Neighborhood Speed Management Program

What is the NSMP?

The city's Neighborhood Speed Management Program (NSMP) implements engineering, education and enforcement to slow speeding traffic on residential streets. When the city created the NSMP (formerly called the Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program) in the early 1990s, it included a variety of traffic calming treatments; however funding for these and for program management were eliminated during the economic downturn in the early 2000s. With a renewed NSMP, the City of Boulder is committed to improving the safety and livability of neighborhood streets.

2018 Projects

Twelve projects were considered for implementation in 2018. To view the projects and how they were selected for consideration, see the neighborhood forum meeting materials .

Staff held two neighborhood forums on May 24 and 29 for residents to discuss 12 simple project proposals with staff. Staff also presented traffic calming concepts and neighborhood feedback to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) at a public hearing on June 11.

Based on neighborhood feedback, TAB made a recommendation to move forward with 11 projects and asked for a new petition for the project proposed for August Drive. The 2018 NSMP project map shows the 11 project locations and proposed speed humps.

Background

In fall 2017, the city opened an early, expedited application cycle for simple NSMP engineering projects. Applications for the 2017 cycle, including a registration form and petition, were due at 5 p.m., Nov. 24, 2017. Following this deadline, staff worked to categorize each application as simple or complex; simple projects moved forward with data collection and evaluation, while those that were identified as complex projects or did not meet the deadline were included in the 2018 application cycle. 

On March 12, 2018, staff presented the preliminary ranked simple projects to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) for feedback. At the April 9 TAB meeting, residents commented on the list of projects at a public hearing prior to TAB recommending staff finalize the list of simple projects. You can  view the final list of 2018 NSMP Simple Projects here .

NSMP applications in the 2018 cycle will follow the timeline outline here .

How to Apply

City staff accepts applications on a rolling basis from residents who want to participate in the NSMP. Please use the links on the upper right-hand corner of the page to access the online application and neighborhood petition.

Here are a few key pointers:

• Only residential and collector streets are eligible for participation in the program.  Eligible streets are in black and blue on the City of Boulder Street Classifications map.

• All applications requesting engineering treatments (such as speed humps and traffic circles) must include a neighborhood petition with signatures from 20 neighbors or 30 percent of households on the same block, whichever is less.

• Staff will review and rank applications requesting engineering treatments based on the criteria laid out in the NSMP final guidelines . All applicants will be notified of the ranking. Staff will then present a list of prioritized projects to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) for review.

• Projects with engineering treatments will be categorized as "simple" or "complex."

  • Simple projects are those that are expected to have a localized impact on reducing speeds, address speeding issues on a short segment of a non-critical emergency response route and have little effect on traffic diversion. They are also anticipated to cost less than or around $10,000. Simple projects will be implemented by staff after a recommendation by the Transportation Advisory Board.

  • Complex projects may include impacts to neighboring streets or other travel modes, be located on a designated critical emergency response route and cost more than $10,000. Complex projects must receive a recommendation to proceed from the Transportation Advisory Board and must also be approved by City Council.

• All applicants are eligible to receive educational materials and enforcement in their neighborhood.

You can  read the final guidelines  and review public feedback  about the guidelines from the June TAB meeting. You can also view higher resolution versions of the Critical Emergency Response Routes  (Attachment A) and City of Boulder Street Classifications map (Attachment B).

You can also sign up for NSMP Email Alerts.

An Updated NTMP