Bumper to Bumper: Transportation news

• On March 8 the Boulder County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) held its inaugural Vision Zero Safety meeting. The goal is to "reduce, and ultimately eliminate, all serious injury and fatal traffic crashes for people using all modes of travel," according to the BOCC statement. Many local agencies and county departments participated in the event. No public testimony was taken.

Paul Frank, Boulder County Vision Zero Specialist, reported on the statistics of serious and fatal accidents on county roads. Fatality numbers have been trending upwards since 2013, except for a drop in 2020 attributed to the pandemic. The number rapidly increased to 33 in 2021 and 35 in 2022. A stretch of U.S. Highway 287 around north and south of the intersection with Highway 52 is one of the most deadly in the county. A center divider on US 287 is being considered.

The public is invited to participate in a virtual self-guided public meeting with Boulder County officials and partners who are working to improve safety in the US 287 travel corridor. The following link is to the virtual meeting.

http://www.boco.org/287VirtualOpenHouse

More information about the Vision Zero project can be found at

http://www.bouldercounty.gov/transportation/multimodal/vision-zero/

Suggestions for improvements on county roads are welcome.

• In 2022 The Regional Transportation District (RTD) launched a project to reduce the cost of public transportation and to simplify the rules that determine how much RTD charges to ride on buses and trains. Denver 9News reported on a proposal for a modest decrease. Other sources have hinted at significant fare decreases and the elimination of the zones that scale the fare with distance traveled. More information should be available from RTD in April. More information about the project can be found at http://www.rtd-denver.com/farestudy.

• The Colorado legislature passed a bill last year (HB22-2106) which provides tax credits for businesses that provide alternative transportation options for their employees. Karen Worminghaus, Senior Manager of Transportation for the Boulder Transportation Connections organization said at their recent quarterly luncheon, "It is the most major tax incentive we have seen in the State of Colorado to date bar none from an employer standpoint." Both for-profit and nonprofit companies of at least two employees can get a 50% tax credit on the cost of just about everything they do to reduce the use of single occupancy vehicles by their employees. Instructions on how to use this program can be found at http://www.waytogo.org/colorado-clean-commute.

• On March 8, 2023 Governor Jared Polis and lawmakers announced a package of legislation that "will help achieve 100% renewable energy in Colorado by 2040 and save Coloradans by increasing opportunities and renewable energy tax incentives for people and businesses, including reducing the cost of electric vehicles in Colorado by $5,000, electric bikes by $800."

• Boulder County is assisting with the development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) between Boulder and Brighton along Colorado Highway 7. It is designed to provide better public transportation commensurate with the projected future development along that corridor. The project is in the preliminary engineering phase. It is managed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). More information can be found at

http://www.bouldercounty.gov/transportation/multimodal/bus/sh7-brt-study.