🚗 A new vision for Boulder’s roadways

‘We’re at a pivot point’: Boulder’s departing transportation director emphasizes tradeoffs as the city pursues a new vision for its roadways

In September 2020, Erika Vandenbrande took the helm of the city’s transportation department following a period of high staff turnover and departs as a major shift in Boulder’s vision for transportation infrastructure gets underway. 

Earlier this month, the city announced Vandenbrande, who has nearly two decades of experience working in city government in Redmond, Washington, is leaving to take a job as the community development director for the City of Walnut Creek, California. She said she wants to be closer to her husband and her mother, whom she said needs her attention and care. Her last day is May 3. 

Vandenbrande is parting ways as the city gears up to make major investments in its cycling and pedestrian infrastructure along major thoroughfares like the Foothills Parkway, Broadway and 28th Street. The emphasis on non-vehicle transportation is designed in part to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from cars and reduce accidents involving drivers. 

The plan, known as the Core Arterial Network, was spearheaded by the city’s Transportation Advisory Board, a five-member volunteer board that advises the Boulder City Council on transportation issues and infrastructure investments. City Council this year appointed Triny Willerton, a cyclist who was almost killed in May 2018 when she was struck by a driver while training on Nelson Road and who has since founded the cycling safety advocacy group, It Could Be Me. It also appointed Rebecca Davies, the city ratings program director at the Boulder-based nonprofit cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes. 

As the city prepares to implement its new vision for transportation infrastructure, the Boulder Reporting Lab spoke with Vandenbrande about her work for the city and her thoughts on where Boulder is heading. Her general message was that the city will need to make tradeoffs if it wants to follow through on its new transportation vision.

Several bills in the state legislature aim to nudge Coloradans toward low- and zero-carbon homes

The coldest temperature this winter at the new home of Joe Smyth and Kristen Taddonio was 17 below. They live in Fraser, a Colorado town that used to get far, far colder.

Still, that February night was cold enough to test the design and technologies employed in construction of the couple’s 1,176-square-foot house. Even after charging their electric car, their house produces more energy than it consumes.

An air-source heat pump was central to their mission in creating a net-zero home, one gutted of emissions from fossil fuels. It extracts heat from outside – even on chilly nights – to warm the interior. 

The Mitsubishi model used at the Fraser house promises to deliver the necessary indoor heat, even when outside temperatures dip to 13 below. To supplement the air-source heat pump should temperatures dive to 30 below, as was once common, the couple also installed electrical-resistance heating. 

Colorado needs many more air-source heat pumps — and fewer carbon emissions from buildings — to meet its mid-century decarbonization target goals of 90%.

Getting this right during housing construction costs less in the not-very-long term. Building permits for 48,200 housing units, both single-family and multi-family, were issued last year, according to the Colorado Business Economic Outlook. That’s like adding a new Greeley each year, along with a few small towns. 

Retrofitting our older buildings is laborious and expensive. 

But several bills working their way through the Colorado Legislature this spring would nudge Coloradans in that direction, toward low- and no-carbon technologies. All cost more upfront, but save money over time – sometimes lots of it – while reducing or eliminating emissions.