Baseline Road Transportation Safety Project

Once people had a chance to try traveling on the street after the installation of improvements from Phase 1, we opened an online questionnaire, which recorded 180 responses from people who walk, bike, take the bus, and drive along and across Baseline Road. The questionnaire asked to what extent the Phase 1 changes made you feel safer, more comfortable, and better connected.

General feedback we heard:

• The most appreciated improvements, regardless of how respondents travel, were:
• pavement resurfacing, green bike lane markings, new crosswalks, the widened bike lane and bike lane buffer, and tall curbs. In general, respondents who bike indicated feeling safer, more comfortable, and better connected.

Most concerns and questions were about

• Reorganized intersections — the extension of the curb and tightening turns to shorten crosswalk distances for people walking and biking.
• Narrowed vehicle lanes.
• Flexible delineator posts, or white flex posts.

We also heard community desires for upcoming Phase 2 improvements:

• Improving safety by removing conflicts between bikes and buses at bus stops, such as when a bus crosses into the bike lane to stop for passengers.
• Continuing efforts to discourage people driving from using the bike lane as a vehicle turning or travel lane.
• Installing additional tall curbs to complete bike lane protection.
• Installing more and improved crossings.
• Improving visibility, wayfinding, and access, particularly at intersections.

Phase 1 is complete. Phase 1 began in August of 2022 and took advantage of pre-scheduled pavement resurfacing as part of our Pavement Management Program (PMP). This phase focused on making strategic improvements from 28th Street to Foothills Parkway with city funds. These improvements were informed by what we heard from the community in fall 2022 and included:

• Narrowed and restriped travel lanes, a safety design that has been shown in studies to reduce vehicle speeds.
• Repaved and restriped Mohawk Drive from Baseline Road to Pawnee Drive to better accommodate all travelers to and from Baseline.
• Reorganized intersections by extending the curb and tightening turn radii to shorten pedestrian and bicycle crossing distances. This expanded the pedestrian area and continues to slow vehicles and improve driver sightlines.
• Provided physical protection to improve comfort and safety at strategic, prioritized parts of the bike lane.
• Added “hardening” or physical protection through concrete tall curbs in strategic areas to replace the existing striped buffers or flexible delineator posts. The city’s tall curbs also display art from a local artist, Talia Swartz Parsell, commissioned through the Community Vitality Office of Arts and Culture muralist roster.
• Installed flexible delineator posts and added striped buffers to separate the bike lane.
• Added new crosswalks at the Inca Parkway intersection.
• Added green bike lane markings at intersections.
• Consolidated bus stops to reduce conflicts between bikes and buses and to improve ADA accessibility and pedestrian access to remaining stops.

Community Engagement Efforts – What We Heard During Phase 1

We heard from people who live, work, shop, and travel along Baseline Road through a Be Heard Boulder questionnaire, walking and biking tours of the area, an on-demand open house, emails, office hours and more throughout 2022. We also analyzed crash data and more than 400 comments from a questionnaire and on-demand open house.

We heard from commuters, residents, students, key stakeholders, and advocacy organizations that:

• Wide travel lanes encourage speeds higher than the posted limit.
• High vehicle travel and turning speeds make walking and biking feel unsafe.
• Drivers feel unsafe turning onto or off of the corridor because of other drivers speeding – they are afraid of being rear-ended or sideswiped.
• Distances between marked pedestrian crossings are too long and many people cross in the middle of blocks or at unmarked intersections.
• Pedestrian crossing times are short.
• People feel unsafe on sidewalks and bike lanes due to turning vehicles.
• Rutted pavement and uplifted sidewalk panels pose tripping hazards.
• Many transit stops are not accessible and lack shelters, benches, trash cans and secure bicycle parking.
• Buses frequently cross bicycle lanes to access transit stops.
• People bicycling in the existing bicycle lanes feel unsafe and uncomfortable.

Interested in learning more about what we heard during Phase 1? Discover how your input is shaping the future of safety, comfort, and connectivity along Baseline on the Baseline Road Transportation Safety Project: Phase 1 On-Demand Open House. Your input from Phase 1 will continue to inform Phase 2 improvements.

Timeline graphic showing project kickoff in mid-2022. Phase 1 was completed in late 2023 and Phase 2 kickoff in early 2024. Project Design will be complete in early 2025 with project completion in late 2026. Community engagement spans from mid-2022 to 2026 with an open house in early 2023, a questionnaire for Phase 1 in 2023, a questionnaire for Phase 2 in early 2024 and an open house in mid-2024. Planning and design for Phase 1 spanned from late 2022 to early 2023 and from early 2024 to early 2025 for Phase 2. Phase 1 improvements including narrowing and restriping travel lanes, pavement resurfacing, and tall curbs, were installed in mid to late 2023. Phase 2 installation such as completing the bike lane and intersection protection provided with roadway repaving in Phase 1, additional pedestrian and protected intersection enhancements, and transit efficiency improvements will occur in 2025 and 2026 pending contractor availability, and weather conditions.

HSIP-funded construction is planned to begin in late 2023 to early 2024. This includes:

Baseline Road at Mohawk Drive

This intersection is part of the Vision Zero Action Plan. Mohawk Drive is also a Neighborhood GreenStreet. We will:

• Reconstruct northbound and southbound signal poles.
• Change the signal operation to improve bicyclist and pedestrian crossing safety.

Baseline Road and Canyon Creek

The city will upgrade the traffic signal for people crossing the street. The existing rectangular rapid flashing beacon will change to a pedestrian signal. This means switching the blinking yellow lights to a formal traffic signal.

Regular, scheduled pavement maintenance to repaved Baseline Road between east of Foothills Parkway to just west of Gapter Road in 2024. Mobility enhancements were coordinated with this scheduled repaving as a cost-effective and efficient way to improve safety for everyone walking, biking, rolling, driving and taking transit. For more information, visit the Pavement Management Program webpage.

The city was awarded over $700,000 to improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure near Manhattan Middle School. The city will receive the funds in 2024 and begin to develop a conceptual design with the community, which may impact Baseline Road. Construction is planned for 2025.

This is a text alternative to the project map. The project limits extend from just west of 30th Street to just east of Foothills Parkway. There is a grade-separated crossing near the Bear Creek multi-use path across Baseline Road. There are several bus stops on the corridor. As a separate project nearby, there are crossing improvements near Canyon Creek Road and Baseline Road with construction in 2024.