Upcoming meeting puts focus on transportation
Thursday’s Boulder City Council meeting is nearly solely focused on a subject of interest to many Boulder residents: transportation.
The bulk of the meeting later this week will be spent discussing Boulder County’s transportation funding ballot initiative and the city’s Core Arterial Network, informally called CAN.
The CAN has been part of Boulder’s work plan since the City Council retreat earlier this year when the Council identified 13 individual corridors along Boulder’s arterial street network where it will focus its efforts over the next several years.
The arterial streets, some of the busiest roadways in Boulder, are where 67% of serious or fatal crashes in Boulder occur, with 44% occurring specifically within areas included in the core arterial network work plan.
According to a staff memo for Thursday’s meeting, projects along these streets will enhance connectivity along the network, amplifying previous investments and ensuring a predictable, safe journey between where people live and work and major destinations, such as schools, parks, grocery stores and shopping.
“Our arterials are really that last connective tissue that gets you to your day-to-day destinations in the city of Boulder,” Boulder Transportation Planning Manager Valerie Watson said in a meeting last month. “But we don’t often connect the dots in terms of our projects and how we can complete a truly connected, comfortable network — whether you’re walking, bicycling, taking the bus.”
And in addition to helping address “the human costs of these crashes,” the CAN will also help
Boulder make progress toward its climate goals, the staff memo notes.
In Boulder, there are local and regional transit service options as well as more than 300 miles of bikeways, including 73 miles of multi-use paths and nearly 90 bicycle and pedestrian underpasses. The CAN will enhance connections within this network, making it easier for people to choose non-vehicular forms of travel and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, the City Council on Thursday will discuss a potential 2022 ballot initiative for transportation funding. Boulder County’s 0.01% transportation sales tax has been in place for 20 years but expires in June 2024. As this date approaches, the county is considering future funding needs for the countywide multimodal transportation system.
In a public meeting in June, Kathleen Bracke, deputy director for Boulder
County Transportation Planning, acknowledged the importance of planning a future for all residents, given that not all people have equal access to transportation.
In order to access available regional, state and federal dollars, it’s important for the county to have its own local funds to match what it’s receiving from outside sources.
“We want to make sure that in Boulder County we have those local dollars that can be used to leverage those larger regional, state and federal funding sources,” Bracke said.
The Board of County Commissioners will officially determine whether to place the initiative on the ballot later this summer, after the county concludes its effort to collect input from the public.
In other transportation-related news, the City Council also will include an annual update from Lynn Guissinger, the Regional Transportation District director representing Boulder.
What: Boulder City Council meeting
When: 6 p.m. Thursday Where: Council and city staff members will participate from remote locations. Residents can watch the meeting on Boulder’s Youtube channel or on Channel 8.
Agenda: bit.ly/34gemhj