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City staff brief TAB on 2025 Transportation Report on Progress; several targets stable but off track
Summary
City transportation staff briefed TAB on the department’s 2025 Transportation Report on Progress, updating eight measurable objectives from the 2019 Transportation Master Plan and noting declining per‑capita VMT, rising EV adoption and mixed progress against mode‑shift and safety targets.
City of Boulder transportation staff presented the department’s 2025 Transportation Report on Progress to the Transportation Advisory Board during the board’s March meeting, offering updates on eight measurable objectives drawn from the 2019 Transportation Master Plan (TMP). Steven Marijo, transportation planning manager, and Allison (last name not provided in the transcript), senior transportation planner, led the presentation with principal project manager Chris Hagelin covering several technical points.
Staff described the eight measurable objectives tracked in the report: reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita; reduce single‑occupant vehicle (SOV) mode share and increase walking, biking and transit; reduce transportation‑sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and support EV adoption; eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes (Vision Zero); increase access to comfortable walkways, bikeways and transit; increase transit service hours and bike system miles commensurate with employment growth; maintain baseline vehicle travel times on core arterials; and increase the share of residents who live in 15‑minute walkable neighborhoods. The report uses updated methodologies for some measures, notably aggregated anonymized cell‑phone and connected‑vehicle data for VMT and travel‑time metrics and a density‑sensitive GIS approach for walkable‑neighborhood and low‑stress bikeway measures.
Chris Hagelin said the city switched its VMT calculation methodology in 2020 from a regional travel model to aggregated cell‑phone/connected vehicle data; that change produced higher absolute VMT numbers but allowed back‑casting to 2018. Staff reported VMT per capita has declined substantially since 1990 (from about 15 miles per person per day to below 12), with post‑COVID VMT not yet returned to pre‑pandemic levels. On mode share, staff said resident SOV mode share has steadily declined since 1990 and currently stands near 35% for all trips, but the target of 20% remains out of reach. Nonresident employee commute SOV shares have been largely unchanged and are affected by regional commuting patterns and housing affordability.
On climate and GHG, staff reported that while VMT has rebounded from the COVID dip, overall transportation GHG emissions continue to decline — a trend staff attributed to increased vehicle electrification and continued hybrid work patterns that reduced nonresident employee commuting. Staff said EV adoption in Boulder is higher than early expectations and that the city is pursuing public charging, low‑income charging access, pairing EV charging with solar and electrifying fleets where feasible.
On safety, staff reiterated Vision Zero goals and noted that fatal and serious‑injury crashes have held steady but not reached zero; staff are entering year three of a five‑year Vision Zero action plan and cited recent Safe Streets for All grant funding for several projects. TAB members raised requests for clearer public dashboards and easier public access to up‑to‑date serious‑injury and fatal‑crash data; staff acknowledged a data‑compatibility issue between the police dashboard and the longer‑running transportation dashboard and said they are actively working to reconcile and maintain a longitudinal view.
Staff also described updated methods for measuring access to walkways, bikeways and transit (now accounting for housing density) and reiterated that while bike miles and some infrastructure have expanded, staff prefer to measure connected low‑stress networks rather than only raw miles. Staff said RTD transit service hours have fallen from 2019 highs and that the city continues to coordinate with RTD and local partners to restore and innovate transit service. Several TAB members suggested incorporating subjective measures of “comfort” and user experience into future progress tracking (for example, winter sidewalk clearing or perceived walkability), which staff said they will consider for future strategic updates.
No formal action was taken; the item was a staff briefing and TAB discussion. Staff said the final report would be published with project highlights, and they invited follow‑up questions and suggestions from TAB members.
