Residents press Open Space trustees for bike route to Dowdy Draw as staff present multimodal access data

More than a dozen residents and staff pressed the Open Space Board of Trustees on Tuesday to move faster on bicycle access to South Boulder trailheads and to address trailhead parking and safety.

The most urgent public request was to open an existing trail connection between Shanahan Ridge and Dowdy Draw so riders can reach the Dowdy Draw and Marshall Mesa trailheads without riding on Marshall Road and crossing Highway 170.

The issue mattered to riders and parents who said unsafe street crossings and narrow shoulders put students and other cyclists at risk. "We don't need to collect more data or wait months or years to act now," Wendy Sweet, executive director of the Boulder Mountain Alliance, told the board. "Create a safer, low carbon, car free option to Dowdy Draw." She and other speakers asked staff to treat bike travel through open space as essential infrastructure rather than an accessory to parking.

Why it matters

Board members and staff said the request ties directly into the citywide Strategy 7c, the city's current initiative on multimodal access to open space, and to OSMP's own work on trailhead facilities. Staff presented a new data summary that combines survey, visitation and field observations to map how people reach open space, and a separate 2024 trailhead utilization study that measured vehicle parking, bike-rack use and picnic-table occupancy at 50 locations.

The data show that arrival mode varies by residency, site and activity: staff summarized that across the…