In 2023, there were 55 severe crashes resulting in an injury or fatality on Boulder’s streets, according to new data from city transportation officials. Three of these were fatal.
The number of severe crashes in Boulder each year has mostly held steady over the last decade, city data show. The numbers have not changed much despite the adoption of a Vision Zero plan in 2014, which aims to eliminate severe crashes by 2030.
Moreover, nearly half of all severe crashes in 2023 involved a collision between a driver and a pedestrian or cyclist, according to city data.
But the city’s streets are becoming safer for these vulnerable road users, according to city officials. And major projects are in the works that will prioritize the safety of people riding bikes or walking.
“We have seen progress,” Devin Joslin, principal traffic engineer for the city, told councilmembers during a Vision Zero update last week. “Our strategy now, as I outlined, is really dialed in.“
That strategy primarily centers on adding safety measures to the city’s main arterial roads — 30th, Baseline, Iris — where most severe crashes occur.
A recent example is the new bike lane along Baseline Avenue, separated by a tall concrete curb. This design feature is the first in the U.S., according to the city. The city is also planning changes to its intersections to slow down drivers, including creating sharper turns to reduce speeds and improving the visibility of pedestrians crossing the intersection. It is considering updates to its internal traffic signals policy to potentially reduce the use of flashing yellow arrows at left-hand turn signals, a feature that gives drivers discretion on when to yield to people in the crosswalk. In recent years, several residents have died after being struck by drivers at such intersections. The city is also installing more speed cameras. Later this month, the red-light camera at Broadway and Pine Street will also enforce the speed limit for northbound drivers, city officials have said.
The city has used the Swiss cheese metaphor to describe these measures: No single layer will eliminate crashes because it has holes, but multiple layers reduce the odds.
“It’s really all geared toward building that redundant system that will allow for people to make mistakes and not lose their life,” Joslin told councilmembers last week.
For decades, Boulder’s streets were designed to move vehicles along faster. But in recent years, members of the city’s volunteer Transportation Advisory Board and the Boulder City Council have been putting pressure on officials to make streets safer for vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians. The previous city council made retrofitting the city’s core arterial network a top priority in January 2022, following a request from transportation advocates.
During last week’s meetings, councilmembers asked city officials what they could do to expedite the projects.
“What do you need from council to be successful?” Councilmember Ryan Schuchard, a former member of the Transportation Advisory Board, asked city officials.
In response, city officials said they did not necessarily need funding or additional staff. Much of the money for transportation infrastructure comes from state and federal grants, they noted. In December 2023, the city received a $23 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, most of which is earmarked to pay for changes to the city’s core arterial network.
Instead of resources, city officials indicated they’ll need city council’s support for potentially controversial projects.
One of the next projects up for discussion involves changes to Iris Avenue from Broadway to 28th Street. Later this month, city officials plan to release design options for the street. At least one option is expected to include a protected bike lane. Some residents have voiced frustration with such projects, in part because the construction and new road features can cause confusion. Neighbors near Iris Avenue have already raised concerns about traffic being diverted through side streets in their neighborhood.
On June 6, councilmembers will have a chance to weigh in on the possible design for Iris Avenue, officials said.
“You’ll continue to hear about Iris and then more of these corridors,” Natalie Stiffler, the city’s transportation and mobility director, told councilmembers. “So just stay engaged on some of these policy discussions. It’s going to be super important as we move through the ones that have significant tradeoffs associated with them.”
Entitled motorists are already complaining about Iris. I hope the city council holds strong against the complaining motorists.
Bikes and cars should be separated. Designate some roads for bikes only and some for cars. Also in the Netherlands drivers car doors open on the opposite hinge so bikers can see it earlier.
I don’t trust the city’s assurances that these measures reduce injuries. Their data collection has often been wildly unscientific.
I would like to know that these fairly radical changes will truly reduce injuries and deaths…as opposed to fitting with the decades of dogmatic anti-vehicle policies. After all these years you’d think everyone would be biking
or busing—has any of it actually worked? I don’t see zillions more bikes on the roads.
There are harms associated with the anti-car/parking changes that get ignored. Our population is aging and mobility-disabled people like me are successfully discouraged from accessing all our town has to offer. For Gods sake, Parks & Rec has to offer a class to teach seniors how to use the new parking garage payment system! Screw that!
I chose what businesses to use by how close I can park. You would too if you had to haul your walker or wheelchair out of the car, then push yourself to your destination, go back and repeat for your next errand or social event. If parking is increased by several blocks it’s not worth it.
“After all these years you’d think everyone would be biking
or busing—has any of it actually worked? I don’t see zillions more bikes on the roads.”
More biking and non-car opportunities mean better parking situations for people who really do need it, like yourself. By not supporting bike initiatives, you’re contributing to persistent traffic and parking issues. Give us cyclists and walkers a completely separate, well-maintained infrastructure and things will get better for everyone.
