The City of Boulder’s plan to redesign Iris Avenue, aimed at making the street safer for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians, was endorsed by the city’s Transportation Advisory Board on Monday, Sept. 8. City council will have a chance to weigh in on the plan when TAB presents its recommendation and findings on Sept. 19. If the council “calls up” the project, a vote on moving it forward will take place in October.
The redesign would reduce Iris Avenue from four lanes to three and add a center turning lane, a change that staff reports typically results in a 19% to 47% reduction in crashes. They said this is a safety improvement for drivers as well as cyclists, and the change is projected to slow traffic along Iris by less than a minute.
The plan also includes a 10-foot-wide, two-way bike lane along the north side of the street from Folsom to Broadway. The bike path would be separated from the street by a vertical barrier, such as a tall concrete curb like the one installed on Baseline Road last year. Transportation advocates have long supported adding a protected bike lane on Iris Avenue, where cyclists are currently separated from cars by only a strip of paint.
Several nearby residents voiced support for the proposal during public comment. “I worry about making a simple mistake that could actually cost me my life because of the unsafe configuration of Iris,” resident Gary Sprung told the transportation advisory board. “I think that reducing travel lanes from four to two will greatly increase the safety of crossing Iris.”
Other residents expressed concerns that they would be losing access to a bike lane on the south side of the road, that the plan was geared more toward cyclists than other road users, and that it doesn’t widen the sidewalk to move pedestrians farther from traffic. Staff said sidewalk changes were not considered because that would require additional road widening, an option ruled out to avoid construction noise and impact on the trees along the road.
Once approved, Lindsay Merz, a transportation project manager for the city, estimates it will take 18 months to complete.
A side issue, but important to pedestrians such as me who walk Iris to 28th is better enforcement of the sidewalk snow shoveling, especially on the south side. Used to be mostly the area with the walls separating the sidewalk from the properties that didn’t bother to shovel. Later last winter the scoff law attitude extended east past Folsom. The city really needs to put effort behind enforcing the shoveling ordinance as we get more and heavier snow falls.
The changes to Iris are badly needed. As I walk along I cringe when I see a biker bravely pedaling alongside traffic going 45mph with literally no room for error.
Municipal Suicide.
Public input has been a bad joke. This project was conceived and approved behing closed doors long before the public heard of it.
We have a budget issue. Yet we want to spend $5million dollars on a project that the majority of people living near it think it is a no good, very bad idea. And our outgoing transportation director is hoping we ca reduce the cost of public input, which was completely performative.