At a city council candidate forum at the Nomad Playhouse in North Boulder this week, few topics divided candidates more than the future of Iris Avenue and other transportation safety projects.
As part of Boulder’s strategy to reduce traffic crashes, city officials are focusing on the busiest streets where most injuries and fatalities occur, especially for cyclists and pedestrians. The initiative calls for adding protected bike lanes and reconfiguring intersections to improve visibility for drivers. Key projects include Iris Avenue, Folsom Street between Pine Street and Colorado Avenue and a section of 30th Street.
Such efforts were a central part of the Boulder City Council’s 2022 priority list. The focus on the Core Arterial Network, or CAN, was spearheaded in part by Councilmember Matt Benjamin, who is running for a second term.
“I support the work that is being done,” Benjamin said. “CAN is now the culture of our transportation department.”
Other incumbents said they supported Iris Avenue and similar projects.
“I voted with my colleagues to support it,” Mayor Pro Tem Lauren Folkerts said. “Iris, Folsom and 30th are amongst our most dangerous streets, and redesigning them is essential to save lives.”
“It will make our streets safer for every single person who uses them,” Councilmember Nicole Speer said. However, she said that funding remains a hurdle. “We’re certainly not going to redirect city funds to those purposes, so they may just need to sit on a shelf for a bit.”
Rob Kaplan, a former captain with Boulder Rural Fire Rescue, said he was initially skeptical about CAN because of emergency access concerns. But he said some bike lanes can be repurposed for emergency vehicles if necessary.
“I love the idea of a protected bike lane for kids going to school,” he said. “I think it’s a great project.”
Among the most vocal critics was Max Lord, owner of Hammer and Driver, a home improvement business. “We need to learn how to say no. It isn’t 2022 anymore. It’s 2025,” he said. “I have a hard time finding anybody that supports the construction on Iris.”
Councilmember Mark Wallach has also objected.
“I am convinced that the rush hour turn lane from Broadway onto Iris will be a nightmare,” he said. “I am concerned that the bike lane will be as little used as the Baseline bike lane. And I think we need to be a little more thoughtful about how we’re spending our money.”
Some candidates questioned the city’s public engagement on Iris Avenue, a common concern raised by critics of the project. According to the city, planning for Iris included 3,100 comments and 34 community events. Officials have said changes were made as a result, including adding speed mitigation measures on side streets.
For some candidates, it was suggested that this wasn’t enough.
“I certainly don’t let my kids ride their bike from Gunbarrel to downtown. Hopefully, once the Diagonal project is complete — if it ever is complete — we will allow them to do that,” Jennifer Robins, a telecommunications consultant and chair of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, said. “With that in mind, I think that we should take community voices into account in these discussions a little bit more fruitfully. I know a lot of community members, especially around the Iris project, have not felt like they’ve been heard.”
Rachel Rose Isaacson, a barista at South Side Walnut Cafe, also urged more engagement. She said one of her first friends in Boulder died while riding her bike.
“I think it’s devastating to see people die on their bikes when we know it can be prevented,” she said. “That being said, I think that there is a lot of community input and concerns that deserve to be heard.”
The forum was hosted by Open Boulder, Better Boulder and PLAN-Boulder County. Candidates Aaron Stone, Rob Smoke and Montserrat Palacios Rodarte did not attend. According to organizers, participation required a fundraising threshold of 40 donations of at least $5 or a total of $1,000 from at least 25 donors.
Other subjects discussed include the city’s finances, homelessness and housing for middle-income earners.
I ask Jennifer Robins, a telecommunications consultant and chair of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
Why wouldn’t the Bike Path in the median of the Diagonal not be completed?
Transportation, road, and traffic design are a science with knowable causes and effects, with data and evidence from thousands of examples across the country and globe; a field in which people are able to build expertise.
Just how many opportunities should we expect to offer laypersons to object or veto well-researched projects with opinions based on experience that doesn’t seem to extend beyond their own steering wheels?
Oh gee, yeah us bumpkin laypeople aren’t possibly intelligent enough to look at accident/injury/death stats for a corridor and weigh projects against that data for impact vs cost.
I mean why not just let our government and ‘experts’ dictate everything for us because we aren’t intelligent enough to do our own research and have our own opinion and ask questions. For that matter why should we even vote…us laypeople clearly couldn’t understand the underlying issues or form opinions about what is actually good for us or not.
Democracy says we all have the right to investigate, question, have an opinion, and ultimately vote for the things we believe are important to us and society. Anything short of that and we should just go about our days having no opinions and beliefs and let others point us in the direction they think best with a little pat on the head.
We are paying for it, which earns the right to have our opinions count. Democracy, not technocracy.
28th street is a problem / speeding on Iris can be easily mitigated with speed detection camera technology. 28th street is a mess, pedestrian underpasses should be built in lieu of the yellow flashing lights. All the existing crosswalks should be enhanced and fully utilized in lieu of the random flashing lights. My wife and I both support speed camera mitigation to slow the traffic down and enforce slower speeds around town on these critical streets (Iris, 28th & others)
And stop with all the speed bumps. Just use new technology is enforce speed limits. I have spent thousands of hours riding my bike all over Boulder’s streets and paths. I commuted to Gunbarrel from Boulder thousands of times and I never used the Diagonal Hwy. I’m voting for common sense candidates for Boulder City Council. Thanks and best. Mike
Once the high density development at 28th and Iris is complete, that area of 28th will become a standstill for auto traffic because the flashing yellow light which must precipitate an immediate stop will be constantly going off.
