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Attachment C - East Arap_Recommended Alt_Public InputATTACHMENT C: PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE COMMENTS RECEIVED JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 26, 2018 VIA ONLINE FORM AND FEB 15, 2018 PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities: •If the Bus lane is going to be red-orange, make the Bike Lane GREEN! Use Green colored concrete. Make the Bike Lane and Sidewalks continuous. Make the car driveways go over them. This way the cars know they have to look and yield for bikes and peds. •Ensure protected bike lanes from hospital exit/entrance as well as businesses. Currently one lane going both directions. Would love to see improved bus scheduling to encourage ridership. •Make bike lanes GREEN – use green concrete. Do this throughout the city. Protected and continuous bike lanes and sidewalks. At driveways, make cars cross the bike lane. 8mph for cars when crossing over the bike/ped crossing. •I strongly feel the multiuse path should have marking indicating a ped-only place to be (no bikes). I am concerned for vulnerable people especially with bikes co-existing on the path. Thank you. •With Alternative 3 it looks like there are 2 options for buffer zones between bikes and cars, and pedestrian and bike. I favor the wider buffer between bike and cars and narrower between bike and ped. Distracted drivers veering seems more of an issue than distracted bikers but tickets can certainly be issued to bicyclists who act stupid. Thank you •I would like to provide you first-hand feedback since I bike commute, I reside a mile from Arapahoe and 75th, and I work in Boulder. I have tried bike commuting on Arapahoe several times, but the result is always unpleasant, so now I take Baseline in and out of Boulder. When traffic on Arapahoe is essentially stopped, every weekday morning at rush hour, the biking in the bike lane or on the multi-use path is bad because of the smog from vehicles. I find it hard to breathe then. When traffic is moving, vehicles spew large amounts of exhaust to maintain 50 MPH up the hill. Again, lots of smog so hard to breathe. Therefore, I do not think this stretch of road (Arapahoe from 75th to BVSD) is suitable for bicycles and cars together. I've tried the generous bike lanes and the generous sidewalk/path. I recommend you concede this route to motorized vehicles, and open up another lane in each direction. I believe your idea for an "off- street multiuse path and raised protected bike lanes" is a waste of money given the good sidewalk/path existing now. From what would the bike lanes be protected? Have you looked at how deserted the sidewalk is now? Have any of you biked this stretch of Arapahoe? If you really want to spend money to do something good, consider a multi-use path along Baseline from Cherryvale going West as far as you can. There are a tremendous number of bikes on Baseline: commuters, recreational cyclists, and kids biking to/from school. Why not protect people where PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE they are, instead of where they are not? The smaller hills and lower speed limits make Baseline a better focus for multiuse. Transit: • Given that RTD does not provide true BRT on US36, how will the city provide it on Arapaho vs just getting slightly better busses that dont include the characteristics of BRT? • 1) Why are coercing citizens to ride the bus and ride bikes? 2) Are the goals really saving 6 minutes on BRT and 17 minutes driving which is the same as with no improvements – does the price warrant 6 minutes of saved travel time? The city needs to repair our town before moving forward. • Need (desperately and urgently) for Park-n-Ride on Foothills and Arapahoe with free or low fee parking (or near Foothills on East Arapahoe). Too crowded on Table Mesa (S. Boulder Road) and/or Pearl Street (too far). • Run the buses on Arapahoe more frequently! I like the idea of #3, a middle lane that changes depending on traffic. • FIND A BETTER PLAN. The only way this will succeed is with a large parking lot (“PL”) at 95th, another PL at 75th, one at 63rd, and one at 55th, with exceptional bus service. We don’t have exceptional bus service. We have marginal bus service. • 2) Why do you think the RTD is going to put more buses on when their ridership at this point is pathetically low. 3) Do you honestly feel that Arapahoe between 63rd and 75th has been improved by what was done to that section of the road. 4) Do you have any data regarding ridership on the mostly empty buses that I see daily. • Don’t think it’s practical to proceed with the lane changed and restrictions before we get assurance that BRT or even improved bus service and usage will happen. Not convinced that the city can do the human engineering to get people to leave their cars for buses to make this all work. Good idea in theory but seems like between now and 