The State of Bicycling in Boulder: Annual Report from Community Cycles March 2014

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1 The State of Bicycling in Boulder: Annual Report from Community Cycles March 2014 The Annual Report from Community Cycles' Advocacy Committee discusses needed changes to bicycle infrastructure and policy within the city of Boulder from the viewpoint of daily bike riders. Summary Targeted Issue: Colorado Avenue Colorado Avenue near 30th St. needs redesign to better accommodate students' and residents' transportation needs now and as the East Campus is developed. Portions of Colorado Avenue are overbuilt, leading to high speeds and dangerous cycling conditions. Creating a traffic-calmed pedestrian-prioritized intersection at Colorado and 30th St. and providing a safe and efficient crossing at 28 th Street are key to a successful revisioning of Colorado Avenue. Other Issues Communicate development plans to Transportation Mitigate Creek Path congestion Complete the Boulder Slough Trail Right-size Folsom Street Build a safe crossing at 29 th and Valmont The Year in Review: Forward Progress and Floods The City of Boulder continues to show a strong commitment to multi-modal transportation. In the past year, the City initiated a testing and evaluation program, called the Complete Streets Living Laboratory. This program includes back-in angled parking, buffered bike lanes, and protected cycle tracks, all installed in 2013, and a planned bike box, advisory bike lane, and a bicycle boulevard (neighborhood greenway) to be installed in early The City also initiated an update to the Transportation Master Plan, which presents an opportunity to make changes to our transportation network blueprint to improve livability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this update process, the City hosted the Boulder Bike Summit in February The engaging and thought-provoking all-day workshop attracted participants from a cross-section of Boulder, including retailers, architects, city and county planners, police, transportation advocates, and interested residents. Recurring themes running

2 Boulder Bicycle Advocacy Report: March 2014 page 2 throughout the Summit included: a broad interest in "right-sizing" streets to improve livability, increase street activity, and encourage non-motorized transportation; changes to city zoning and parking policies to increase residential densities and to expose the hidden costs of auto use; a strong desire to build bicycle and pedestrian networks that are physically protected from motor vehicle traffic and are pleasant, safe, and efficient; and a need for improved transit, especially regional routes to decrease motor vehicle mode share among incommuters to the city. Also in the past year, the Regional Transportation District (RTD) continued to move forward with development of a bus rapid transit system to improve mass transit. Construction at the Boulder Junction development, including a new regional RTD bus facility, new shared streets fronting Pearl Parkway, and a shared street connection northward across Goose Creek to the Steelyards development, began. Renovation of the RTD downtown bus terminal, including a locked bicycle storage facility for bus commuters and a large increase in the total number of bike parking spaces, started. Focusing on retrofitting some existing commercial properties, Community Cycles partnered with GoBoulder to install bicycle parking racks at businesses that were built before mandatory bike parking. Most significantly, the worth of the City's flood mitigation and Greenways programs was made plain to all during the epic flooding that occurred in September The Greenways multi-use paths served their emergency role for flood conveyance. Where the flood control and MUP upgrades had not yet been constructed, such as along Fourmile Canyon Creek near 19th St., extremely damaging flooding occurred. The City and County both made truly outstanding efforts to get all infrastructure, including bicycle routes, functional as quickly as possible after the flooding, earning the thanks of all residents. Floodwaters are channeled down the Bear Creek Greenway Path on Thursday, September 12th, Photo credit: Bob Henson, National Center for Atmospheric Research.

