July 14, 2025 — Transportation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:02] Recording started. And I'm gonna start our webinar all right, Darcy, all yours. Great thanks so much. Hi, everyone. I'm calling the June 9th meeting of the Transportation Advisory Board to order our chair. Trini Willerton is not available to attend tonight, so as Vice Chair, I will run the meeting. My name is Darcy Kitching. Veronica Sun is our technical host this evening. Veronica, would you review the rules of the virtual meeting? Please. Yes, I'm gonna share screens. oops, too many things up. Is everyone able to see my screen perfect? Thank you for joining the Transportation Advisory Board meeting to strike a balance between meaningful, transparent engagement and online security. The following rules would be applied for this meeting. This meeting has been called upon to conduct the business of the city of Boulder. Activities that disrupt delay or otherwise interfere with the meetings are prohibited. The time for speaking is limited to 3 min.

[1:13] No person shall speak except when recognized by the person presiding, and no person shall speak for longer than the time allotted. Each person shall register to speak at the meeting, using that person's real name. Any person believed to be using a name other than the one they are commonly known by, will not be permitted to speak. Please use the raise hand function to be recognized for public comment. If you're on the phone, you will need to press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute. No video will be permitted except for city officials, employees, and invited speakers and presenters. All others will participate by voice. Only. The person residing at the meeting shall enforce these rules by muting anyone who violates any rules. The Q. And a function is enabled it will be used for individuals to communicate with the host. It should be used for technical and online platform related questions only if an attendee attempts to use Q. And a. For any other reason

[2:04] other than seeking assistance for the host, the city reserves the right to disable that individual's access to the chat. Only the host and individuals that's needed by the host will be permitted to share their screen during the meeting. Thank you. Alright. Great. Thank you so much. Veronica. Appreciate it very much. okay. So now, our next task is to approve our June minutes we had 2 meetings in June for June 9th and June 23.rd now, Meredith, just a little from my understanding here I see that we referred to the main minutes in the script. I just want to make sure that we are approving the June, the June minutes. I I believe that is correct. Yes, okay, excellent, wonderful. And we need to approve minutes for both of the meetings in June. Is that correct?

[3:03] Correct. Great. Okay, excellent. Just wanted to make sure. Okay, great. So just reminder that only people who attended the meetings or watch the meetings can approve. Let's 1st approve. The minutes. Go over the minutes from the june 9th meeting. Do I have a has anyone had a chance to review those minutes, or are there any corrections? Does anyone have any corrections to add. seeing none? Is there a motion to approve. I move to approve. The June 9th meeting minutes. Okay, great. And is there a second? Okay. Okay, great all in favor. Please raise your hand and say, aye. I. Okay, great. So we.

[4:01] the motion passes 4 to 0 for approval of the June 9th minutes. Let's go to the June. The minutes of the meeting on June 23.rd Again. Any feedback, any or not feedback, but any corrections to those minutes. No, okay. How about a motion to approve them? Approved. Michael. Second. Anybody. And then second. Oh, Ernan, second, I'm sorry I didn't see that. Sorry. Thank you. Ernan. Okay, great. And I think, okay. So let's all in favor, raise our hands and say, Aye, okay. hi, excellent! All right, great. So they've passed the motion passes forward to 0 again. Great. So we have approved the June minutes from both of our meetings. Appreciate it very much.

[5:04] We'll now move to public comment, and let's see. Okay. yes, we're going to do public comment. I'm just sorry I'm trying to reconcile the 2 documents here. and Veronica. Is there anyone who would like to speak during public comment. I don't see anyone with their hand raised currently. Oh, there we go. We have one person. Jed. I'm gonna ask if you are able to speak. Let's go ahead and do that. Can you hear me? All right. Yes, thank you. Thanks. Go ahead! Okay, I just wanted to comment about the intersection of Folsom and Arapaho. Oh!

[6:00] I ride through that quite frequently, with and without a kid trailer. I am strongly in favor of the intersection changes to improve rider safety. I have a concern that the curb essentially creates a chicane for bikes. And I've been discussing this with some other people. I think Mike is in that thread. But I am concerned about creating that chicane, because what's gonna happen is, there are a lot of riders particularly coming from campus northbound on Folsom that are going. It's very different speeds, and many riders are not going to want to go through the chicane. And so they're gonna try to go in the lane when there's room for that I'm sorry, can I? It creates quite a bit of opportunity for crashes that, like in bike races, that sort of road furniture, as they call it sometimes, is often the source of crashes when you have congestion in the bike lane bikes overtaking other bikes, which is very common there, because some riders are going 25 miles per hour, plus, and some are going very slow. I think that is a concern.

[7:20] I don't know like what the best intersection design is there, but I am concerned about having that chicane that blocks the bike lane. So bikes either have to jump the curb, go through the chicane or cut out into traffic, that's all. Thanks. It's. Okay. Just a quick reminder that public comment is open right now for general public comment. We will have an opportunity to speak about the public hearing item which is about the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project Seep.

[8:03] Is there anyone else who would like to provide general public comment at this time. Doesn't look like we have anyone else. Okay, okay? Great. Well, if we don't have any more general public comment, let's go ahead and go to our main agenda item this evening, which is the staff briefing and tab recommendation for to council about the core arterial network, Folsom Street safety Improvements project community and environmental assessment process. Valerie, would you like to introduce that agenda item. Yeah, thanks so much, Darcy, and good evening, Tab members. Before we get started. I want to say a few words to introduce this item again, I'm Valerie Watson, interim Director of Transportation and Mobility. Tonight we are quite excited to bring forward the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project for your consideration. I'm humbled by the tireless efforts of my city staff colleagues and the project team, and I'm so grateful for the time that you all, as tab members and our community have invested. In this process.