I too bike all over Boulder and bike commute to work in Broomfield 100 miles/week. What is being proposed, however, like the Iris project is feel-good expenditure of money the city does not have and will only exacerbate the situation with frustrated drivers. Give up this idea that we are the Amsterdam of the U.S. and that forcing more traffic will force more bikes and public transport trips – it is rubbish.
I love ‘voting for common sense’ candidates and glad this article highlighted those that are.
Why are great networks of useful direct safe bike paths not the very best alternative where our money is best spent, away from roads except for crossings.
I agree, it seems to be laziness.
The city/county have spent massive amounts of money on concrete paths completely remove from auto traffic corridors. They are amazing, I ride them all the time. If you take the time to research and understand them, and you are willing to invest potentially a few more minutes to use them and thus shorten your time on auto-populated roads (which admittedly can always be fully avoided), you can get ANYWHERE in Boulder mostly on a protected path.
And, in winter they are plowed well before our major auto arteries!
When will City Administrators and City Council start listening to the public? Until they do, our tax dollars will continue to be wasted for their ill-conceived projects. Time and time again, it has been shown that the Boulder public has more in-depth knowledge about their neighborhood needs than the majority of Council and City management. Management’s continuously tinkering with our streets are a nightmare. As the elderly population of Boulder continues to increase, our roads become more difficult to navigate due to these endless bike lanes (many of which are rarely used.) How many people actually ride a bike East on Baseline from 30th to 55th? How many automobiles pack this section of Baseline? Now the City and several Council members are focused on tinkering with another high traffic street. This being Iris Avenue. I am voting for common sense candidates who are willing to listen to the public. Candidates who have the background and knowledge to understand Boulder’s most important infra-structure issues. Candidates that let us know exactly where they stand on important issues. Candidates who will not continue to waste our tax dollars. These two candidates are Jenny Robins and Mark Wallach.
Hi this is Rachel Rose Isaacson, one of the candidates. For folks who see that I am a barista, I want to also acknowledge that I am a Political Economist and have a Masters in Public Administration and Leadership. I work part time at the cafe so I can pay my bills while doing the work I want to do such as running for city council. As council currently only pays 12000 a year, having a part time job that pays me well is necessary for me to be able to run for city council and have the time and capacity to serve my community.
Great, applaud your dedication to government and the potential sacrifice should you be elected, but you said nothing about the topic of this article.
There are voters here, writing down names of those they wish to support and those they hope will be gone, so what is your opinion and stance on the Iris Project and other transportation projects?
How many bike riders will want to use Iris? Could be that just about any other side street would be preferable, especially with the increased traffic congestion that project will cause. What studies have been done on whether usage by cyclists would increase and by how much? Maybe they should do a survey just of people who bike regularly and pay taxes in the city to see if they think it’s worth the many millions of dollars for that one project, or if the money could be better spent elsewhere. Also, Matt Benjamin’s remark about the “culture of the transportation department” is a big problem in general with how the city operates. Why is the culture of unelected bureaucrats and their grand decades-long plans given priority over what would best serve the community? The city staff are not experts in what works for residents. They are experts in keeping themselves occupied with long range plans that fit their own preferences, and provide them continuity without being unduly influenced by community input.
I am often on Iris. The changes are a big concern for me. I remember the mess we had on Folsom a few years ago and now the Expensive Baseline paths that half of which is totally under used. Citizens have every right to comment on this. We have blatant failures the “experts” have supported. On the ground citizen experience goes hand in hand with government policy makers. I say appreciate our citizens experience
There needs to be an understanding that some corridors are for cars, driven by people who need to get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time, and some (the rest) for bikes.
I’m a biker and would never ride on Iris now or after a change. Why should I put myself in danger or choose to be fumigated when there are so many alternate routes available (like all the streets paralleling Iris).
The idea of trying to combine them is unrealistic and a huge waste of money, which is desperately needed in other areas of our city. Check out how the bike lanes worked out on Baseline (not).
Who is coming up with these ideas?
What really gets me about all this is this money could be put into enhancing the current bike paths, creating new ones, or for over / underpasses that would actually be a really big help for bikers.
But no, we’ve got these idiot projects spun out by the CC that burn through our tax dollars and do nothing for Boulder’s bikers.
Amen.
It makes zero common sense to constrict an already busy major east-west artery to accommodate a biking public who, from what I am hearing, would rather not expose themselves to concentrated auto emissions by utilizing already existing parallel sidestreets. Use some of this money to repair pothole-ridden roadways and return the remainder to the overtaxed public.
I ride our 100% protected multi-use paths a great deal. I think we have 84 miles of these. You can get most anywhere without being near an auto.
One thing that could really help more usage is maps at many of the paths intersections, like you find on hiking trails. These paths, where they go, what intersection to turn at can be confusing.
Yes you can get an online map, but a simple map post at key junctions is an inexpensive way to make people more comfortable using the great infrastructure we already have…and keeping bikes and autos well separated.
Boulder G, I am with you! I ride the mutil-use paths when I venture out on my bike, and money could be spent on better signage at all the intersections and larger , stationary maps at larger intersections
You Nailed it. Common Sense is all that it take. This a is a very bad idea. Thanks.