3 Boulder Bicycle Advocacy Report: March 2014 page 3 Finally, we applaud the 2-to-1 passage of the transportation tax issues on the November ballot, strongly endorsed by Community Cycles. As a result of this vote, money will be available to eliminate the current funding shortage for transportation operations and maintenance, and there will be sufficient funds to move forward with additional transportation projects. Indeed, the City has already increased the number of snow plows and plow operators to clear the multi-use path network. Community Cycles' Advocacy Committee looks forward to collaborating with City staff to ensure that more of these new resources are applied effectively to support Boulder's multi-modal transportation priorities. Targeted Issue: Colorado Avenue The University of Colorado has begun extensive, long-term redevelopment of the East Campus area bounded by 30th Street, Arapahoe Avenue, Foothills Parkway, and Colorado Avenue. This redevelopment will change transportation needs and patterns in southeast Boulder. There will be many more trips between the University's three main centers: the Main Campus, the Williams Village area, and the East Campus. If Boulder is to meet its transportation goals of reducing single-occupancy vehicle use and increasing mass transit, walking and bicycling mode shares, the streets linking these centers of activity must be connected in a way that discourages car travel and encourages the other modes. Community Cycles' Advocacy Committee considers it critical that the University and City develop a transportation plan for the Colorado Avenue corridor that helps realize these broader community goals. The City must be proactive because the University's initial priorities and plans may not include livability and sustainability criteria. It is important that the City take a firm position that any growth in trips between these university centers be accomplished through transit, walking, and bicycling rather than through car travel. Most of Colorado Avenue is overbuilt for the number of daily vehicle trips it carries. This four-lane road, which has a broad center median between Foothills and 30th, was built in an era of automobile-centric construction; its wide-open, median-separated design encourages high speeds that place people riding bikes in the painted bicycle lanes at risk. Although traffic count data are not available between Foothills and 30th, Colorado obviously carries a small fraction of the traffic on 30th Street. While the road may become crowded during home football games, probably 99% of the time it is underused. We suggest that much of this unused space could be made into dedicated transit lanes and physically protected bicycle lanes that extend from Foothills all the way into the heart of the main campus west of Folsom. These bike lanes must directly connect to the Aurora 7 residential neighborhood just to the south of the East Campus, and to the student-dominated neighborhoods on both sides of Colorado west of 30th

4 Boulder Bicycle Advocacy Report: March 2014 page 4 Street, which currently suffer from very poor pedestrian and bicycle access. These connections need to be seamless and inviting to people walking and biking. Westward from 30th Street toward Regent Drive on the Main campus, Colorado Avenue becomes progressively busier. To make a bicycle route that is both pleasant and safe from vehicles, the bicycle facilities must be fully physically protected from other traffic and from bus stops. It will be especially important to provide a safe way for cyclists to cross 30th and 28th streets while staying on a direct route between the Main and East campuses. We hope that 30th will be turned into a 3-lane street with lower speeds, making this a calmer street to cross than it currently is. City statistics show a high rate of bicycle-car collisions at this intersection. We do not favor an expensive diagonal underpass under 30th Street at Colorado; instead we prefer that bicycle lanes cross city streets at-grade, but with traffic calming and signal patterns designed to favor cyclists over motor vehicles. For example, short signal cycles and dedicated bicycle signals would help slow traffic on 30th, add the interaction of cyclists to the street vitality, and encourage cycling and transit over driving. Unlike 30th Street, 28th Street is a busy highway with no virtually no potential commercial or residential street life. The crossing of 28th Street is complicated by a frontage road, which adds to the street crossing distance and contributes to a high rate of bike-car collisions at this location. Adding to the complexity, RTD's new Bus Rapid Transit service will bring frequent regional bus service along this frontage road. Because the intersection is already busy and unpleasant, this crossing will be a major physical and psychological barrier to cycling between the Main and East campuses. A dedicated bicycle signal and protected on-street bicycle waiting area might help. Whatever crossing solution is chosen, it must be seamless, direct, efficient, and feel safe to users of all ages and abilities. Other Issues There are a number of additional improvements and changes to community infrastructure and city policies that would enhance the efficiency and safety of cycling in Boulder. This report briefly discusses five of these issues. 1) Communicate Development Plans to Transportation Staff. The Community Cycles Advocacy Committee often comments on transportation aspects of development plans as they come before the Planning Board. From our participation in this process it's clear that staff from the City's Transportation Department usually have not reviewed and commented on the plans, even if they contain elements that significantly affect transportation within the city, including road design, connectivity, and bikeways. We recommend that Transportation staff formally collaborate with Planning and Sustainability staff to provide

