Community debate has intensified over a project proponents say could improve safety on one of Boulder’s busiest streets.
The City Council on Thursday discussed the Iris Avenue Transportation Improvements project, which will aim to make the stretch of Iris Avenue from Broadway to 28th Street safer, better connected to surrounding areas, and more bike- and pedestrian-friendly. Some of the proposed changes could reduce the number of traffic lanes on the roadway, which can help control traffic speed and also make crashes less likely.
Iris Avenue is a major arterial street that sees a heavy volume of daily traffic — between 5,000 and 10,000 vehicles per travel lane — and 85% of vehicles on the road are traveling at or above 30 mph, according to a city fact sheet.
Boulder’s arterial streets make up 17% of the city’s roads but account for 67% of severe crashes in the city. From 2016 to 2023, the Iris Avenue corridor saw 345 crashes, or about 43 per year.
City staffers have proposed four alternative designs for the project. All four alternatives would offer protected bike lanes, but the bike lanes and traffic lanes would be arranged in different configurations.
Two of the options, alternatives A and B, would leave one driving lane in each direction plus a center lane that can be used by vehicles going either way, also known as a “road diet” configuration. In alternative A, there would be one-way protected bike lanes on either side of the road, and in alternative B, there would be a two-way protected bike lane on the north side of the road.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the road diet configuration can have benefits such as calming traffic, creating more consistent speeds, cutting down on lanes for pedestrians to cross and reduce certain types of crashes.
The third and fourth options, alternatives C and D, would require widening the roadway. Both would keep two lanes of traffic going in both directions while adding protected bike lanes. But while alternative C would have one-way bike lanes on either side of the road, alternative D would have a two-way bike lane on the north side of the road. These two options would likely be much more expensive and take a much longer time to construct than the first two.
Safety ‘at the heart’ of plans
Although staffers in Boulder’s Transportation and Mobility Department have not settled on which alternative they will recommend, they say work on Iris Avenue is important because it aligns with key city projects and priorities such as the Core Arterial Network initiative and the Vision Zero plan for eliminating fatal and serious injury crashes in the city. Valerie Watson, deputy director of the city’s Transportation and Mobility Department, said safety is “really at the heart” of the planned work on Iris.
Transportation and Mobility Department Director Natalie Stiffler added that the proposed road improvements could also move the city toward its climate goals.
“We’re looking to shift people out of automobiles into walking and biking more often,” she said. “And … you have to have a network that is convenient and accessible for people, in order to actually see a real shift.”
Tila Duhaime, chair of the city’s Transportation Advisory Board, said Iris Avenue in its current form is functioning like a highway that runs through residential neighborhoods.
“We as a community have decided that we want all of our streets to be comfortable and safe and appropriate for all levels of users. Iris is not functioning that way now, and it needs to change, in order to do so,” she said.
Duhaime added that all four proposed alternatives for Iris Avenue include protected bike lanes — “a tacit admission that it does not serve cyclists in its current formulation,” she said — and said the road is an “unpleasant” place to walk.
Decision by the fall
Some community members have spoken in support of the proposed changes on Iris. Marcus Popetz, who spoke during an open comment period at the June 20 City Council meeting, said his middle school-aged son was hit by a vehicle while riding his bike along Iris.
“It’s those types of things that I would love you to just keep in your mind when we’re going through this process, because we can get caught up in traffic speeds and such, but really, we’re talking about the safety of kids,” Popetz said. “… I’d love to see something happen in time to actually protect my family.”
But the proposed changes on Iris have sparked backlash among some residents. Some have expressed concerns about how narrowing Iris Avenue would affect emergency vehicle access and evacuations, while others say they’re worried about slowdowns on Iris driving extra traffic into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Linda Overlie, who lives on Kalmia Avenue near Iris, said she has seen people speed and drive recklessly down her street. A drunk driver once drove into her yard, damaging her car and house. Although her street was approved for speed humps, Overlie said they did not get built and she worries about more traffic being diverted through her neighborhood if traffic is slowed down on Iris.
“(The city is) not being realistic, and they’re going to create some very, very angry drivers,” Overlie said. “I’ve talked to people saying if they do that to Iris, then they will be cutting through the side streets, and they will be angry about it because they don’t want (this project).”
In addition, Overlie is concerned about the road being impassable in the event of an evacuation, and she feels the city has not been transparent enough about the data and research used in developing the project. She agrees that Iris can be dangerous but believes the city could make it safer through simpler, less invasive measures like increasing speed enforcement and prohibiting right turns on red lights.
Mike Chard, director of Boulder’s Office of Disaster Management, told the Daily Camera he has concerns about making any changes to Iris Avenue that would reduce its overall lane capacity. He said alternative A would reduce lane capacity in a way that could make emergency evacuations harder, but alternative B offers a way to narrow the road while still maintaining the same overall lane capacity.
The City Council is expected to make a decision on the design for the project by this fall.