[9:14] The team produced an elegant design that truly incorporates our community's priorities for the corridor, and we look forward to our conversation here tonight. With that I will hand it over to Steven. Awesome thanks for that, Valerie. Hello! My name is Tim Rijo. I'm the transportation planning manager, and I'm also excited to introduce the Folsom Street Safety Improvements project for you all tonight. You've heard about this project in previous core arterial network updates, and tonight is a major milestone for the project. As we bring you all a motion to recommend to city council. The design you will learn about tonight is a prime example of how we are implementing the vision, 0 action plan by focusing on corridors, on the high risk network and the can. The recommended design gracefully balances city goals, city plans, community needs and partner needs while making significant safety gains on this important street. This was made possible by significant community engagement from the team, and is why I am so excited for them to share it with you tonight. With that I'll turn it over to Melanie Sloan and the rest of the team to take you through the presentation.

[10:17] Sorry. Thank you, Steven and Valerie. I'm gonna apologize while I just here my laptop computer had a technical difficulty. So transition to a city meeting room. I think the sound and video is good. But I'm just gonna adjust the camera so you can see me a little bit better. Okay, so thank you very much for your time and attention. Tonight. as Stephen said, I'm Melanie Sloan, principal project manager and transportation and mobility, joined by several colleagues who are advancing work. Excuse me. On the 3rd priority corridor, on the core arterial network. That's the Folsom Street Safety Improvements project. And tonight I am presenting the city's formal evaluation and resulting recommended design to you, also known as the seat. And that's for you to make a recommendation to city Council to approve the Folsom Project seat.

[11:12] Your recommendation also provides you the opportunity to advise council on the Seek project process, including things like community engagement or the evaluation. Any items that could inform their action at their August 7th meeting. So to prepare you to take action tonight, I'll provide a brief background and detail the need for the project and spend most of our time reviewing the evaluation and recommendation. So let's dive into the Folsom Street Safety Improvements project from Pine Street to Colorado Avenue. The project is before you today because of multiple city plans and reports. And those include the 2019 Transportation Master plan. The 2022 safe streets report, and the 2023 to 2027 vision 0 Action Plan. In fact, the project is one of many ways that we are addressing the actions laid out in the vision. 0 Action plan

[12:09] by creating conceptual designs and a recommendation that uses the safe systems approach to reduce crashes and the potential for crashes that result in serious injury or death. On our busiest streets. As I mentioned, Folsom Street is the 3rd priority corridor on the core arterial network or can and can? Is the city council priority to make our busiest streets safer, more comfortable and more connected, using proven safety countermeasures like protected bike lanes and intersections, pedestrian signals and transit stop improvements and other design elements. Cancord quarters, including Folsom Street, were prioritized for our department by Council in January of 2022, and reaffirmed as a priority in 2024 Folsom Street, shown on this map is a Key City Street. It serves a significant amount of multimodal travel. Thousands of people are driving, walking, biking, scooting, and taking transit along and across the street on a typical day.

[13:13] because the street is a spine within the city's larger transportation network. People often drive along Folsom as a connection within a longer trip. Think of people working downtown, traveling via Arapahoe Avenue and Canyon Boulevard, with Folsom Street connecting those 2 links for active travel. The street connects to a network of multi use paths, bike lanes, and neighborhood Green Streets. Those are our low traffic streets, prioritized for making, walking, and biking comfortable for people of all ages and abilities. Transit riders get on and off the hop, the bolt, the jump, and other bus routes on or near to the corridor, too. Folsom Street connects people to homes, offices, restaurants, shops, grocery stores, parks, views, main campus, but it also connects people to each other and to that transportation network.

[14:08] because it's such a key connector. There are a lot of people using the street. But there's not enough space for everyone to travel safely and comfortably. Existing infrastructure for walking, biking, and public transit do not meet city or community standards and shade is limited on the corridor. The tree canopy, the shade trees provide like in the pictures on the screen is about 17 to 20% depending on where on Folsom you are. And that's less than the city wide average of 22%. And Folsom has a history of crashes, including serious injury crashes. These are the reason for this project. Between 2019 and 2023. There were 218 crashes on Folsom that averages to about one crash per week may cause delays, property, damage, and sometimes serious injuries. In fact, 7 crashes resulted in serious injury, and every one of those crashes involved. Someone walking or biking

[15:11] and younger adults are overrepresented in crashes on Folsom Street about 30% of Boulder's population is between 20 and 29 years old, but they're in crashes and serious injury crashes in higher proportions. On Folsom. The goal of the Folsom Street project is to provide a safer, more comfortable street for everyone, no matter how they travel this beloved corridor. And so the Folsom team went into the community, beginning in December of 2024 to talk to businesses, students, community partners, and others, both in person and virtually to hear their priorities for the future of the street. focusing on meeting people where they are. The team popped up at schools and businesses, at bus stops and on the bus, at community events and through business specific events, and reach people through traditional engagement opportunities like in person and virtual open houses and an online questionnaire.

[16:07] Since then nearly 20,000 people were reached through or participated in 114, engagement and outreach events, including 34 specifically aimed to reach the businesses along and near Folsom Street. and what we heard were the communities and businesses, priorities, and people want cars to slow down. People. Walking want safer crossings. People value the street trees and want more, and people know Folsom is part of a bigger network, and they want it to function for the local access. It provides. They want traffic to flow for buses and for cars. and they think bikes, cars, and pedestrians should be separated. and people and businesses want a vibrant street that's attractive and intuitive. You will see these priorities represented in the Seep, and ultimately the recommended design. Later in this presentation.

[17:05] to begin to identify ways to improve the safety and comfort issues we learned about from the data and the community. The project team 1st identified all potential improvement options, then screened these for feasibility improvements that would remove transit service or an existing bike facility, add on street parking, increase the number of vehicle lanes or require right of way, were not considered the remaining improvement. Options were used to create 3 conceptual design alternatives, which I'll show you in a few slides. But I want to introduce the streets. 3 segments shown in the map on this slide, because the alternatives have distinct designs in each segment. The North segment from Pine Street to Canyon Boulevard is a mix of residential commercial and businesses. There are 4 or 5 vehicle lanes on street striped bike bike lanes with no separation from cars and a mix of sidewalk types.

