportation to support transportation infrastructure upgrades.
