As part of Cyclists 4 Community’s strategic plan, its 2024 program service goals have been established. When you support C4C, the below is a summary of the outcomes that you pay for.
Infrastructure
Initiate corporate fundraising efforts to raise $1 million to $3 million by the end of 2025 to contribute to the projected $6 million to $8 million cost to build the North Foothills Bikeway from the City of Boulder to Lefthand Canyon Drive.
Already one of the state’s most dangerous roads, 80% plus of cyclists avoid US 36 North Foothills Highway altogether. We can be sure we’re underestimating the popularity and use of a separated bikeway here when it’s built.
Engineering standards predict adverse safety outcomes for cyclists this close to auto traffic. Let’s prevent it by building the bikeway in the rendering to the left and get cyclists out of the way.
Remain involved in planning, design, construction, and monitoring of projects like the Highway 7 / Arapahoe Project, the Highway 119 Boulder – Longmont Project, and the US 287 Lafayette – Longmont Project.
The CDOT State Highway 7 / Arapahoe Boulder – Brighton Project is a big project that will take years. C4C is participating in planning and guarding the provision for a separated bikeway along the road.
The Arapahoe Project promises to improve access to Teller Farms and its connecting cycling opportunities for all levels of rider. Currently, the cycling access on Arapahoe is inadequate.
C4C’s has $30,000 budgeted to contribute to a $450,000 feasibility study for a Golden – Boulder bikeway in or near the Highway 93 right-of-way. The second part of this infrastructure goal is to coordinate funding in cooperation with Bike JeffCo among several potential parties in the cross-jurisdictional project. This would be the first step in achieving both safety and appealing access where the riding is currently palpably dangerous and widely avoided.
A separated bikeway along Highway 93 Golden – Boulder would have numerous benefits. Funding a feasibility study for it is just the first step and will take a couple of years at least.
Outreach
- Maintain or improve C4C’s modest but successful porta-potty program consisting of paying for porta-potties in unincorporated parts of Boulder County heavily impacted by cycling in order to improve relations between locals, drivers, and cyclists.
- Continue to communicate and advocate for the Boulder County Cycling Community.
It’s hard to believe how much of a difference a small gesture like a porta-potty can make in improving relations between drivers, cyclists, and locals.
Policy
- Continue to support Bicycle Colorado’s legislative agenda including a hands-free device bill, a Vulnerable Road User Equity fund, and improved certification requirements for 16 – 19 year-olds.
- Partner with Boulder County on exploring ways to improve safety and access to mountain cycling connections, especially in places with constricted right-of-way (old, mountain roads).
- Explore ways to partner with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office on improved enforcement for safer roads.
- Help scale the application of SHIFT Driving to Colorado’s four million drivers.
Brief Discussion
Raising $1M – $3M by sometime in 2025 is new territory for C4C. It’s also a way to incentivize Boulder County government and others to bring a total of about $6M – $8M to the table to build the North Foothills Bikeway in what is statistically the most dangerous part of a dangerous road. Boulder County has about $3M allotted to this project in its working budget.
After review, C4C moved up the priority of a separated bikeway along Highway 7 / Arapahoe Road or a parallel and complementary alignment like Baseline Road which may have advantages.
The Golden – Boulder Bikeway Project crosses Boulder and Jefferson County jurisdictions, CDOT Region 1 and Region 4 jurisdictions, and it touches the City of Golden and Boulder. All this makes the project a sort of “orphan.” That’s a good place for C4C and Bike JeffCo to step in to coordinate. It’s also challenging since no single agency is incentivized to lead with authority on the project. This work will take time and, for a comparison, C4C spent two to three years in the equivalent phase of the Boulder – Lyons bikeway project.
Strategy
The maximal expression of Boulder County’s leading Transportation Master Plan is good for everyone, not just cyclists. It intervenes to remediate adverse safety outcomes where the data indicates the need. And it creates network access to work, services, and play for health, livability, and human flourishing among residents.
It does this by building separated, dedicated cycling infrastructure parallel to major commuter highways. It intersperses soft-surface regional trails like the LoBo, BERT, and St. Vrain Greenway around the county for recreation. It incrementally widens shoulders on lower volume and lower speed county roads. It does similar to improve access and safety on old, mountain roads with constricted right-of-way (narrow and limited space).
The U.S. is worst by a margin among peer nations in traffic related serious injury and fatality rates. Current state and federal funding levels causally produce these adverse safety and design outcomes.
The problem.
Boulder County has a great way of life characterized by access to activity in nature like cycling. The budget gap to realize its leading, solution oriented TMP as of a couple years ago was $170 million or $2.2 billion with rail. C4C’s strategy is to speed up and improve the process of funding the TMP for safer and better cycling access across Boulder County.
Part of the solution, but not fully funded. C4C steps in to leverage and incentivize funding for Boulder County’s planned network multi-modal system.