[18:04] Now we'll look at the conceptual design alternatives for each segment. Starting here in the North segment, the alternative, they differ in the number of vehicle lanes and the types of protected alternative. A retains existing vehicle and center, turn lanes and provides sidewalk level, protected bike lanes, and so it has the greatest impact on trees is more costly and takes longer to implement and alternatives B and C repurpose through vehicle lanes to provide wider on street protected bike lanes within the current curb to curb roadway width, and so preserve existing trees cost less and are quicker to implement the central segment between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue has the highest concentration of residential business and commercial areas. And it's also the most space constrained. There are 4 vehicle travel lanes, a Median with turn pockets. The streets busiest transit stops

[19:04] bike lanes that are narrow and have no separation from cars, and a missing sidewalk on the west side, between Goss Street and Grove Street. All alternatives in this segment, maintain term pockets between goss and grove to provide the same business access as today, and they don't impact business parking. But the alternatives differ in other elements due to the more constrained right of way. In this segment alternative a maintains vehicle through and turn lanes provides sidewalk level, protected bike lanes on the east side of the street and closes the sidewalk gap on the west side of the street with a multi use path because there's not enough right of way to provide separated walking and biking facilities on the west side alternative B repurposes vehicle through lanes as well as turn lanes at intersections to provide on street protected bike lanes, a wider east side sidewalk, and a new sidewalk on the west side of the street, separated from the road by new trees

[20:08] and alternative. C maintains the 2 southbound vehicle lanes as well as turn lanes at intersections and repurposes one northbound vehicle lane to provide on street protected bike lanes and new and wider sidewalks. The asymmetrical Vehicle Lane Configuration is designed to support transit, and the number of cars who drive south. On this segment. The South segment from Arapahoe Avenue to Colorado Avenue is primarily Cu boulder student housing. It connects to Cu's main campus and the Boulder Creek multi-use path and so it sees thousands of people crossing the street on a typical day. There are 2 through vehicle lanes, a Median and center turn lane, an on-street bike lane with painted buffers between the lane and vehicles and narrow sidewalks that are mostly next to the road.

[21:02] The alternatives, both wide and sidewalks, but differ in type of protected bike lanes. In this segment all alternatives wide and sidewalks repurposing the center to a left turn lane, while maintaining left turn pockets at busy intersections up our alternative. A provides sidewalk level, protected bike lanes and alternatives. B and C provide on street protected bike lanes. The project team used the city's formal review process, the community and environmental assessment or seep to evaluate the 3 conceptual design alternatives. The seat uses the seat checklist product, specific evaluation, criteria and community input to identify a recommended design. The project specific evaluation criteria were developed with the community to reflect project goals, including Vision 0, the community's priorities and feedback from our discussions with the businesses and other project partners.

[22:06] The criteria were grouped into 6 categories, which are shown here once a draft evaluation of alternatives, A, B and C was complete. We brought the alternatives and their evaluation to the community for their feedback. We solicited input and meetings with community partners, including Boulder Valley school district. See you boulder and boulder transportation connections. We went door to door to have conversations with businesses. We hosted focus groups popped up at community and city events and hosted virtual and in person open houses, and had online questionnaires feedback. From these conversations consistently focused on the central segment from Canyon Boulevard to Arapahoe Avenue, and shared the importance of maintaining access to businesses, concerns for traffic operations at and between the major intersections of Canyon and Arapahoe.

[23:01] We have requests to improve transit operations and safety with bus stop location and designs. and a continued call to maintain trees, and to add landscaping where feasible both for vibrancy, but also climate benefits and shade. We also heard a desire to keep people walking and biking separated. Taking this feedback into account, the project team revisited the 3 alternatives and created the recommended design shown here. It's primarily based on alternative C, but includes elements from each of the 3 alternatives with distinct changes in the central segment to respond to community and business feedback. The recommendation repurposes space where, feasible on this physically constrained corridor to provide safety and urban design improvements. it generally fits within existing curbs, due to the repurposed space which makes implementation less expensive and faster, too. It maintains left turn lanes and adds right turn lanes at the busiest intersections of Arapahoe Avenue, Canyon, Boulevard, and Pearl Street to keep cars and buses flowing, and to reduce the likelihood of turn related crashes and it maintains existing business access and does not impact business parking.

[24:19] So as a result, the recommendation improves safety because vehicle speeds are reduced. All intersections are partially or fully protected, to provide space and time for people walking, biking, and rolling, to move through the intersection, separate from people driving while making vehicle turns safer on street protected bike lanes are provided for most of the corridor, except a southbound sidewalk level bike lane between Goss and Grove Streets, where space is constrained, and south of Boulder Creek, where the sidewalk level bike Lane responds to student and special event needs new sidewalk is added on the west side, between goss and grove, completing a gap in the corridors. Pedestrian network and sidewalks are widened elsewhere

[25:04] floating bus stops are provided, and between Canyon and Arapahoe buses pull out of the through Vehicle Lane to preserve vehicle. Excuse me, preserve vehicle, travel, time, and reduce conflicts at driveways. and 100% of the existing street trees are preserved or replanted for their urban design and environmental benefits. The community recognizes the project team did that. Each alternative and the recommended design had trade offs. Here the seed project, specific evaluation criteria show the way these trade offs are balanced. Each criterion was rated on the scale of negative 5 to positive 5 with 0, representing existing conditions and negative 5 and positive 5. Representing the worst and best possible scenarios respectively for the corridor. The green shows positive ratings, and the red negative. While the gray shows neutral ratings.

[26:00] the full evaluation can be found in your packet, including rationale for each project. Specific criteria. The recommendation achieves the highest overall score compared to alternatives A, B and C, and you can see that in the rightmost column. Similarly, the recommendation achieves a positive evaluation for the Seep checklist criteria, because the recommendation is largely based on alternative C. They score the same for each of the criteria. The recommendation scores one criteria lower than alternative B, because it does not provide the same amount of additional landscaping. So now I will look more closely at the reasons why the recommendation came out on top. The recommendations travel time increases, determined with the widely used traffic modeling software vism. The calibrated model was applied using micro simulation guidance from the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

[27:03] The model determined that the recommendation could increase the average end to end trip during the busiest evening peak period by 1 min and 4 seconds. About 30 seconds of that travel time increase is from the lowered speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour per the city's speed limit setting project recommendation for Folsom Street. The remaining change, about 34 seconds is from dedicated signal phasing to reduce vehicle crashes and separate users at intersections from introducing leading pedestrian intervals, to provide excuse me to improve visibility of people crossing at high crash intersections and from lame repurposing to reduce vehicle speeds, shorten crossing distances, preserve street, freeze, and provide on street protected bike lanes. So let's take a closer look at these design changes.