2040 driving East Arapahoe will be a disaster. Especially with the push to bring in dense development. • Have you done survey of people on east side of city to see who/how many would get on a bus – I have to walk about a mile to Arapahoe or over ½ mile to Baseline – not really convenient. • What is RTD’s projections of ridership on this corridor – east of 75th pretty rural. Traffic Congestion: • 2 dedicated bus (rapid transit or otherwise) lanes without increasing the number of car lanes is a total waste of resources. It is wishful thinking that people who work anywhere but Downtown Boulder will not drive to work. • I like this plan, think it’s going in the right direction. PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE • The plan goas out to 2040, but something needs to be done now to alleviate the traffic current congestion. Granted there is not a lot of traffic on Arapahoe during the day now, but the morning and evening commutes are bumper to bumper into and out of Boulder (remember, most of the area growth is in Erie and Lafayette). The buses don’t run very often and there is the problem of people getting to work after they exit the bus. 2 auto lanes in each direction is a must. • No BRT lane 28th to 63rd – would cause too much congestion. If trying to increase bus ridership need more frequency. 75th to 287 – really need 4 lane (2w, 2e) but could use left hand turn lane and wider right shoulders. • The attempt to make massive bike lanes and a bus lane running along this new section of road hasn't worked, and it won't work as there are simply too many people who need to travel this corridor every day. Boulder needs to accept Arapahoe as a major feeder artery for those of who commute from the East of town. The traffic jam that forms along that stretch of road every morning and afternoon wastes more gas than is being saved by the bus and bike riders the road is trying to lure. It should be noted I've never seen a single bike commuter take Arapahoe. All of the bike riders I know, and I do bike to work on occasion, take Baseline or the Boulder Creek bike path. Nobody wants to add the unnecessary hill on Arapahoe to our commute when two other, much more enjoyable routes already exist. Please stripe Arapahoe for two lanes in both directions all the way to 75th, and then bask in the reduced traffic in your neighborhoods, reduced smog in your air, and happier workers in your businesses. • This plan does nothing to address the need for more regular vehicle lanes. Getting out of Boulder in the afternoon is a lengthy and frustrating process. Adding lanes dedicated to mostly empty buses is a waste. East Arapahoe needs to be widened for all vehicles. It is time for the city to propose an alternative that actually meets the needs of the thousands of drivers rather than pandering to the notion that somehow, some way, people who don't want to ride a bus are magically going to change their minds and hop on. The current proposal is wasteful to the extreme and has about as much chance of success as did the failed idiocy of revamping Folsom. • My wife and I are strong supporters of alternative transportation (I do a 16 mile bike commute once a week and my wife takes the bus to Denver every day). But we are opposed to Boulder's social engineering experiments, like the Folsom "right sizing" and the fiasco of your previous attempt to "fix" Arapahoe from 63rd-75th St. Adding alternative options is great, but intentionally creating traffic jams is just wrong. You are just making our air pollution even worse, and that makes people LESS likely to bike commute. Arapahoe needs 2 general purpose lanes from Boulder all the way to 287. Adding additional features for buses, bikes, and pedestrians is great, but whatever you do, don't stick your head in the sand and deny the reality that more capacity is needed on certain roads. Until Boulder changes the policies that drive up housing prices and make people move to the suburbs, we WILL have to build our way out of traffic jams. • There is major afternoon rush hour east-bound congestion where east-bound Arapahoe narrows to one lane due to the designated bus-only lane. (Similarly, there is major west-bound congestion in the morning.) In my experience on Arapahoe, I see the bus-only lane rarely used. PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE Consider opening this lane to all traffic, or at least as an HOV lane, along with maintaining two lanes in each direction all the way to the 75th stoplight (currently only one lane under the railroad bridge). Thank you for your consideration and your work on this project! • The city needs to focus on the vast majority of road users, primarily people in cars, by making it easier to drive and by making traffic flows and commutes as smooth as possible. Bikers only account for 9 percent OR LESS of road users yet so much of the city's budget for street updates goes towards bikers who represent a TINY