In the morning on Jan. 3, 2024, Virginia Knowlton was crossing Alpine Avenue near the Ideal Market and Community Plaza. A driver heading south on Broadway made a left-hand turn to enter the shopping center and collided with Knowlton, who later died in the hospital. Knowlton was 90 years old.
Additional details of the crash have not been made public. The Boulder Police Department said the police report is not available.
What is known is that the crash followed a pattern seen in other pedestrian deaths at similar intersections in the City of Boulder. A common factor is the presence of a traffic signal designed to move drivers along faster and more efficiently, often at the expense of pedestrian safety.
Specifically, like many traffic lights in the city, the one at Alpine and Broadway does not have a left-turn signal. Instead, when the light is green, drivers have to decide when to turn while simultaneously navigating through multiple lanes of oncoming traffic and pedestrians in the crosswalk.
This discretion is one reason why left-hand turns are among the most common factors in fatal and serious traffic crashes in the city, according to the City of Boulder’s latest Vision Zero Action Plan, which seeks to eliminate traffic deaths.
Transportation advocates partially blame the city’s traffic signals for making left-hand turns unnecessarily dangerous.
“I am ruing the engineering choices that we have made in the past and that we have built our current roadway system around,” Tila Duhaime, a member of the city’s Transportation Advisory Board, told Boulder Reporting Lab. “It puts too much responsibility in the hands of individual drivers, while urging them to get from one place to another as quickly as they can manage.”
The crash at Alpine and Broadway is remarkably similar to other fatal crashes that have occurred in the city in recent years.
In the afternoon on April 21, 2016, Helen Greschler, 84, was crossing Canyon Boulevard when she was hit by a driver of a GMC truck. The driver was turning left at a flashing yellow left-turn signal from Folsom Street onto Canyon Boulevard heading east, according to the accident report. Greschler died in the hospital the next day.
In the morning on Jan. 9, 2020, Felix Duran, 85, was crossing Baseline Road on his way back to Boulder Manor when he was struck by the driver of an RTD bus, according to the accident report. The bus driver was turning left at a green light from Mohawk Drive onto Baseline heading east. Duran died in the hospital less than an hour later.
In early 2022, the Colorado Department of Transportation replaced the signal head at Canyon and Folsom to include a “protected left-turn” signal. This means drivers are allowed to turn left only when there is a green or yellow arrow.
The intersection at Baseline and Mohawk seems unchanged from four years ago for drivers turning left off of Mohawk onto Baseline. In both directions, pedestrians are given a five-second head start to cross the street before the traffic light turns green for drivers.
Before the fatal crash in January this year at Alpine and Broadway, city officials had already received a $1.2 million grant from Denver Regional Council of Governments to retrofit that traffic signal, among others. The city plans to install a four-section signal head with a flashing yellow left-turn arrow for people traveling southbound on Broadway, according to city officials.
This flashing yellow arrow is designed to at least remind drivers to yield to traffic and pedestrians. But it does not force them to.
Transportation advocates have urged the city to instead install a protected left-turn signal. They argue such a safety measure is necessary because the Ideal Market and Community Plaza is part of a “walkable neighborhood.” The site of the recent crash is also adjacent to the $168 million redevelopment intended to replace the demolished hospital with city offices and affordable housing.
During a Transportation Advisory Board meeting this month, city officials responded to this request by citing internal guidelines. The 2018 guidelines state that left-turn signals “typically involve trade-offs between safety and efficiency.” Meaning, protected left-turn signals may minimize “potential conflicts,” but they also increase wait times for pedestrians and drivers.
Natalie Stiffler, the city’s transportation and mobility director, told Boulder Reporting Lab that the flashing yellow signal head offers flexibility in programming different left-turn options to best serve intersection users throughout the day.
“Compared to a steady green signal indication, a flashing yellow arrow signal indication has been shown to better convey to motorists that they do not have the right-of-way when turning left and need to exercise caution,” Stiffler wrote in an email. “Before we implement the project, staff will revisit the left turn phasing guidelines to determine the recommended left turn phasing for this intersection.”
Another immediate option for the Alpine and Broadway intersection would be to prohibit all drivers from entering the intersection when pedestrians are crossing it. This would be similar to the four-way red light used when people cross the intersection at Pine Street and 20th Street, near Whittier Elementary School.
Duhaime said in the aftermath of a fatal traffic crash, the city should seize the opportunity to reduce speeds, raise driver awareness and help protect pedestrians. She suggested something “more serious and new and different” is needed.
“These incidents just keep ringing the same bells in different parts of town,” Duhaime said of left-turn crashes. “Flashing yellow arrows have been around for a long time. People keep making mistakes at them.”