[28:00] Protected intersections use corner refuge islands to provide safe spaces for pedestrians and bicyclists to wait. They increase visibility for people, walking, biking, and rolling, and they make the intersections more predictable for everyone, including drivers. The recommendation maintains 2 left turn lanes and adds right turn only lanes at the busiest intersections, like Canyon Boulevard, shown here and at Arapaho Avenue, and signals can be retimed to provide phases for all modes of travel, to move through the intersection separately. but turn lanes and signal operations, help ensure traffic, including transit buses, flow along the corridor and reduce the likelihood of turn related crashes for all travelers. This is what the Canyon Boulevard intersection looks like today. and this is the recommended design.

[29:01] Repurposing vehicle lanes between intersections, reduces vehicle speeds which reduces crash severity shown here the recommended design in the central segment between Dawson Grove provides space for a wider east side sidewalk and new west side sidewalk to fill in a gap provides space for protected bike lanes, preserves trees, and makes space for new plantings, which enhances the vibrancy of this segment and maintains access to businesses and doesn't impact business parking. Here's what it looks like today between cost and grove. And this is the recommended design. From the same view in the top of the picture you can see Orange hop buses serving the busiest stops on the street near Canyon Boulevard. Zooming in on that area. The recommendation includes floating bus stop designs to reduce conflicts between buses and people, biking by keeping the bike lane behind the bus stop shown here

[30:07] to minimize impacts, to vehicle travel time and reduce conflicts at business driveways. This pair of hop stops just south of Canyon, provide, pull out areas for loading and unloading outside of the vehicle through lane, allowing vehicles to flow around the buses. stops south of Arapahoe Avenue, keep the bus in the travel lane to support transit time and reliability throughout the corridor. Strategic lane repurposing makes space for protected bike lanes, safer crossings and more comfortable connections. This image shows Folsom Street at Taft Drive, facing South Taft drive intersects Folsom in the lower left of this image, and this location has a history of severe crashes, and so is on the city's high risk. Network. This area also serves as the gateway to see us main campus from Folsom Street, with connections to Folsom Field, Colorado Avenue and the rest of campus.

[31:07] and this is the recommended design at Taft. For most of the corridor. The recommendation provides on street protected bike lanes at Taft. A southbound sidewalk level bike lane replaces an on-street bike lane to respond to cu, boulder, staff and student preference for a wide grade separated facility for slower uphill travel throughout the corridor existing pedestrian refuges are maintained, and sidewalks are widened where possible. at the crossing shown here, the existing pedestrian crossing will be upgraded to flashing pedestrian lights as part of a separate project. This will also happen to the existing crossing adjacent to Newton Court to use graduate and family housing. That's just outside the bottom of this image crossings of busy side streets and driveways like here at Taft, and a stadium drive in the middle of this picture are raised to slow turning vehicles and alert drivers to the presence of people walking and biking.

[32:12] So the recommendation has been carefully crafted to respond to community and business input received throughout the project as the project team presented the recommendation to the community through in person and virtual events. In late May and early June we heard appreciation for seeing their input reflected in the design, and many shared their understanding for the multiple trade-offs needed to improve this corridor with a robust alternatives, analysis complete, including thousands of touch points with the community. The project team is confident the recommendation strikes the right balance to make the corridor work better for everyone who uses it. and that concludes the summary of the Folsom Street Project seat and its recommendation. And again, it's presented to you today for your recommendation to City Council

[33:07] on August 7th City Council will review your recommendation and the Seep, and be asked to take action on the seep as a call up item. If it is called up. We'll present more detail to council at their August 21st meeting at a public hearing. And so I return to our request to you tonight. That's for you to recommend the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project Seat to council for their approval at their August 7, th 2025, meeting the motion languages before you and I and the rest of the team are here to answer any clarifying questions before getting public comment, as well as any broader tab questions and discussion. With that I thank you for your attention, and we turn it back to you. Great. Thank you so much, Melanie. Appreciate it. Tab members.

[34:01] What clarifying questions do you have? And a reminder that this this is time for clarifying questions. Got one on. I think it was Slide 32 of the of the deck I was wondering about because we got a comment in general comments about the the sort of eyebrows design at these protected intersections. and I I think I saw a difference in the layout. The overhead image versus the sort of panned image, or the well, the ground. 3 dimensional image. And I'm trying to figure out like, what? What is the design there? so yeah. So here in this shot, it looks like this is canyon. And okay. Yeah. So this is a block north of where? Yeah. But the same design applies to both intersections. The same general protected intersection approach applies to both areas.

[35:06] Yeah. Yeah. I. I was just trying to suss out whether if somebody wanted to avoid the eyebrows and not do what was characterized as a chicane. Right? Would they be forced out into the the traffic? And it looks like there is this gray area which I believe is raised, but not but something you could ride over if if somebody chose to just kind of go straight through instead of doing the little, you know the little jog they would have to ride over that raised section. Is that am I seeing that correctly. So the one thing do wanna speak to before going into the design detail is just to give some contextual understanding of the protected intersection. So what you see in this recommended design at Canyon would be very similar. At Arapahoe. The protected intersection design is a proven safety countermeasure. This is recognized by the Federal Highway administration, as well as other leading guidance, to provide safety improvements for all users. So what it's meant to do is increase the visibility of

[36:23] everyone as they move through the intersection and provide that opportunity to react to and provide space for one another to move. And so what that is doing is it's thinking about people walking in biking, like we heard from the commenter, making sure everybody's going the right speed and the right and giving each of them the opportunity to see each other when they travel through. So you know, part of it is just increasing visibility, increasing the opportunity to reaction react and avoid the potential for those crashes. So that's the thinking behind the design. And it is to really balance everybody's movement through this space where we see the majority of our crashes happening, whether it's here or at around the crash locations. This is why we see intersections there.