percentage of commuters and who only bike seasonally (i.e., in winter months, the number of bikers drops precipitously). In addition, very few pedestrians use Arapahoe and yet the sidewalks are huge, which takes space away from car lanes. Instead of removing a lane for car travelers, three lanes need to be retained for car travel, and huge sidewalks can be reconfigured for a bus lane, bikes and pedestrians. • Making Arapahoe narrower makes no sense. You will only push more traffic down 55th. The only way this will work is to put a large!! Parking lot outside the area and offer free, frequent bus service in. With Boulder getting too expensive, you are going to have even more traffic. It is almost like the city is getting paid to force more traffic onto 36 so they increase their revenues and I bike and take bus to work. This place is making biking less safe. • I don’t understand how you plan to reduce car traffic on Arapahoe. • Do not reduce lanes on Arapahoe have you ever been stuck on 28th st, trying to get to Arapaho east bound in a snowstorm? This is a terrible plan. This plan will snarl traffic and with the hospital now on Arapahoe, traffic has increased – it will only get worse. DO NOT DO THIS PLEASE. This is arrogance – you think you know best. • Are you really proposing reducing automobile lanes? Bad idea. More people, more business, and more automobiles. Use common sense. Intersections: • A turn arrow light for cars turning left as they go in either direction north and south along 30th would be great. I noticed that a turn arrow light was recently installed, however it seems to always be flashing yellow and never turns green or red, so it is still just as difficult as it always was to turn left off of 30th, the flashing yellow light does not stop oncoming traffic to allow you to turn. (I live on Colorado between Foothills and 30th and this is has been a big problem intersection for me. I use Foothills mostly these days just to avoid it.) I nearly killed a bike rider once turning right from 30th onto Colorado Ave; he entered my blind spot somewhere between Baseline and Colorado, I never passed him, I never saw him until he was in front of me in the intersection as I turned right and hit him....I don't even know how or when he got there....he said he was going too fast to stop and tried to make it across the intersection before I turned. • Please tell the traffic people to double or triple the time of the green arrow traffic signal for drivers going north on 55th turning West onto Arapahoe. The new lights and the flashing yellow are not sufficient to allow more than a few cars to turn if there is even moderate traffic. I am PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE asking that the left green arrow light is on long enough so all of the cars in the turn bay can turn left in one light cycle. The turn bay for that left turn holds maybe 8 - 10 cars, you need to extend the time of the green light so all of the cars in that l left turn lane get through in one light cycle. Especially during the busy morning hours, I have seen traffic backed up almost all the way south to Pennsylvania Ave. Extending the left turn signal will definitely help that problem. When the left turn bay is full and not all cars waiting to turn left onto Arapahoe get through on one light cycle, the line of cars waiting to turn left backs up extending south past the pedestrian island where there is only a single northbound lane. I have been in that situation several times. I was blocking the cars waiting to travel straight ahead north of Arapahoe, and it took two or three light cycles to eventually turn left onto Arapahoe. Locals know that if you are first in line you need to stare at the light and jam your foot in the accelerator the instant the left arrow turns green or only one or two cars get through, and you are also likely to get honked at. Sometimes the southbound traffic lighten up enough so a few more cars can turn after the arrow, but a pedestrian or two brave enough to cross Arapahoe limits that possibility. I am asking you to increase both the time of the left turn light and time the lights to make it safer for pedestrians, and time the lights similar to other busy intersections Arapaho (Foothills, 30th, 28th) where northbound left turning cars do not turn at the same time as the southbound cars. • I like the alternative selected, but one concern is if getting more pedestrian and cyclist traffic works, this could also down right turners which in turn slows transit. You can death is already at 55th and Arapahoe in the morning where the odd pedestrian crossing 55th causes a tail back on right turners going West on Arapahoe to North on 55th. Another junction with this issue is at the hospital. Can there be a dedicated right turn lane in addition to the bus lane at these select junctions? We already experience a lot of impatient and lane hopping speeding drivers along Arapahoe between 