5 Boulder Bicycle Advocacy Report: March 2014 page 5 comments to all concept and site plans submitted to the Planning Board. Ideally, access planning should be addressed during initial concept review, if any. 2) Mitigate Creek Path Congestion. The Boulder Creek Path is Boulder's premier multiuse trail. It is extremely popular among locals and visitors for recreation and for access to schools, shopping, and work. Unfortunately, increased use has led to some congestion on the trail, leading to tensions between people walking and biking. We can urge civility and sharing, yet the difference in speed and momentum between bikes and pedestrians will continue to lead to conflicts that will likely get worse with increasing use. It s probably impractical to widen the path at more than a few points to separate people walking and cycling. Instead, we recommend that the City aggressively pursue installing a combination of neighborhood greenways/bike boulevards on quiet streets, and physically protected lanes on busy streets, that together divert nonrecreational bike traffic from the Creek Path. We hope that most future growth in cycling will take place on these on-street facilities, relieving pressure from the Greenway paths, which have limited rights of way to work with, are disconnected from the fabric of the city, and are often indirect compared to the street grid. 3) Complete the Boulder Slough Path. The Boulder Slough Path is a MUP that is planned to ultimately connect 28th St. to the Foothills Parkway multi-use path using underpasses at 30th, the BNSF railroad tracks, and Pearl Parkway. This path will provide an important direct bike/ped connection to 29th and 30th streets for residents at the new Boulder Junction apartments, and validates the "underpass to nowhere" that was built as part of the 30th St. transportation improvements project. Newly submitted development plans for 2930 Pearl at the southwest corner of Pearl and 30th propose a very large office complex which will include an extension of the path between 30th and the back of the Target store. Since Boulder Junction is currently under construction and the Solana apartments are now opening for residents, and given the impending development of the 2930 Pearl office complex, Community Cycles urges that the construction of the Slough Path between Pearl Parkway and 30th Street be prioritized and built as quickly as possible. 4) "Rightsize" Folsom Street. While this is not a small issue, we would like to point out that Folsom Street between Pearl and Valmont is ideally suited for conversion from a 4-lane to a 3-lane configuration. This section of the street has heavy bicycle traffic that is provided with only narrow striped bicycle lanes. The street is the primary corridor linking north Boulder to the University. Car traffic on this section of Folsom is not heavy, and the area is primarily residential. The city should explore traffic-calming measures that could be implemented relatively inexpensively during restriping. In the long term, all of Folsom from Valmont to Colorado should be considered as an ideal street for developing a fully protected bicycle facility that provides access between residences and work, shopping, and

6 Boulder Bicycle Advocacy Report: March 2014 page 6 recreational opportunities. This redesign would likely require eliminating a vehicle lane in each direction. It s time to start this conversation. 5) Build a safe crossing at 29 th and Valmont. A high density residential area along 29 th Street north of Valmont is separated from commercial areas by the busy Valmont Road. South of Valmont, 29 th becomes Bluff Street, which provides a direct connection to the Goose Creek Path. Although vehicles are required to stop for crosswalk users at the unmarked crosswalks at 29 th and Valmont, they don t. Ever. Valmont is sufficiently broad that someone crossing on foot at 29 th Street cannot be sure that they will get across even when the way is clear, as traffic may quickly approach from the 30 th or 28 th Street intersections. There is no safety island. This is a dangerous intersection, and someone will be injured or killed here if a marked and protected crosswalk is not installed soon and properly enforced. It's time to move forward with existing plans for improving this intersection. Outstanding Issues Raised in Past Reports Redesign of 30 th Street from Arapahoe to Baseline. The current design of this residential section of 30 th Street is auto-centric, and needs complete revisioning to make a streetscape that calms traffic, improves quality of life in this residential neighborhood, and encourages walking, biking, and transit. The 15 th Street Wall. The economic and social heart of Boulder is its thriving and vibrant downtown. Yet bicycle access is limited by the high-traffic, one-way circulator streets and by a lack of direct and safe cycling routes when approaching from the east. The City should redesign the traffic patterns and streets around the center of Boulder so that car travel is not favored over other modes. More protected bicycle lanes. The Boulder Bike Summit clearly showed the tremendous enthusiasm for bicycle facilities that take riders directly to shopping and entertainment destinations while keeping them physically protected from motor vehicles. Because along-street multi-use sidepaths are hazardous at driveway crossings, and because they mix people walking and biking at very different speeds, they are not as optimal for bicycle transportation as are fully protected bicycle lanes built at street grade. We applaud the protected bike lanes implemented as part of the City's Complete Streets Living Laboratory, and encourage the city to move forward rapidly with permanent installations there and elsewhere in the city. Snow removal. Following the successful passage of transportation tax measures in November 2013, the City has purchased additional snow removal equipment for multi-use paths and has dedicated additional personnel to this task. This is great progress that will make wintertime cycling more practical. We note that snow accumulated in on-street bicycle lanes and where bike lanes and multi-use paths cross streets remains a hazard to people biking in winter and

7 Boulder Bicycle Advocacy Report: March 2014 page 7 limits the connectivity of the bicycling network. We hope that the City can devote additional personnel and equipment to this issue, just as they have to snow removal on multi-use paths. In summary, the City of Boulder continues to show its commitment to nonvehicular transportation options. Yet, as we've documented, there are opportunities improve bicycle connectivity and safety within the city. We hope that by providing the perspective of our dues-paying members, this report from Community Cycles will encourage the City to continue moving forward to increase bicycle travel, particularly among those residents that are interested in cycling but are concerned about safety and convenience.