[37:10] So I just want to lay that context, that this is a design that's recognized for safety improvements. These intersections have eye crashes, and the purposes to, you know, help everyone move more safely through that space. To your question, Michael, about the design specifics. I'm going to call on Daniel Sheeter to speak to some of those details. Thanks. Melanie Daniel Sheeter. Principal transportation planner in the transportation department. Yeah. Thanks for the question. And you're correct. Michael, that the the lighter gray area is a mountable apron, if you will, that that is designed to a tighten the radius of those islands for smaller vehicles. While still allowing larger trucks to to make those turns, you know, on and off of Folsom, so would it is typically 2 inch 2 inch raised to a height of 2 inches, with a beveled edge to them. So they are. You can ride over them, but

[38:13] not designed for a cyclist to travel over at a higher speed or like a kind of at a normal 15 to 15 plus mile an hour. Speed. so I think I would caution it probably caution against that and I would just want to echo what Melanie said, and also iterate that you know, at this level of design, you know we we do have more work to do on the G. The detailed geometry of these corner islands that we would undertake in the next phase if if the project is approved. That can include not just smoothing that movement out. So it it flows a little better for people cycling and and the range of speeds we see on the corridor, but also maximizing the queuing space given given the volumes, and, as Melanie stated, giving bikes their own dedicated space at the intersection. If they're waiting for

[39:03] held up at the signal there, giving adequate space for for cyclists to kind of stack up and and be clear of turning vehicles. Be clear of pedestrians as well. Can I follow up on that? Because the commenter Jed Brown mentioned having a child trailer? and I I believe, Daniel, you have child trailers? And we have already 2 intersections that have these corner islands, that Colorado and 30th and Colorado and 28th so is that something that is considered in the geometry? Is it? Is that an issue for bringing a trailer through these chicanes? We would certainly take a closer look at that and final design. At this stage we do accommodate our our protected bike lane plow behind that. So that's that's a 7 foot width behind the islands. And in our experience that does give enough space to maneuver through for longer bikes, including bikes with trailers. But I think there is

[40:13] some details to look at related to to the speed we're accommodating that really so that you know he can still continue through the intersection at a at a reasonable speed and not have to slow. You know, slow to. That's something that would be really, you know, be off putting if you're traveling the length of the corridor. Great thanks for the answer, Daniel. That was my main question as well about the you know. How. How wide can a can a trailer be to fit through those spaces, and is it, you know, easily navigable? other clarifying questions. Yeah, I I know. It was mentioned that there's a pedestrian leading

[41:02] phases at these intersections, and generally when we have that, that's bikes are. Take advantage of that as well. I know some cities have like specific signals. I don't think we have any of those in Boulder, but I may be mistaken. I'm just wondering if there's any consideration of that or any advantage for that, or do we? Are we fine with, just the pedestrian leading intersect signals. Yeah. So I am going to call Daniel Sheeter back up to talk about like signal design. I know we have considered pedestrian bicycle signals, but the details I think Daniel can speak to better so. Thanks for popping back in. Yeah, thanks for the question. Mike. Again, Daniel. Sheeter. yeah. The the design does assume bike signals. Implementation of bike signals where we have dedicated adjacent to dedicated right turn lanes so that way we can give bikes a green bike signal when

[42:07] they have their phase, and then for those high, high right turning volume movements. A dedicated right turn signal for for those turning vehicles, and we separate those those movements in time. At locations where that's not possible, Mike. We would utilize leading pedestrian intervals and leading bike intervals. That's that's our assumption or modeling at this stage. But so it's kind of a a to answer your question. Kind of a little bit of both depending on the size of the intersection and the turning volumes at that intersection. And we're applying Nacdo guidance there to National Association of City transportation, official guidance there to determine those those those controls, those signal signal phasing controls. and we do have a few bike signals in the city, but not applied at a protected intersection. Yet. So this this, and in addition to 30th and iris as well, kind of some new applications of of bike signals.

[43:13] That's what I thought. It'll be. Yeah, interesting to kind of bring all these things together when we can great other clarifying questions. I don't think I had. I mean again, wonderful job to Staff for putting together a very thorough packet that provided so much information. I'm not sure that I have questions because everything was laid out so clearly. And, Melanie, I wanted to thank you for your your emphasis on the thousands of touch points that the staff had with the community around this project. And I guess my only real question, just based on the information we were provided is with. I mean, you said that the that community engagement, plus staff expertise really kind of led to this blended design.

[44:05] are you? Are you like, really pleased with how that community engagement resulted in this, I guess. What am I really asking? What I'm asking is, Well, I don't know if I really have, I guess we can. We can move into public comments specific to this project, and then I'll come back to my further comments after after that I have one more question. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, my friend. It was mentioned that the the south section of this project is on the high risk network because of crashes and I think that might be because, you know, partly you have northbound cyclists coming down that hill at high speed. Just wondering if this design does any, has any considerations for safety, of of fast moving cyclists.

[45:05] particularly emerging with perhaps the creek path or or Taft drive. There. So, Meg, I just wanna make sure I understand the questions I can respond or call appropriately. you're asking about high crashes, the high crash corridor, Folsom, going all the way to Taft and speed of bikes coming down the hill in in the recommended design. Is that what you're you're referencing. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, let me I will navigate to that slide and share again, so we can look at the recommendation. but we'll also call the team as needed. So we can talk to that design concern. Okay. let me pull this back up for you.