63rd and foothills that makes crossing these junctions on foot or bike uncomfortable. • It is impossible to exit Park Lake subdivision (between 75th and 95th) onto Arapahoe at 7-9 and 3:30pm – If we want to go to Boulder we can turn right, but to turn left is impossible – we turn right, to to 75th, then left, go to Baseline, turn Left, and can finally get to 95th which is only 2 miles from Park Lake – we remember a meeting at Douglas Elementary several years ago when 4 lanes was an option – Bus lanes are useless! • Westview Road safety issue accessing Arapahoe at peak traffic hours. Signalization or some other solution would help. • We are concerned about being able to get out of Westview Drive onto Arapahoe during rush hours. • Need better intersections at Arapahoe and 287 – west side terrible congestion – longer left and right hand turn lanes. Know there is private property on that NW corner. • 2040 seems absurdly far out. Still trying to understand why we went through 2 years of construction on the 65th-75th street for no appreciable enhancements. How about just fixing Arapahoe and 55th intersection in my life time? BTW one of the most dangerous intersections PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE for children is right in front of this church. Brooklawn and Pennsylvania is a death trap for kids walking to and from school! Snow and Rain: • You need to fix the drainage problem on the eastbound lanes of Arapahoe between Patton Drive and 55th Street. Even in a moderate rainstorm there is flooding halfway into the lane by the curb, and with a downpour or after a moderate snowfall flooding goes all the way across that lane. Standing in the bus shelter I get splashed when cars go by, also just walking on the sidewalks, crossing the street by Ozo’s, etc. When I drive east along those blocks preparing to turn south on 55th, if I’m in the curb lane water splashes all over my windshield so I can’t see, even turning on the wipers at high speed is not enough. Water blasts the underside of my car, I’m splashing all over other cars and pedestrians too. If I try to stay in the middle lane as long as possible my windshield still suddenly gets splashed by cars in the curb lane, who are also covered with so much water they probably can’t see me as I try to merge into the curb lane to get ready to turn left onto 55th. If a bus or truck passes you it’s all over! There is no safe way to travel. In addition the curb lane is constantly rutted and full of potholes, then gets rough after you pile on more asphalt. Fixing the drainage should help that problem too. When I walked along the street from Patton all the way to 55th I saw 2 or 3 small drain grates on that whole stretch of curb. It seems obvious more storm drains are needed! While you are digging up the curbs to add drainage grates and pipes please bury the power lines while you are at it, widen the sidewalks, make a nicer bus shelter, etc. I am guessing you are already planning that stuff but it doesn’t make any sense to do any of that if cars and pedestrians are splashed so much nobody can see! After 25 years living in this East Boulder neighborhood I am tired of dangerous driving in rain and melted snow Landscape: • Furthermore, I can't believe that the city would yet again propose a landscape design using grass in medians, and yet, that's what's shown. Grass looks terrible, takes far too much water (or dies from lack of it), and takes damage from de-icing fluids, sand and salt. • Trees trees trees trees trees! Traffic Diversion: • I want to apologize to my neighbors in Boulder who live along 55th Street and Cherryvale Road for all the traffic that goes up and down your streets during the twice-a-day rush hour, including me sometimes. If you would like to reduce the number of cars traveling on your street I highly PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE suggest writing your Boulder City Council members as well as the Boulder County commissioners and let them know the nice, new stretch of Arapahoe Avenue from Cherryvale to 75th Street should be striped to allow for four lanes of traffic. Housing and Land Use: • What do you define East Arapahoe as? We have lived on the 10,000 block of Arapahoe for 44 years -- we see concern for developers and city sales tax such as the Silo development adding 400 housing units and a traffic light to an already overcrowded road -- we see lots of concern for bikers and hikers. How about the people who LIVE there? We sometimes have to turn West, then North, then East to get to Erie where our daughter lives because we cannot get on Arapahoe going East. I say the real problem is not enough housing between Boulder and US 287. There is a lot of city and county owned land between here and Boulder -- how about a few thousand dwellings built on a percentage of that land? That would relieve congestion on East Arapahoe - somewhat between 75th and 95th and a lot more between 95th and 