This project will make north-south travel on Folsom Street between Pine Street and Colorado Avenue safer, more connected and more comfortable.
This project includes community engagement, along with transportation data analysis and professional best practices, to help inform conceptual designs that improve north-south travel on Folsom Street between Pine Street and Colorado Avenue, providing safer, more connected and more comfortable travel choices no matter how people choose to move along or across this corridor.
Folsom Street from Pine Street to Colorado Avenue is an important corridor in central Boulder. As a key city street, Folsom Street connects homes, office spaces, restaurants, shops, grocery stores, parks, and CU Boulder’s Main Campus, to each other and to the city’s transportation network for walking, bicycling, driving, and taking local and regional transit.
Following findings that show that 67% of traffic crashes resulting in serious injury or fatality occur on arterial streets, City Council prioritized design improvements to 13 key streets as part of Boulder's Core Arterial Network (CAN) initiative. This project is one of three priority corridor projects on the CAN.
Join the open houses to learn about the corridor and what we’ve heard from the community so far, and share your feedback on potential safety improvements for everyone using the street.
Your input, along with data analysis and city goals, are shaping the development of safety improvement options. These options will be ready for your review and feedback at an in-person open house:
Attendees should enter the Penfield Tate building on the south side, just off the Boulder Creek Path.
Parking is available in the Main Library lot and Penfield Tate lot. The first 90 minutes of parking are free. An additional 90 minutes may be purchased for $1.25/hour.
The event can be accessed by many transit routes, including the 204, 225, DASH, and SKIP. The closest bus stops are at Broadway and Canyon Boulevard. Plan your trip using RTD's Trip Planner.
Attendees arriving by bike can use bike parking on the west side of the Penfield Tate building, which is located just off the Boulder Creek Path.
A virtual open house is also available to view at your convenience from Jan. 29 to Feb. 19. This virtual open house contains the same information as the in-person open house. This means you can review before the in-person open house and bring your questions and comments to staff on Feb. 12, or review and provide feedback through the virtual open house.
The City of Boulder is committed to transparent, inclusive and equitable community engagement. The Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project will provide multiple opportunities to inform and consult the community per the city’s Engagement Strategic Framework.
Community engagement, transportation data analysis and professional best practices will inform the development and evaluation of conceptual design options into early 2025. The recommended conceptual design will then follow a Community Environmental Assessment Process (CEAP) to ensure consistency with the community’s long-term vision in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. Results will be shared with the Transportation Advisory Board and City Council in mid-2025. If approved, the city will move to final design and implementation.
City plans, federal guidance and community input call for proactive improvements to make Folsom Street safer, more comfortable and connected for everyone, no matter how you travel.
The Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project will design safety improvements for all travelers. The project focus is on safety and providing comfortable multimodal options that connect to the city’s broader transportation network for taking the bus, driving, biking and walking.
The project intent is to reduce the likelihood of crashes across all modes of travel, with an emphasis on vulnerable roadway users; and when crashes do occur, they will be less likely to result in severe injuries.
Improvements will help safely connect people to:
This project will improve safety and provide comfortable and connected multimodal options for the wide variety of people who use Folsom Street on a typical day, including:
We will use community feedback, data analysis, technical expertise and best practices to develop conceptual design options.
A design will be selected through the Community and Environmental Process (CEAP). The CEAP is a formal review process. It assesses the potential impacts of capital improvement projects to help select a recommended alternative. The evaluation will consider potential social and environmental impacts, project-specific criteria, and community feedback.
The city uses the CEAP process to identify a recommended alternative by evaluating conceptual alternatives against the criteria of the three cornerstone components of this process: the CEAP Checklist, Project-Specific Evaluation Criteria and Community Input. The CEAP is presented to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB), who then makes a recommendation to City Council. City Council is then asked to approve TAB’s recommendation.
Potential impacts to nearby streets is an important consideration for this project.
We will analyze data on nearby neighborhood streets and review the recommendations from the now-closed Neighborhood Speed Management Program (NSMP) to identify speed management needs. If issues at specific locations are identified, speed mitigation installations and traffic management will be considered as a concurrent project. Those locations will be installed with construction for the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project.
We will also monitor additional street segments for increases in traffic and speeds after construction is complete.
Safety is a city and community priority. We will work closely with our public safety partners throughout the design process.