[46:10] Okay, so this is the recommendation in that Southern segment from Arapaho Avenue down to Colorado. And what you're seeing here is, what I noted in the presentation is we have a mix of on street protected Bike Lane transitioning to Off Street and the northbound going uphill. And then we have separated, walking and biking spaces with a floating bus stop. So the bike and pedestrian facilities are behind the transit. Stop! That's on the left side of the screen. And so you're concerned with the movement of that bike lane on the left side, coming down with the crashes, and how the recommendation anticipates a response to that. Is that right? Mike. Yeah. And I can see, just looking again at this, that it it does look a bit safer with

[47:00] perhaps that half going up to sidewalk level there, right before Taft. That might. Yeah. So there are quite a lot of design considerations. The team put into this segment. So I'll call Daniel Sheeter up. He can speak to the specifics you're starting to see and connect some of those, but he can connect those dots for you a bit. Yeah, thanks. Melody Daniel Sheeter again. Yeah, I I think some of the big moves here from a design perspective to an to improve safety, particularly with those faster downhill speeds. Mike, are are are right at that Taft intersection, as Melanie was highlighting, and and as we looked at crash patterns here over the past 5 plus years. we did see a pattern with with particularly southbound right turning vehicles. kind of hooking in front of a downhill cyclist who's also traveling in the bike lane at at speed, and so to mitigate that with the recommended design. One of the major changes. I'll walk through a couple one is closing

[48:08] or relocating, I should say. That's there's a today, Melanie. If you toggle back a driveway curb cut to the parking lot there, the surface parking lot. and we've closed that in the recommended design and shifted it around the corner to Taft. So they're we're reducing the conflict points along Folsom Street, and then the second kind of big move is related to just calming those turns and slowing those turns down at Taft the turns that remain at Taft, and that's where that raised crossing comes in to play. And setting that bike lane back on that raised crossing so that vehicles are making that turn very slowly and and improving visibility to any downhill cyclists who may be approaching from from behind them. So that's the big change there. The bus stop, Melanie mentioned, actually shifts from its current location today off the screen north of the creek

[49:05] to to the other side of the creek and a little beyond the creek access point, so that eliminates some of the conflicts we see today at Taft. You know, between people getting on and off the bus and and downhill cyclists as well when that bus is blocking right in the bike lane or sitting right in the Bike Lane, you know, waiting right in the bike lane. So those are some of those major elements. I think, for the downhill direction. Mike. To highlight. Great thanks, so much. Thanks, Daniel Ernan. You've had your hand up. You know. I I really like this project overall. I used to bike from Valmon all the way to the engineering center for years when I got my when I was doing grad school. So I think this is pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. I mean a part of me.

[50:01] I I don't know how to put this like it was so much fun to go from. I guess. Will it be Colorado? Right? No. Wait. What's yeah. Colorado Avenue? Is that what? Yeah. From the stadium? You know I will have go down the hill. Would I have to pedal once all the way to buying like? So I mean it wasn't safe. This is mo much safer, so it's very much appreciated. But yeah, I just wanted to say, I remember that was one of the funnest parts of my day. Just get out of school and just go down the hill. It was awesome, incredibly dangerous. So this is way, way. Better? But yeah, overall great. I do have a question, though, like, that that email that we received from Pete. I remember he had written an opinion piece a long time ago, but as a

[51:00] as a former Eab member. It did. It did get my curiosity because I was wondering if the ceap accounts for additional emissions in its modeling that come from the increased travel time. Because I think you do. You know, July 4th just happened. Boulder had banned people were happy because of like the air pollution. So you know, people, we we care a lot about air quality. Let me think just I mean, it's not. It's not a critique. It's just kinda like I wanted to. I want to understand and learn. Learn a little bit more about that. because I guess if you have vehicles increased speed time all across the city cause, I mean from the past, from the past 3 meetings. It seems like there's a trend for this road dieting. and then you multiply it by thousands of vehicles per year per day, and then per year. I don't know. It just kinda got my curiosity, so I wanted to see if if that's part of the cap modeling or not.

[52:01] Yeah. So great question. I know the environment was a concern from a lot of the community members we spoke to in the community and environmental assessment process does ask us to think fully about our alternatives and recommendation. So what I can tell you, Ernan, is that when we did the research and evaluating the alternatives and the recommendation for environmental impacts, including what you might see and see. Checklist criteria is air quality. The Seep language is perhaps a bit dated, but includes considerations for emissions both particulate as well as others. And so that's where we speak to it in the packet. You'll see in the Seep checklist and in the attachments to the seep. More detail about that evaluation. And what we understand from transportation research is that vehicle Lane repurposing it doesn't really lead to increased emissions. The findings just aren't there? To demonstrate that that's the case. In fact, what it finds is.

[53:02] and the best way to reduce emissions, including greenhouse gas, are to really provide demand based solutions. And so that's providing transportation options like multimodal improvements that are truly safe and connected. And by doing so there's quite a lot of evidence that shows that that can reduce emissions, including from particulate but other air, quality and climate. We can assume greenhouse gas emissions would perform similarly. And that's what we did in our evaluation. So we didn't specifically calculate greenhouse gas. But we understand from the research and literature that similar emissions behave in reducing from these multimodal improvements so. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Melanie. so let's go to public comment specific to this project. Now, members of the public, thank you for your time and interest in this topic and in making Boulder a better place to move around. So we're ready for your feedback on this particular project. Please use the raise hand function on your screen to be recognized, and state your full name. You'll have 3 min to speak, Veronica. Do we have anyone wishing to speak about this project?

[54:18] Let's see, not as of right now. Okay, well, and my apologies, I I did. I didn't clarify initially that the 1st public comment period was intended for general comment and that our commenter, his comments relate to this project. So. okay, shall we move into our deliberation? If there is no one who wishes to speak about the project type members, we can move into our deliberation and our recommendation to city council. So just to remind you about the task at hand, we are we can discuss the project and then

[55:03] move toward the motion, the suggested language of which is to make a recommendation to the City Council to approve the Folsom Street safety Improvements project, community and environmental assessment process or seep. And again, that'll happen in August with city council. If we make this recommendation. So let's go ahead. And does anyone have general comments or further questions about Folsom Street project? Yes, Michael. As much as I liked the 30th Street design. I like this one even better. This is, as far as I can tell, pulling a rabbit out of the hat, particularly in that central segment where things are so constrained, and where, as somebody who would ride that frequently. I was always very aware of how dangerous it felt to be traveling through there on bike, and even as a pedestrian it felt sketchy, particularly when crossing. So yeah, this thing. This design is really, really impressive in its ability to balance a bunch of competing interests. But I think also, particularly in that central segment.

