Transportation / Boulder-Longmont, Colorado

Credit:DMFK/Flickr

Contrary to common perception, Boulder is not a bedroom community to Denver; it actually serves as a regional subcenter for surrounding cities such as Longmont. Part of an eight-county transit district, it is slated to receive commuter rail service before 2020. Although this metropolitan area includes many communities, the city of Boulder is the area’s heartbeat.

Unlike many other cities, Boulder residents play a large role in planning their transit system, which is run by the Regional Transportation District (RTD). RTD serves the Denver metropolitan area, including the neighboring cities of Boulder and Longmont in Boulder County, which benefit from an extensive regional and local bus network.

“We’ve been out there really working in partnership with our regional neighbors, and with Denver, too,” says Tracy Winfree, director of public works for transportation in Boulder. “Transportation problems don’t change at the boundary of a city.”

Thus far, Boulder County has taken a prominent role in aiding alternative means of travel between its communities by supporting bus transit, building and improving connecting trails, and expanding bicycle infrastructure. In January 2011, its official Transportation Master Plan kicked off with planning and public involvement, indicating a serious commitment to responsible travel within the county.

A Transit System From the Ground Up

Although in the city of Boulder, the public transportation system has not been as long established as in many other cities profiled in this study, this may have worked to the metropolitan region’s advantage. Essentially, it was able to design and build its progressive transit system from the ground up (retrofitting wherever possible, of course).

Boulder may not have a rail system yet, but according to its latest progress report, people there ride the bus three times more than the national average, walk twice as much, and bicycle 20 times more. Furthermore, single-occupancy-vehicle use in the city has declined by 15 percent since 1990. Unlike the sprawling metropolis of Denver nearby, Boulder has had an urban growth boundary since the 1970s, and next-door Longmont has the distinction of being the Boulder County city with the most residents who both live and work within the county.

Boulder’s Transportation Master Plan was first adopted at the end of 1989, and one of the city’s initial actions was to hire Winfree as a full-time transit planner. She says that the success of Boulder’s transportation system is thanks to strong community involvement and consistent emphasis on multimodal transportation.

Transit Access in Boulder-Longmont Metropolitan Region (light green lines indicate location of metro region with darker brown regions showing higher transit access), Credit:CNT H+T Affordability Index

“We really started with essentially a blank sheet of paper,” Winfree says. “And we gathered together people from the community and developed this system from scratch.” Community members have been able to voice opinions on everything from the frequency of bus stops to the size of the vehicles used and the transparency of the windows on the buses.

One successful idea launched by the public was the Eco Pass, which employers and neighborhoods can purchase for every employee or neighborhood member to allow them unlimited ridership. Those having the pass are five to nine times more likely to ride. Some community members and institutions engaged in the program include the University of Colorado, neighborhood groups, business areas, bicycling groups, the chamber of commerce, and the local chapter of the Sierra Club.

The Bicycle Lifestyle

Bicycling is a favorite mode of travel and recreation—Boulder is one of three communities that have been designated platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Communities by the League of American Bicyclists—but placing bicycle lanes along corridors was a major point of discussion. With residents nearly evenly split over on-street or off-street lanes, Boulder resolved to put in both wherever possible.

One means Boulder has employed to allow cyclists and pedestrians to avoid streets altogether is through the work of the Greenways program. Because Boulder is at high risk for flash floods, it must have frequent underpasses beneath its roads for drainage. Along Boulder Creek and its tributaries run 52 miles of paved pathways for people to take advantage of the waterway on foot or by bike while never having to cross traffic. Furthermore, much of the funding comes from the existing flood-control dollars in the city budget, which are also devoted to ensuring pedestrians’ safety when using the paths. Other communities, Winfree notes, may have their own version of this, such as rails-to-trails projects, riverfront revitalization, and similar drainage measures.

Eventually there will be bikeways between neighboring communities including Longmont and Denver, and this May, Boulder will start a bike share program that will have reciprocal membership with Denver’s existing program.