287. I know that would not be politically correct, but it would be effective. Thanks for listening. • It need to be combined with zoning and land-use changes to complete the traffic transformation. State Highway 7, east of 75th Street: • While I am supportive of this work and understand the city of boulder is limited in its scope, I urge you to consider the Arapahoe corridor as it goes further east. Please collaborate with the county and other cities-- otherwise, this sort of plan will not be very impactful for the 60,000 in- commuters. It should be part of a larger vision as much as possible, especially as things like BRT are considered. It seems to me, unless BRT is an option for in-commuters, which will take shaping the rest of Arapahoe accordingly and getting other cities or CDOT or whomever to buy in, it will fail to solve many of the issues we face and not be a compelling alternative to commuters as those buses will be stuck in traffic along with everyone else. Autonomous and Electric Vehicles: • In the big master plan for the Arapahoe corridor I want to see a good plan to promote the use of electric cars. Boulder recently added a few more charting stations around the city, but Boulder is still very very far from the number of public charging stations needed. We have been driving electric cars in Boulder for 4 years, and have solar panels on our house to charge them. When we do need to power up while traveling around town, much more than half the time the available stations are In use or have a non-electric vehicle parked in the space (and no ticket). PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE The stations are also frequently broken and even after several calls in to report a broken station it might be fixed months later. The ability to plan now for future needs in east Boulder allows the possibility to promote and provide incentives for using electric cars by incorporating adequate charging stations into the plan. Some ideas: Have park and ride lots along Arapahoe with adequate charging stations - as in 50 or more - and have additional electric wiring and regular electric plugs built in at ALL new parking spaces built in Boulder so people can bring their own cords to plug in (ideally high capacity 240 plugs) and the spaces could eventually have charging stations added. Especially more handicapped spaces with charging stations!!! Then, give all drivers and passengers in electric vehicles a free Eco Pass so they could park in east Boulder then take mass transit downtown. The charging stations should be free, but require registration for each vehicle with a card to activate charging. If you need to charge a fee maybe 5 or 10 cents per hour, just enough to discourage random people just passing through but not into Boulder. (Where to get the money? Obviously spend money on free EV charging for people, subsidize solar panels, etc, instead of millions on utility legal wrangling.) I suggest look at the area near Fisher Honda for EV parking, and ask the car dealers to help out, good business for them. In addition, equip every parking space downtown with a charging station or plug so there is a lot of incentive to buy and use less-polluting electric vehicles everywhere in Boulder. Start by putting the EV spaces in the primo spots next to entrances, etc. to add even more incentive. That way people driving cars all the way into Boulder would cause less pollution. To start give EV cars express lane or any and all extra lane privileges to EV vehicles. Also require every new residential or commercial building in East Boulder and hopefully all of Boulder to have electric plugs (ideally capable of handling 240 or high capacity charging) in every single new parking space built from now on. Otherwise people in apartments will not be realistically be able to have an electric car unless landlords allow long extension cords hanging out windows and down stairwells. If you don’t believe me that Boulder does not have enough electric car charging stations I challenge every Boulder city council member, senior city official, and all planning board members to exclusively drive an all-electric vehicle around Boulder for one month. I don’t mean a Tesla or even a Volt or Bolt, drive one of the older 2016 Nissan Leafs that are more affordable to everyone. If you don’t know what Range Anxiety is, in a Leaf you will figure it out in a day or two. Plan Process and Other Considerations: • How much has this effort cost to date? Strong suggestion: For the February 15 public outreach meeting, please do not divide the audience into small focus / discussion groups. This was interpreted by many of us, who attended the last meeting at the Naropa facility, as a divide and suppress tactic. • Where/when are the next informational meetings for the public about the Arapahoe East transportation plan? PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE • Hello, It is hardly clear when/if resident