[56:18] you know, seizes the opportunity to create a place like this promises to be an area that people will want to linger with these design changes because speeds will be reduced crossing and access sort of, you know, a nonvehicular movement across and through that area will be improved so that people who aren't in a vehicle will be comfortable, you know, hanging out there. And so I think that that spells. That's, you know. That's good news for the businesses there, because it's going to create a place where folks won't just be passing through. But I also think it's an incredible opportunity that we're seizing, simply because this stretch of Folsom is so well connected to the community, both to the North and the South, right? Because we we did have the wisdom to create protected bike lanes to the North because we've got Cu to the south.

[57:16] This promises to be just a huge boon to the community, and I could see it being a major North South thoroughfare for cyclists, pedestrians transit because it's going to be so much more inviting than it is now. With all of these changes I love the bravery to install the raised crosswalks and that Southern segment. I think that is, you know, strategically, a great choice, and I hope that we could do that more places throughout the city, because I really do think that that as we're all recognizing on that South Southern segment that turn that Mike was asking about on tap. you know, that really does make those turns safer and slower for everyone, and I know it's not just true. There, I think it's going to be true of lots of places in the city, so I hope we'll we'll do more of those when when the opportunity presents itself.

[58:17] I'm not especially concerned about the the protected intersection. You know. Chicane eyebrow thing. My experience with it is maybe a little bit like jets. I encounter it most commonly when traveling along the I think it's a highway 36 frontage where it crosses Colorado. There's some of this architecture there, and I you know. I confess that sometimes I if I'm blazing around and I know there's no traffic, because that's a very low traffic road. I'll just go around the let you know, go around the the eyebrow, but I but I know it's safe. When I'm doing that I can see that there's no vehicles, and I'm not. I'm not worried about it getting right hooked. But if

[59:11] the light is, if I if I have to stop because there's you know I've hit a red light. Then I do use it, and then I'm positioning myself where I can be seen by cars that may be coming in through the intersection when the light turns green. So I think there's value to it. And I, you know, I think you know, I'm sure you guys all know this right. It's very likely that humans being humans, they're going to kind of do what I do if they're, you know, if it makes sense for them, if they feel safe doing it, but I would just anticipate that. You know some people will do it on Folsom, just as I've been doing it on on other streets, but in general, you know no gainsaying that the safety benefits of that protected intersection design. I think it's there. It's going to protect a lot of people

[60:01] and and so definitely worth doing. And I guess the last thing I had to say is, you know, because I I might otherwise forget to to thank Erica and Lucy for what I understand was exhaustive and probably exhausting community outreach on this project. I was, you know, I was impressed with just how much community outreach the city did. And and I and also, you know, apologies, if I've forgotten somebody. But I'm I'm aware that those 2 in particular. we're out there, just, you know, days on days on days on end, contacting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And that was pretty impressive work, considering the constrained timeframe in which this project has also proceeded. That that was pretty impressive. So, anyway, I love it. I I really have no critique of any of it. I think it's awesome.

[61:00] Thanks. Michael Mike. Yeah. Well, I want to echo everything. Michael said. I really like this design, and particularly the part Michael said about the central section being a a place making potential. And I know this probably isn't in the design, but could come later. I would encourage the city to encourage putting benches and shade structures and street art in that central segment when possible, and in order to encourage people to hang out there. And it it is a a commercial place that could draw people just to enjoy as well. That's all I have to say. Thanks. Great thanks. I want to also just commend the project team on doing an incredible job with the community outreach, and also the proposed designs for the intersections at Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue

[62:07] trying to kind of create intersections that will end that those concentrations of crashes that we've seen over the past many years. I mean, it's just remarkable to look at the map and see, you know, from 2019 to 2023, 55 crashes at Canyon Boulevard at 54 at Arapahoe Avenue. Those are heavy concentrations of crashes and very dangerous intersections, and so I'm really encouraged and excited about these protected intersections and all the ways that you have worked hard to make them safer for everyone. You know. I was part of the outreach for this project and listened to a lot of business owners and operators and employees along the corridor, and we heard. we heard, you know, concerns about access and about people trying to kind of get into these destinations. But at the same time, I think we were able to successfully encourage people that by creating a corridor. That is so much safer for more types of users that will decrease the concentration of vehicles in the corridor. We hope and will

[63:22] create a place like you, said Mike, that people want to be. And I, for when I work on Folsom, and I'm really excited about being able to bike down Folsom. And right now it does not feel safe to me at all, and I don't. I bike down 28th on the multi-use path, so I'm very excited to have a more direct route to work, and also just a place that will feel good to be walking or bicycling, and it'll be a very different experience, you know, to walk, to get lunch. I think more and more people will be able to use this corridor in an active way, and using the transit along the corridor so really excited about that, I think again, the information you provided us is very thorough, exhaustive, I would say, and with all the details about all the work that you've done over the past several months, and so thank you for all of that excellent information. And if there aren't any other comments or questions we can move into the

[64:23] recommendation. Does anyone else have anything else that they want to add? Okay. so let's go back to the motion. Valerie, would you like to put up the language again for the motion? I have it here, but let's just so that we can all see it at the same time. Or Melanie. Could you bring up that slide? One more time. Oh, I'm sorry! Okay. Slide, 41. Just so we can all see it at the same time.