Design development will be informed by the city’s Boulder-Fire Rescue and Police departments, and the Office of Disaster Management (ODM) for the City of Boulder and Boulder County.
Vehicle travel time impacts will be analyzed for all designs considered. This will inform conceptual designs that are evaluated as part of the CEAP.
Providing safer and more comfortable and connected travel options allow people, including children and older adults, to travel more independently by any mode they choose. Supporting all modes of travel also makes it easier, safer and more convenient to travel in sustainable ways, like walking, biking and taking the bus. When more people feel comfortable enough to choose these travel options, vehicle pollution decreases and air quality increases, improving quality of life and moving us toward our community climate goals.
In May 2023, the Denver Regional Council of Governments approved a Transportation Improvement Program grant funding award for community engagement and conceptual design for the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project. The project budget is $1.5 million, with $1 million funded by the TIP and $500,000 funded by the city. As the project moves forward from conceptual design to final design and construction, we will pursue additional grant funding.
There have been several projects along Folsom Street to improve travel. These projects have a different purpose and process.
| Project | Folsom Street Safety Improvements (Ongoing) | Folsom Street Living Lab (2015) |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | A comprehensive safety and connectivity project to improve travel for all modes, not just bicycling.
| An experimental, iterative pilot project. The project focus was primarily to improve bicycling safety, with some crossing improvements. |
| Process | It will have an extensive planning, design, and formal review and approval process long before any construction begins. This includes community input, data collection of the project street and nearby side streets, crash analysis, and national best practices. | It was a unique project that tested results in the field by installing changes first and later collecting data and community engagement. Installations were then adjusted based on pilot learnings. |
Since 2015, the transportation industry has also made significant advancements in street designs that improve safety for everyone. The Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project will lean on these updated best practices to improve the whole street — for all travelers.
The pilot project repurposed a vehicle lane in each direction from Valmont Road to Canyon Boulevard to install post-separated bike lanes, aiming to improve bicycle safety and comfort. The city then adjusted installations based on data and community learnings after a two-month pilot period. This includes:
Overall, safety and connectivity improvements on parts of Folsom Street have been iterative, under multiple implementation efforts, leading to the street that people use today.
The Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project is located south of planned traffic signal and pedestrian crossing improvements at the intersection of Folsom and Pine streets. This nearby work will begin in 2025 as part of the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).
Improvements on 28th Street from Iris Avenue to Canyon Boulevard will transform the street into a multimodal corridor with a consistent design that delivers transportation, safety, aesthetic and economic enhancements. Improvements include bus lanes, bus stop enhancements, connecting gaps in the existing multi-use paths, traffic signal replacements, and more.
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In January 2022, City Council prioritized the Core Arterial Network initiative to make improvements to 13 key streets, including Folsom Street, following findings that show that 67% of traffic crashes resulting in serious injury or fatality occur on arterial streets. In April 2024, the Core Arterial Network initiative was reaffirmed as a City Council priority. In December 2024, City Council reaffirmed their commitment to Vision Zero. The first step of the project is to Listen and Learn. From October to December 2024, city staff collect and analyze data to understand what is working and what needs improvements. From December 2024 to January 2025, we hear from the community what is working and what needs improvements. The next step of the project is to Draft and Consult. In January 2025, city staff develop high-level improvement options to address what we heard from the community and learned from the data, screen options for technical feasibility, and draft evaluation criteria. From January to February 2025, we share what we've learned so far, and high-level improvement options draft evaluation criteria with the community for feedback. This is where we are now. The next step of the project is to Develop and Evaluate. From February to March 2025, city staff develop conceptual alternatives and evaluate using Community and Environmental Assessment Process (CEAP) to address what we heard from the community and learned from the data. From March to April 2025, we share conceptual alternatives and draft CEAP evaluation with the community for feedback. The next step of the project is to Refine and Finalize. From April to May 2025, city staff finalize the CEAP evaluation and select a recommended alternative. From May to June 2025, we share the draft recommended alternative with the community and explain why it was chosen. In July 2025, city staff present the recommended alternative to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) for review. The board makes a recommendation to City Council. Staff then presents the recommendation to City Council where a decision may be made. Final design and construction will follow in the future. What is implemented and when will depend on the final design and the funding available.
