City of Boulder outlines context‑sensitive speed‑setting method after collecting speeds at 240 locations

The City of Boulder presented its context‑sensitive speed limit methodology and first‑phase implementation to the DRCOG working group, describing data collection, the scoring method used to set recommended limits, and early results from the pilot application.

Devin Joslin, City of Boulder staff, said the city finalized a method in mid‑2024 and completed the first implementation phase. The work included traffic and speed collection at more than 240 locations and a segmentation of arterial and collector roadways into roughly half‑mile segments for analysis. “This project ended up being our largest single data collection effort in the city's history,” Devin said.

Method and weighting Boulder's method scores each roadway segment on a set of context factors and then derives a recommended speed based on rounded percentiles of measured speeds and a table of acceptable speed ranges by road type and land use. Key factors and relative weightings used in the scoring included: - Crash history (35 percent of the score). - Multimodal activity…