[65:05] Okay, great. So So the staff recommended recommends that tab. Consider this motion to make a recommendation to the City Council to approve Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project Seep and recommended design. Does anyone have? Would anyone like to move to approve. Okay, who moves? Mike? Right? Mike. So moves. That's fine. Okay, just one. Sec. Okay. Great Michael. Seconds. Okay, all in favor. Raise your hand, and say, Aye. Alright! I. Aye, okay. Motion passes unanimously. 4 to 0. Thank you so much. Everyone. Great. Okay. And let me get back to my agenda here. Yes. Excuse me, do. Do we have

[66:05] or not? I'm sorry. What did you vote or not? Thank you so. I think I saw. Yeah, I saw his hand. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you. Great. Yeah. Fell off my street. Think. Okay, thanks everyone. That was our major agenda item for this evening. Now we can move into matters from Staff Valerie. Thanks, Darcy. We don't have any matters from Staff for you tonight. Okay, thanks very much matters from the board. We did say that we would kind of do a little walk and bike month recap. I'll just get that started. If anyone wants to add anything, please feel free. We saw an incredible June, and I want to thank everyone, all the members of the public for participating in events every single week throughout June. It was incredible

[67:00] my organization participated in or or managed 8 of those events, but community cycles did the bulk of the work on that and other. Of course, the city and city staff here worked very hard on all of those events, and so I want to thank everyone for participating. And it was. It was a super active month, and really wonderful and encouraging to see so many people participating in all of the events. So once again Boulder takes the takes the cake for an excellent walk and bike month, and we had incredible attendance at bike to work like walking back to work day as well. So I just want to commend everyone anything else about that. Anybody want to add from your experience or no, you all enjoyed it like. Yeah, I I spent the whole time at the Bullet Progressive Station. I wish I'd gotten to see some of the other stations. It was fun. Yeah.

[68:00] It was super fun. At the chamber. We had more than 900 people visit our breakfast super station. It was amazing, and I heard that there was a line around the corner at the Saint Julian. Someday I would like to be able to go to the Saint Julian. I'm always stationed at the chamber, and I don't get to go anywhere else. But I'm excited to it's it's been wonderful to hear about all the other super successful breakfast stations. Julian is legendary, but the Chamber. The legendary 4 course, breakfast right? And then all the other events. I led the walk 360 on the 28, th and that was well attended and and great. It was a super hot day, so it was challenging, but we did it and and there were other wonderful events as well. So thanks for all of that, and we can move into open board comment. If there's anything anybody would like to bad for the good of the group. Yes, Michael. It's really just a question. So I understand the city is under a hiring freeze, and I am wondering if

[69:08] that has any impact or has had is expected to have any impact on transportation and mobility. Good question. Valerie Watson. Interim director transportation Mobility. Thanks for asking. I'm happy to speak a little bit to that tonight. You are correct. The entire city is currently under a hiring freeze. We don't have, you know, a definitive sense, for when that might be lifted in the future, I think it really is going to depend on economic forecasts and other information that will come in later in the year. And as we consider the proposed 2026 budget for our department. Many of our vacancies we do have about a 30% vacancy rate in our department. Most of those positions are either full time or seasonal maintenance positions for our, you know, summer and winter, street sweeping snowplow all of those operations for maintenance.

[70:13] and one of the things that the city is doing right now is just assessing critical public safety oriented positions, you know, really essential services, and we were able to get a few exemptions to hire some some existing vacancies that that really fall into that category. So we'll be moving forward with those hiring processes in the next few weeks. and those are all in our maintenance team or our transportation operations team those exemptions that we were granted by our city manager's office. So to answer your question about impacts, I think many of those vacancies have been persistent, due to other factors, such as just the state of the market, and you know just difficulty in recruiting people to work some of our maintenance positions over the years.

[71:10] Many of our teams are still fully staffed, and unless there's attrition, I think we will continue to have those those full teams working together like you've seen. But yeah, I think the impacts would probably really come if we are not able to fill some of those core maintenance positions that may impact levels of service to the community for some of our transportation maintenance and operations work. And you know, we're really trying to just take a look at that right now, and make sure that you know we can find the coverage where we need it. But this is all, you know, really a good opportunity for Tab to be following that conversation around the long term financial strategy for the city. That's because later this year they're going to ramp up a community conversation you all are welcome to.

[72:02] encouraged to participate called fund our future. And that will be really looking at. Where are we putting our funds? And what is the community's priorities for levels of service, for the essential services that the city provides across all disciplines? And so you know that that being an opportunity this year to really talk about the services and the levels of service is also a chance to just consider the you know the the state of the hiring freeze, and and what that means? So I, you know, trying to connect the dots there for you all as tab members, that that might be another place to engage. Aside from from these meetings that we have together on that topic. Yeah, thanks for mentioning that, Valerie. I would also encourage everyone to be involved in the comprehensive plan discussions that are going on this week. Unfortunately, there was an event this evening that we couldn't attend, but there are others coming up which you can find on the website for a bolder future.

[73:11] Tomorrow at Fairview High School tomorrow evening from 6 to 8 Pm. There's a an event that requests an Rsvp. And then on July 30th there will be open office hours at the Municipal Building for people interested in that project. So I encourage tab members and others to be involved in the comprehensive plan discussions as well, because those are relevant, and there is, of course, a transportation component to that. And, as we know, land use planning and transportation planning are inextricably intertwined, and all the decisions that we see city, council and staff making are really relevant to all of those larger discussions. So I encourage everyone to be involved in all of that. We've had an incredibly efficient meeting this evening. It's only 7, 14, and I think we're just about finished future agenda topics. I don't have any readily at my disposal, but I know that we'll be talking about the Tdm. Ordinance again coming up soon, I believe. Is that right, Valerie.

[74:16] The Amps project and the Tdm. Ordinance, perhaps in August, maybe, or. Right. I think we're we're looking at August. September timeframe. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay? Great and I don't think there's anything else that we have on our late this evening. So if there's nothing else, anything else. Okay, nothing else. Would someone move to adjourn the meeting? Move, to adjourn. All right. Mike moves to adjourn. Is there a second. Second. 9 seconds. Okay, all in favor. Please say aye, and raise your hand.

[75:04] Bye. Okay. anyone opposed? Nope, great. So we voted to adjourn at 7 15 pm. Amazing thanks everyone for such an efficient meeting, and, thanks to Staff for all of the details on the Folsom Street project, appreciate it alright. Thanks. Everyone. You guys. Good night. Bye.