The federal Safe Streets for All (SS4A) program is set to expire in about a year. It delivered billions of dollars to projects across the United States based mostly on safety criteria. In the last round of grants, Colorado and Vermont were the only two states to receive zero dollars ($0) in awards. That included Boulder County’s application for around $21M to build the North Foothills Safety Project from the City of Boulder to Neva Road in or near the US 36 North Foothills Highway right-of-way.
A summary outline of SS4A funding. One can see that the program is vastly oversubscribed. This is a basic truth in transportation, there’s not enough money in the first place.
As a result of all of this, C4C has had to go back to the drawing board in order to identify and then act upon how it delivers value to its supporters. Here’s C4C’s answer.
C4C’s Focus: Stay The Course on The North Foothills Highway Safety Project
Along with the original partners who committed to fund the required 20% local match of about $6M in order to qualify for the above $21M grant, C4C is partnering to attempt to apply for the same or similar grants again. The intention is to stay the course and to get the North Foothills Safety Project into construction on a phased basis. In order to do this, C4C must continue to raise money to put towards the local match.
Last time, in order to meet the matching requirement for $21M, Boulder County promised about $3M+, CDOT $1M, The Governor’s Office $1M, The City of Boulder $100,000, and C4C $58,400. This time, C4C is aiming for $100,000.
Ongoing Work at C4C
C4C maintains a mix of projects that flow from guiding principles. Primary among those principles is that Boulder County’s Transportation Master Plan is a role-model plan. The task is to support staff to execute it. Here’s a summary of what you support when you support C4C.
- US 36 near Davison Mesa, just southeast of the City of Boulder, has seen sufficient roadway departures (autos crashing off the roadway) that Boulder County is seeking funds to put barriers in the area between the roadway and the bikeway. Thanks to Ride Broomfield for leading on this project too.
- Colorado 7 / Arapahoe is in a major planning and design phase. C4C has participated so far and focused on maintaining a separated bike-ped facility along the length of the project, at least in Boulder County. So far, that is the plan and the bike-ped path will vary a little based on location.
- US 287 is the county’s most dangerous road for drivers. Accordingly, it is getting urgent funding to build design adaptations that protect drivers. C4C is monitoring this and reminding the agencies involved that the county’s TMP calls for a separated bikeway along US 287. Travel in that area won’t be truly safe until the bikeway is also built.
- Colorado 119(B) Boulder – Longmont is scheduled to be complete in spring 2027. It’s a nationally role-model project. C4C, like a broken record, is advocating that this project should be adapted and scaled across Colorado’s diverse transportation environment. It’s what the future should look like. No added general purpose travel lanes, evidence based roadway safety improvements, optimized for bus-rapid-transit with dedicated lane space, a separated bike-ped facility with grade separation, future connections to rail, and all of it connected at a network scale to everything around it. Its design produces mobility, safety, and comfort for all.
- There are some plans way out on the horizon that C4C watches. Highway 66 Longmont – Lyons, Highway 52, US 287 north and south beyond the county’s boundaries, and other minor plans.
- Boulder County is methodically marching is Regional Soft Surface Trails forward as well. C4C supports this work. This consists of building the missing parts of the LoBo Trail, building the BERT Trail, and then designing and building the St. Vrain Greenway Trail. These are examples of great planning matched by paced funding. It’s great work.
- C4C keeps an eye on things like bike-able shoulders, in Boulder County this is easy to do. The county is serious about its transportation standards and maintaining or improving bike-able shoulders on county roads is something it does well.
- C4C has been pleased to support the BMA’s work and specifically the so-called South Sky proposal. C4C and the BMA are aligned on this project and its principles. If you give people access from home, then they can start their ride at their door, avoid the safety risks of riding on roadways, and it manages the self-perpetuating need to keep building more trailhead parking. C4C has been lending political support to this proposal.
- CDOT’s operational budget is called The CDOT 10-Year Plan. C4C has monitored this, mostly in an effort to keep funding for C4C’s main focus, The North Foothills Safety Project, in the 10-Year Plan.
- Several folks asked me (Matt Muir) to take a look at this, https://coalition4cyclists.org/comment-on-the-town-of-superior-88th-street-project/. I did and as the post states, it is a problem and others are doing a good job of working on it.
- C4C maintains a line of communication with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. We’re really grateful to them for their thoughtful enforcement of the laws intended to protect all of us.
- For years, I (Matt) have tried and failed to propose a hard surface bikeway between Golden and Boulder along or in the Colorado 93 right-of-way. There are lots of reasons this is not a great idea. And, its connectivity potential, its shared funding potential spread among two counties and three cities, and its design potential with rail and bus and bike-ped all together are reasons it would be worthwhile.
- CDOT is redoing its Active Transportation Plan which got tied up in SB25-030. To the point of annoyance, I’ve been communicating to CDOT that the ATP should show a vision for a statewide bike network to engineering standards and that’s comfortable for most users. Bike-able shoulders are not comfortable and the engineering, crash, and high-injury network data show that they are not safe. Utah has a vision for a statewide path network. Utah’s got the right idea.
- With infrastructure and infrastructure funding maxed-out, C4C is for the first time turning more attention to legislation and how policy can improve safety. C4C works closely with Bicycle Colorado on these topics and it takes time to establish consensus.
The Diagonal 119(B) Project is scheduled for completion in spring 2027. It’s a model for how to design right-of-way for lots of different travel modes and how to connect them at a network scale.