Transportation Advisory Board backs Folsom Street safety plan, urges council approval

The City of Boulder Transportation Advisory Board voted unanimously June 9 to recommend that City Council approve the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project community and environmental assessment process (SEAP) and the project’s recommended design.

The recommendation, presented by Melanie Sloan, principal project manager in the city’s Transportation and Mobility Department, would repurpose roadway space along Folsom Street from Pine Street to Colorado Avenue to add protected bike lanes, widened sidewalks, floating bus stops and protected intersections while preserving business access and existing street trees. “This is a design that’s recognized for safety improvements,” Sloan said during the meeting.

The SEAP recommendation follows a project evaluation that compared three conceptual alternatives and a community outreach program the city said reached nearly 20,000 people through 114 engagement events. City staff described the recommendation as primarily based on Alternative C, with elements from Alternatives A and B to balance safety, business access and transit operations.

Why it matters: Folsom Street is a major north–south connector serving thousands of daily multimodal trips and has a history of crashes. City staff reported 218 crashes on the corridor between 2019 and 2023, with seven resulting in serious injury and all of those involving a person walking or biking. The recommended design aims to reduce crash risk by calming vehicle speeds, separating people walking and biking from traffic and adding signal and intersection changes.

Key elements of the recommended design include on-street protected bike lanes along most of the corridor with a sidewalk-level bike lane in constrained locations, widened and completed sidewalks (including a new west-side sidewalk between Goss and Grove), floating bus stops at select locations, new and adjusted turn lanes at busy intersections (Arapahoe, Canyon and Pearl), and preservation or replanting of 100% of existing street trees. Staff said the recommended design keeps existing business parking and maintains driveway access.

Traffic and environmental effects: City modeling with the VISSIM micro-simulation tool estimated the design would increase the average end-to-end travel time during the busiest evening peak by about 1 minute and 4 seconds. Staff attributed about 30 seconds of that increase to a reduction in the posted speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph, and the remainder to signal phasing changes and lane repurposing intended to reduce conflicts and crashes. On environmental concerns, staff said the SEAP evaluation considers air-quality and related impacts; they reported that existing transportation research does not show lane repurposing alone increases emissions and that providing safe multimodal choices is the most effective way to reduce transportation-related emissions over time.

Design details and safety features: The recommended design includes protected intersections that use corner refuge islands and mountable aprons intended to tighten turning radii and improve visibility. Daniel Sheeter, principal transportation planner, said the lighter-gray areas in renderings are mountable aprons raised about 2 inches with beveled edges: “you can ride over them, but [they are] not designed for a cyclist to travel over at a higher speed,” and final geometry would be refined in design to better accommodate a range of bicycle speeds and longer bikes including trailers.

Staff also described use of leading pedestrian and bicyclist signal intervals and, where warranted, dedicated bicycle signal heads or dedicated right-turn signals to separate turning vehicles from people biking and walking. The design preserves left-turn pockets and adds right-turn-only lanes at the busiest intersections to support transit reliability and reduce turn-related crashes.

Public comment and board discussion: A public commenter raised concerns that curb-protected “chicanes” could force some cyclists into vehicle lanes; board members and staff discussed the mountable-apron detail and said final design work would consider trailer bikes and higher-speed cyclists. Board members praised the outreach and noted the project’s place-making potential in the constrained central segment between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue. Several members expressly commended staff’s community engagement and the project team’s efforts to balance trade-offs among safety, trees, transit and business access.

Action and next steps: TAB’s motion recommended that City Council approve the SEAP and the recommended design. The board moved the recommendation and the motion passed unanimously, 4 to 0. If City Council “calls up” the SEAP, staff said council will be briefed on Aug. 7 and, if called up, staff will present more detail at a public hearing on Aug. 21.

Implementation notes: Staff said the recommended design avoids changes that would remove transit service, increase through-vehicle lanes, add on-street parking, or require new right-of-way acquisitions. Final design and construction timing will depend on Council action and subsequent design phases; staff flagged further geometric refinements, signal phasing details and coordination with partners (including CU Boulder and Boulder Valley School District) during final design.

The TAB meeting also included routine approvals of minutes and a brief public comment period unrelated to the SEAP. The meeting record shows the project packet and full evaluation are available in the staff materials submitted to TAB and will be part of the record presented to City Council.