Another piece of evidence that shows “Protected” bike lanes are simply NOT that. They create a false sense of security for bikers, while actually making bikers less visible to drivers turning across the bike lanes (one of the biggest causes of serious biker injuries). And they create confusion for all road users. The Folsom “protected” lanes are the Worst, trapping cyclists in a narrow lane without the option to escape. How about calling them “prisoner” lanes. Just another in the long list of failed Boulder traffic engineering geniuses “experimenting” on us cyclists. Speed bumps just increase pollution that we have to breathe, and make drivers more angry. The proven method is to narrow car lanes to reduce speeds. And put up more speeding and red light cameras. (And ban any license plate covers, cause those people just use them to avoid tickets).
Boulder police do not enforce speeding and stop sign running, so I don’t expect this to make any difference. Traffic calming on the major arteries such as Iris will push speeders onto side streets and cut throughs, so any Iris project should involve closing or limiting traffic on such sidestreets.
We live on Laguna and see very few bikes on Baseline. Is there somewhere that these crashes are recorded on Baseline? At present one comment I have is that our corner has such a sharp turn that a driver must almost come to a stop and give full attention to avoiding hitting the raised curb and post. It stops traffic and fast moving bicycles must slow down for the car to make the turn. I’m also wondering what is the plan for removing snow in the winter? Will traffic on Baseline be reduced to one lane or is there a plan to carry the snow away? Needless to say, the lane marking is confusing too.
Crossing Baseline at Mohawk as a pedestrian is more dangerous than it was before the changes were made.
“Protected lanes” are misleading and create a false sense of security. They also distract drivers and cyclists alike, as reported here in the Baseline debacle article. And the Folsom lanes are the worst, trapping us cyclist with curbs. Those endanger cyclist rather than protecting them. Please give us regular (but wider) bike lanes, without curbs, bollard, bumps, and other distractions. The many “experiments” that Boulder has been performing on cyclists aren’t working. Go back to cheap & simple. Wider bike lanes, and narrower car lanes. Those have been proven all around the world to slow traffic.
I totally agree and, as a senior, I can confirm getting around by bike is not possible for me and taking the bus doesn’t help with getting purchases back to my home. I talked to someone in transportation and was told they would assess the success of the Baseline changes — but the article doesn’t really cover what works and what doesn’t. I think it’s important to have comments from people who live in the Baseline neighborhood and I did offer to give specific comments. I have never been contacted. I drive and walk Baseline and am very familiar with how it is a success and failure.
As a 60 year Boulder resident and someone whose primary transportation modes have been by bicycle and by foot, I find the city’s attempts to control traffic through a lot of confusing clutter and road furniture both amateurish and dangerous make-work by people should be more usefully employed and who ought to know better. The system of dedicated bike ways is a great achievement. The little white plastic poles and dangerous low concrete dividers are an embarrassment. I was riding a bike in Boulder when the current crop of noisy activists were getting their first trike.
Agree! I shutter to think of the money that is going into these projects! Road maintenance and repainting the faded/worn lines including the double turn lanes could use some of that money. I remember how University (west of Broadway) was reconfigured and then all put back to the original plan. It also happened on Folsom.
“Later this month, the red-light camera at Broadway and Pine Street will also enforce the speed limit for northbound drivers, city officials have said.”
This isn’t a pro-active solution and only serves to punish after the fact. Instead, we should be implementing traffic calming measures and not giving vehicles dead-straight roads through the most pedestrian-heavy portions of the city.
“Traffic calming.” Ugh. The streets were built and paid for by automotive users, and a sane traffic policy would be to channel auto traffic onto main thoroughfares with a minimum of impediments, leaving minor streets with less auto traffic and more availability to bicycles. The mentality of riders who want to be right out there alongside gas guzzlers enduring traffic noise and huffing exhaust fumes is irrational. Cycling is not about imitating the automobile.
While your at it, give pedestrians routes completely free from mechanical conveyances, including bicycles and electric motorcycles.
I appreciate the new bike infrastructure Boulder is building, but the pace feels too slow and not radical enough to change driving habits. I see road diets happening but only on lower traffic streets where the city won’t face backlash from drivers. Biking along the unprotected sections of Folsom is terrible. I wish the City has stuck with their vision of lane reduction there. I would like to see lane reductions occur along the busiest and widest streets, like 28th, Broadway or Arapahoe, Valmont, Canyon, 30th. These streets feel more like highways because they are often 4-6 lanes across not counting turn lanes and so many of the businesses along them feature driveway cuts. Reduce the lanes, eliminate the driveway cuts and offer dedicated bike and public transportation lanes. Until we increase the time of travel for cars with congestion and decrease the transportation time for more scalable modes of transportation like biking and transit, you will not see a reduction in vehicular miles driven and you will not see a reduction in car based collisions.
If those changes were enacted, I expect the main result would be that the serving city council would be voted out of office at the next election. You can get bitten trying to make the tail wag the dog.