Boulder Launches Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project

The City of Boulder has launched community engagement to help inform a conceptual design to improve travel safety on Folsom Street between Pine Street and Colorado Avenue. Community members are invited to share their current travel experiences and ideas for future improvements via an online questionnaire, open through early January 2025.

The Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project is one of three priority corridor projects part of Boulder’s Core Arterial Network (CAN) initiative. The CAN is a years-long comprehensive roadway redesign effort toward safer, more connected and more comfortable travel on 13 arterial streets, which are key high-traffic streets. The Vision Zero Action Plan guides city staff to pursue these proactive arterial network projects based on the Safe Streets Report finding that 67% of serious or fatal crashes occur on arterial streets despite them making up only 17% of Boulder’s total street network.

From January 2015 to July 2024, 566 crashes occurred on this part of Folsom Street, with people driving experiencing the most crashes at 82% of total crashes. There were 20 serious or fatal crashes, with 95% disproportionately involving vulnerable road users — people walking, biking and rolling. The street segment is also part of the city’s High Risk Network, which has identified where future severe crashes are most likely to happen.

Community engagement, transportation data analysis and professional best practices will inform the development and evaluation of conceptual design options. The conceptual design options will be evaluated using a Community Environmental Assessment Process (CEAP) to ensure consistency with the community’s long-term vision in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. The CEAP will result in a recommended option that will be reviewed and shared with the Transportation Advisory Board and City Council in mid-2025. If approved and as funding becomes available, the city will move to final design and implementation.

Folsom Street is an important north-south corridor in central Boulder that connects homes, office spaces, restaurants, shops, grocery stores, parks and CU Boulder Main Campus to the city’s network for multimodal transportation — walking, bicycling, driving and taking local and regional transit. This project is in part funded by a federal Transportation Improvement Program grant from the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG).

View details on the project webpage and project FAQs and stay connected with email updates.