Yesterday I was driving southbound on Broadway and turned left onto eastbound Linden under a flashing yellow light. It went okay and I did not break the law. But right after making the turn, I thought to myself, “If there had been a pedestrian in that crosswalk, I might have hit them. Before turning I did not watch the crosswalk to make sure that was safe.”
The reason I did not watch the crosswalk was that I was busy watching the oncoming, northbound vehicles to make sure I had sufficient time to make my turn. But really, I should have waited another 30 to 45 seconds. I actually turned just seconds before an oncoming northbound pickup truck arrived. It was sufficient time for my motorized vehicle to get in the clear, but it was not sufficient time to also pay attention to the possibility of pedestrians in the crosswalk. Shame on me, and shame on the city for allowing me to make that left turn in the midst of busy, oncoming vehicles.
A person was killed at 29th and Pearl by a driver making a Right Turn on Red. Elderly lady killed by a teenager driving a large Jeep.
I’m glad to see that there are starting to be some actual design changes in support of Vision Zero. For years it seemed like an aspirational program with no teeth. Now it has cute baby teeth. I will try to be patient (and careful) but this all seems like too little too late.
Both Alpine and North at Broadway are problematic. It’s not just left turn signals though.
For years we’ve been asking the city to make the light North always have a pedestrian walk signal, but the city has not done so.
This means that people who arrive just as the light turns green often end up crossing Broadway without a walk signal, and the traffic light is so short that many cannot make it across the five lanes of traffic at normal walking speed. There is senior housing center on North just west of Broadway as well.
The City of Boulder Transportation Advisory Board looks after the safety of our transportations system–pedestrians, cyclists, scooters and cars. This is a five person Board, appointed by City Council. If you have an interest in transportation. consider applying for this board. APPLICATIONS ARE DUE JANUARY 29. You can find the applications for COB Boards and Commissions, due January 29, at the recruitment page: https://bouldercolorado.gov/government/boards-and-commissions
It’s sort of a one-two punch of unprotected turns as a rule of thumb and the fact that most vehicles sold in the USA now are trucks and light / sport utility vehicles – specifically designed to get around safety laws for the occupants and downright disregard for pedestrians (an SUV is 45 percent more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than cars) The new Tesla Cybertruck, which is silent, heavy, fast, powerful and brandishes pointed, razor-sharp looking edges, looks custom-made to kill and maim us hapless, vegan wimpy pedestrians. Walking in Boulder has never been a risk-free proposition (I’m a native) but now, you literally have to have your head on a swivel when crossing the street. You can’t restrict what kind of vehicles people want to drive, so clearly Boulder needs to start managing these turn signal heads more effectively.
About a year ago, I was hit by a car turning left from walnut onto 28th as I was walking. I had a pedestrian walk signal, and the driver had a yellow arrow. The car turning ahead of her whiffed by me and I was staring after it in shock when I was hit from behind. Flashing arrows may help drivers, but they are a great risk to pedestrians. In the dark.
“The 2018 guidelines state that left-turn signals “typically involve trade-offs between safety and efficiency.” Meaning, protected left-turn signals may minimize “potential conflicts,” but they also increase wait times for pedestrians and drivers.”
Why do we consider any safety trade-off at all? Is a faster light cycle worth the risks of injury or death?
I recently contacted the city about the Baseline/Mohawk intersection. I specifically recommended against flashing yellow turn arrows. As your article suggests, others feel the same way. It is obvious that left-turning cars are mostly concerned with finding a gap in on-coming traffic and watching for pedestrians is almost an afterthought after initiating the turn.
The city’s response was to totally ignore what I said and explain that flashing yellow turn arrows make things safer.
Unbelievable.
I live on the corner of Broadway and Balsam. I am always concerned when I need to cross the street. Drivers turning left have their eyes on the directions their car is turning, not on people entering the crosswalk. A driver turning left luckily noticed me when he was about four feet away. He mouthed sorry and appeared shaken. I also was shaken. When I step off the curb I also have to look over my shoulder to check for cars turning right. A recent article in the NYT told of the steps taken in Paris to decrease pedestrian deaths. Instead of having crosswalks on corners, they were located in the middle of the block. I have also seen this in Boulder on 28th and also on Folsom. I would love to see it on Broadway when the new Balsam-Alpine area is developed. It would certainly help my blood pressure!
Here is an interesting situation involving flashing yellow turn arrows for left hand turns involving bicycles riding at speed on sidewalks. I have observed this twice recently, as a left hand turner, southbound on Broadway, turning eastbound onto Iris Ave. While the yellow turn arrow was flashing and the pedestrian crossing signal was solid red, a southbound bicycle traveling on the east sidewalk, crossed against his light, into the path of a left turning car, without warning as though traffic signals and car movements were of no concern. How do you guard against stupid?