Boulder TAB unanimously recommends North 30th Street preliminary design SEAP to City Council

The City of Boulder Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) voted unanimously 4-0 on June 23 to recommend that City Council approve the North Thirtieth Street preliminary design project Community and Environmental Assessment Process (SEAP).

The recommendation advances a hybrid design that combines elements from three community-developed alternatives to add protected bike lanes, protected intersections and transit stop improvements along North Thirtieth Street from Diagonal Highway to Arapahoe Avenue while seeking to remain mostly within the existing curb-to-curb roadway so it can be built with awarded federal grant funds.

TAB members heard a staff presentation and public comment before deliberating. Valerie Watson, interim director of transportation and mobility, framed the item as part of the city’s intent to “accelerat[e] project development processes” so projects are ready for state and federal grant applications. Steven Nuito, transportation planning manager, described the vote as a major milestone for the project’s implementation under the city’s core arterial network and Vision Zero priorities.

City staff said the project responds to crash data and community feedback collected in 2024–25. Staff reported that three intersections — Arapahoe Avenue, Pearl Street and Belmont Road — account for 56% of corridor crashes, that 13% of corridor crashes involve people walking or biking, and that two-thirds of serious-injury crashes on the corridor involve vulnerable road users. Melanie Sloan, principal project manager, said the SEAP evaluation scored three conceptual alternatives on project-specific criteria and the SEAP checklist and concluded no single alternative balanced safety, travel time and implementability. Sloan said staff created the recommended design by combining features of the three alternatives and noted, verbatim: “The average the average increase to the time it takes to drive from 1 end of the to the other of Thirtieth Street from these changes will only be about a minute and a half.”

Key features of the recommended design described by staff include: removing slip lanes at multiple intersections (including Pearl, Walnut and Arapahoe) to shorten crossings and slow turning speeds; providing partial or fully protected intersections with corner islands and dedicated signal phases; on-street protected bike lanes with at least 5 feet of rideable width and a minimum 3-foot buffer from vehicle lanes where physical separation is installed; sidewalk-level protected bike lanes in space-constrained locations; floating bus stops to keep buses in travel lanes (improving transit travel time and reducing conflicts with bicycles); and new pedestrian crossings at Corona Trail and Eagle Way.

Staff also summarized coordination with emergency-response partners. They said Boulder Fire Rescue relocated Station 3 to 30th and Bluff Street in November 2024 and that Boulder Police Department headquarters is east of 30th near Canyon Boulevard. That operational context, staff said, informed asymmetric lane decisions in parts of the corridor where northbound volumes exceed southbound volumes.

TAB members asked clarifying questions about asymmetric lane configurations, the floating bus stop design and implementation constraints. One public commenter, Lynn, criticized the scale of transit infrastructure and raised unrelated political remarks; Alexi Davies of Community Cycles thanked staff and said the organization was “excited to get into the design detailed design phase of the project.”

After discussion, TAB moved the staff-recommended motion: “TAB recommends that the City Council approve the North Thirtieth Street preliminary design project, Community and Environmental Assessment Process, SEAP.” The motion was moved by Michael (TAB member) and seconded; TAB recorded the motion as passing unanimously, 4 to 0. TAB staff noted the project is queued for final design and implementation using awarded Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant funds for the segment from Pearl Street to Diagonal Highway and for improvements at 30th & Arapahoe.

The project will be presented to City Council as a call-up item on June 26; if called up, staff said they would provide more project detail at a July 24 public hearing. TAB’s recommendation and staff materials emphasize that the recommended design seeks to balance safety, multimodal access and emergency-response needs while remaining largely implementable with current grant funding.

TAB adjourned the special meeting after the vote.