Enhancing Boulder’s Traffic Control: Updated Guidelines for Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety

1. Updating Boulder’swork zone traffic control guidelines Marni Ratzel Bicycle & Pedestrian Transportation Planner GO Boulder/city of Boulder

2. GO Boulder • Make it easier to get around town by… • Providing “Great Options” in transportation.

3. Pedestrian detour?

4. Bikeway detour?

5. Presentation overview • About Boulder • Update process • Case study examples • Draft policies • Progress on practices

6. About Boulder

7. About Boulder • 101,500 people • 25 square miles • County seat • Home of CU-Boulder serving 29,000 students • Gateway community to the Rocky Mountains

8. Biking System • On-street lanes miles* • 175 built • 69 more proposed *Includes bike shoulders • 95% of arterial streets have bike facilities

9. Boulder’s Greenway System • a series of corridors along Boulder Creek and six of its tributaries

10. Biking System • Multi-use path miles • 111 built • 66 more proposed • Underpasses • 74 built • 53 more proposed • Bike rack on all buses

11. On-Street bike facilities

12. Mode share

13. Bikeway detour?

14. Updating Boulder’sWATCaSH Work Area Traffic Control and Safety Handbook

15. Adopted in 1980 • Outdated • Policy but not practice

16. Involve stakeholders • Interdepartmental work group • Transportation Advisory Board • Barricade companies and contractors • Bicycling and walking organizations and individuals

17. Next generation document Update process • Address all modes • Clear expectations • Codified into code • Supplement MUTCD

18. Traffic Engineering Responsibilities Boulder Revised Code • The standards of the traffic engineering profession and of the state and federal governments; • Public safety; • The most efficient use of the streets and city parking areas; and • The costs involved.

19. Assure public safety Protect system integrity and travel mobility of all Achieve balance among often competing impacts: environmental, financial and social impacts WATCaSH Update Goals

20. Interdepartmental Work Group • Planning & Development Services • Transportation and Utilities Project Management, • Transportation and Utilities Maintenance, • and Communications

21. Key issues: operations • When is it acceptable or necessary to close public ROW? • When a facility is closed, how should that closure be handled? • What factors should be considered? • Would policies for closing a sidewalk be different than for closing a multi-use path or bike lane/vehicular lane?

22. Key issues: authorization • What role does transportation operations / planning staff have in making decisions about closures? • Review all public ROW closures or • Grant authorization to project manager/right-of-way inspector? • Do we charge fee for closures?

23. Key issues: other • Non-standard signing • City obligated to furnish • Liability • Communication • Requirements for advance notice • On site accountability

24. Key factors of work zone impacts • Duration and time • Scope and size • Type of facility impacted • Type and amount of each mode impacted

25. Case Study Examples

26. When are differing levels of impact reasonable in interest of… • Safety, efficiency and mobility for all modes of travel in the public right of way; and • Financial costs involved with projects and their related work zone traffic control

27. detour = sidewalk closure = Carnegie between Baylor and Yale Carnegie impacts: • Sidewalk closure • Three to 10 days • Pedestrians detoured to other sidewalk Example: sidewalk repair program 27

28. path detour = path closure = The Peloton Arapahoe impacts: • North side multi-use path closed for several months • Temporary path provided through site during construction Example: redevelopment project

29. Path closure = Lane closure = detour = N. Broadway bike lane project • Phase II impacts: • (Linden – Norwood) • East side multi-use path closed • NB outside travel lane closed to motorists & barricaded for path detour Example: 2008 CIP project 29

30. Draft policies

31. Hierarchy of closures Standard closures • Closures that occur between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. • Gives implied authorization from traffic engineer • Includes some vehicular lane, sidewalk and bike lane closures.

32. Standard closure: vehicular lane • Closure of one lane, where at least one other lane for that direction or movement will remain open; or • A short-term closure –20 minutes or less; or • A rolling closure –generally stopped at a single location for 20 minutes or less.

33. Standard closure: sidewalk • A sidewalk adjacent to a roadway that is classified as a “Local” roadway; and • Not within the CAGID or UHGID boundary areas; and • The closure is to occur for one week or less; and • Not the only sidewalk adjacent to the roadway. • Doesn’t require pedestrians to detour to a sidewalk on a separate, parallel roadway.

34. Standard closure: bike lane • A bicycle lane upon a roadway that is classified as local or collector roadway; and • Closure is handled using the city of Boulder Method for Handling Traffic (MHT) for bicycle lane closures policy.

35. Hierarchy of closures Non-standard closures • Any closure not defined as a “standard” closure in Section 5-a is defined as a “non-standard” closure. • Authorization requires review from Traffic Engineer and agreement on the method of handling impacts. • Non-standard closures include but are not limited to the following types of facility closures…

36. Non-standard closure: vehicular lane • Any lane closure during any time of day outside of the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. time period; or • Any multiple lane closure; or • Any closure that requires a flagging operation; • Any closure that detours traffic to another roadway

37. Non-standard closure: sidewalk • Any sidewalk adjacent to a roadway classified as other than a “Local” roadway, • Any sidewalk within the CAGID or UHGID boundary areas, • Any sidewalk for the duration of more than 7 days. • Any sidewalk along a roadway where no other sidewalk is adjacent to the roadway. • Any sidewalk closure that will require pedestrians to detour to the sidewalk on a separate, parallel roadway.

38. Non-standard closure: bike lane • a bicycle lane upon a roadway classified as an arterial; • a contra-flow bicycle lane; • a bicycle lane which requires the bicycle traffic to detour to another roadway.

39. Non-standard closure: path • A multi-use path closure is never considered to be “standard”; • Detour plan required; • Detour onto a facility where bicyclists are not allowed to ride requires temporary designation as multi-use path; • Construction detour signing must be furnished and installed by the Project.

40. Detour options • Construct a temporary detour facility • Allocate a roadway lane as the detour facility • Detour to the other side of the street • Detour to another corridor

41. Closures requiring detours • Must develop and execute a detour sign and marking plan • Sidewalk and multi-use path detour signing must include but is not limited to MUTCD signing to: • Inform users of facility closure • Direct users at each decision point along the detour route to guide users around the closure, including “End Detour” signing.

44. Communication policies Notification: • The nature/purpose of the work; • The time and duration; • Anticipated impacts; • Detour routes, if any; and • Contact information

45. Other policies • Special events must adhere to guidelines • Emergency closures are exempt during mobilization only • Review fee structure for ROW permits

46. Progress on Practice

47. Detour designating a sidewalk as a multi-use path

48. Detour using roadway lane

49. Detour closing a wide shoulder

50. Thank youPlease visit GOBoulder.net For more information, contact Marni Ratzel at ratzelm@bouldercolorado.gov