input has been gathered, documented, and incorporated into the EATP. Looking through the meeting minutes, it appears scant consideration has been given to the impacts on the local residential areas in the grid bordered by from Foothills (W) to Cherryvale (E), and Arapahoe (N) to Baseline (S). Nearly all of the information publicly available - such as the Alternatives Evaluation Report - pay little attention to the impact of the EATP on these residents. The only substantive commentary by the working groups or the project is included in the response to the FAQ question, "QUESTION: How will this project affect my neighborhood? Won’t it cause more cut-through traffic?" However, even then, the conclusions of the study are only mentioned, but the full study itself is not disclosed. Public forums, open houses, webpage forms - none of this is enough. What about the several thousand people that *live* in this area - what mitigations can the EATP incorporate to ensure that their quiet neighborhoods do not become littered with commuters, transients wandering from one strip mall to another, waiting for the bus to take them to their next high? I'm not in denial of the traffic problems, and common sense tells me that tax-dollarhungry Boulder would be more than happy to gut east Boulder and turn it into what Gunbarrel has become. People don't live - and move - here because they want to live in environments like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, et al. They live here for the quiet, convenient, great-place-to-raise-kids town that this is advertised to be. But the EATP - like most of Boulder's "sustainable growth" initiatives - appears to only favor unbridled growth without regard to retention of the character that keeps us residents here • I live in Willow Creek neighborhood off of Arapahoe, just east of 75th. Serious consideration and thought needs to be given to reducing road noise. Since the past improvements in 2014 on east Arapahoe, the car noise from the 75th & Arapahoe interchange has ruined the rural country feel of the area. Its simply getting too noisy. We can't eliminate all traffic, people commuting from the East will simply have to wait. More roads is ruining the rural feel. The "original" Boulder has been ruined by over development and more roads. Take a survey out on 75th & Arapahoe as to how many bike or walk to work from that area. Its almost non existent. All these improvements are a waste of money and provide job security for planners and City/County employees. You are ruining Boulder, leave things alone! At a minimum, please plant lots of trees that act as a sound buffer! Thanks for your consideration • Please respond to the following PRIOR to the Feb 15 meeting: 1. The Alternative #3 diagram shows 77 feet, from curb to curb, allocated for vehicles and buses. It specifies an additional 31 feet in each East/West direction allocated for pedestrians and bicycles; this totals 139 feet. 2. Publish the existing curb to curb width at each of the following 8 Arapahoe intersections: 55th Street, Old Tale Road, Cherryvale, 63rd, the rail overpass, 75th, 95th and US 287. 3. Is the 31 feet designated for bicycles and pedestrians in each direction currently owned by the City of Boulder? If not what addresses are affected? 4. Provide a diagram with measurements of the chosen alternative's design at the rail overpass on Arapahoe. • I do not support Alternative 3. In my opinion, it only worse if people leave their car for a bus. The width of the needed right of way will ruin businesses from Folsom to 55th PUBLIC INPUT RECEIVED ON RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE • Why does Boulder want to force us to take RTD and ride our bikes for lack of decent road? People want to drive for a lot of reasons! This is a 4 season region – not Southern California – how many of you rode your bicycles to this meeting? Doesn’t Boulder care about the hard working professionals that make up the bulk of the businesses along this corridor? You are trying to cater to others and not those who are professionals and happen to be very smart and wise individuals in this community. Why are you spending all this money on a 20-40 year plan when right now our creeks and rivers need the funding to clear the debris from the 2013 flood? This is a right now current issue that needs funding!! We have culverts that are blocked from the 2013 flood that haven’t been cleared! Why aren’t we dealing with the here and now necessary issues?? Let’s repair our city from whats already happened first!!! Please!! • 1) Why was this scheduled on the same night that the RTD is having a “community input” at the Louisville Library (which has been scheduled for at least 6 weeks). • Your guy who told me I don’t believe in climate change made me furious. I put solar on my home 7 years ago because of climate change. He was arrogant. • What impact does school choice have on traffic patterns in this corridor.