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Boulder to test green bike-lanes
Sep 13th
Cyclists and motorists traveling north along Folsom Street will notice something new at the intersections of Canyon Boulevard and Pearl Street – green bike lanes. As part of a pilot project, the City of Boulder’s Transportation Division has installed the new pavement markings to promote community awareness and increase safety for both cyclists and motorists. The city is testing the green bike lanes’ effectiveness with reducing “right hook” collisions, which involve a motorist making a right turn and accidentally colliding with a cyclist traveling in the same direction in the adjacent bike lane, as depicted in the attached diagram. Citywide, approximately 14 percent of all motor vehicle collisions involving cyclists have been attributed to right hook collisions. The intersections of Folsom Street and Canyon Boulevard (#2) and Folsom and Pearl streets (#12) were identified among the top 15 most common collision locations. These statistics were included in the Safe Streets Boulder Report, a study of motor vehicle collisions involving cyclists or pedestrians during a 40-month period between January 2008 and April 2011.
The new pavement markings on Folsom Street are the first phase of the pilot project, with additional green bike lanes planned along Colorado Avenue and Table Mesa Drive this fall. Evaluations to test the effectiveness of the markings will include field observations and an online community survey to gather input from cyclists and motorists. The green bike lanes are a traffic engineering component of the city’s three-part action plan to reduce the number of traffic collisions in Boulder through engineering, education and enforcement. The Heads Up Boulder: Mind the Crosswalk campaign was launched this summer to help educate the community about three new crosswalk safety ordinances and the Boulder Police Department will be proactively enforcing the ordinances at Boulder’s busiest intersections this fall. The new pavement markings were installed on Thursday, Sept. 6, using a preformed thermoplastic material that includes an anti-skid layer to reduce slipping. Boulder is joining other communities such as Portland, Ore.; Seattle, Wash.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Los Angeles, Calif.; and San Francisco, Calif. in experimenting with bike lane pavement markings. The attached photo shows the green bike lane at the intersection of Canyon Boulevard and Folsom Street and the attached diagram depicts a right hook collision.
The new pavement markings on Folsom Street are the first phase of the pilot project, with additional green bike lanes planned along Colorado Avenue and Table Mesa Drive this fall. Evaluations to test the effectiveness of the markings will include field observations and an online community survey to gather input from cyclists and motorists. The green bike lanes are a traffic engineering component of the city’s three-part action plan to reduce the number of traffic collisions in Boulder through engineering, education and enforcement. The Heads Up Boulder: Mind the Crosswalk campaign was launched this summer to help educate the community about three new crosswalk safety ordinances and the Boulder Police Department will be proactively enforcing the ordinances at Boulder’s busiest intersections this fall. The new pavement markings were installed on Thursday, Sept. 6, using a preformed thermoplastic material that includes an anti-skid layer to reduce slipping. Boulder is joining other communities such as Portland, Ore.; Seattle, Wash.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Los Angeles, Calif.; and San Francisco, Calif. in experimenting with bike lane pavement markings. The attached photo shows the green bike lane at the intersection of Canyon Boulevard and Folsom Street and the attached diagram depicts a right hook collision.
CU Law School students and alumni to teach high school students statewide about the Constitution
Sep 13th
More than 75 students and dozens of alumni of the University of Colorado Law School will teach a lesson on the Fourth Amendment in more than 100 high school classrooms throughout Colorado the week of Sept. 17- 21 in recognition of Constitution Day.
Constitution Day is a national event that annually commemorates the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the United States Constitution.
The students and alumni will visit classrooms in Aurora, Boulder, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Denver, Glenwood Springs, Grand County, Greeley, Fort Collins, Longmont, Watkins and Wray as part of the Colorado Law School Constitution Day Project, launched in 2011 by the Byron White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law
“The program was such a success last year that we have expanded it significantly for 2012 and hope to continue that expansion in future years,” said Melissa Hart, associate professor of law and director of the Byron White Center. “We are particularly pleased to be able to visit schools all over the state, and will maintain that priority as we expand.
“Our students and alumni are excited about the opportunity to work with high school students and teachers, and to contribute to the important goal of broadening public constitutional literacy.”
The lesson plan, which was created by law students with the guidance of Hart and several high school civics teachers, begins with a review of the basic structure of the Constitution and then focuses on the text of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures of private property by the government. After reviewing the law, students will be guided through a debate about whether a school’s search of a student’s text messages violated the student’s constitutional rights.
In the first year of the project in 2011, the center sent 60 law students to over 50 high school classrooms to teach a lesson, which was followed by student debates involving a hypothetical situation that applied the First Amendment to a student Facebook posting.
CU president pushing for completion of US 36 bus rapid transit
Sep 12th
President Benson met with 36 Commuting Solutions and members of the US 36 Mayors & Commissioners Coalition on September 7 to discuss the delays in completing the corridor investments, including the RTD Bus Rapid Transit and Northwest Rail systems.
Due to the delay in completion of Northwest Rail for the foreseeable future, President Benson and the coalition believe that it is critical to complete true Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as soon as possible. The President has pledged his help to engage corridor executives and our transportation partners to ensure the BRT system is in place by the opening of the managed lanes in 2015, including a dedicated vehicle fleet, greater service frequency, real-time travel info and station area improvements.
Benson said that success will only come through collaboration and stressed the importance of working with RTD, CDOT, businesses, communities and groups such as 36 Commuting Solutions to collectively solve the problem. “We all have a vested interest, and working together will help us all meet our common goal,” said Benson.
“We understand RTD’s cash flow to complete their remaining FasTracks investment to the corridor is delayed, but we believe there are other federal and state funding opportunities we need to collectively pursue,” said President Benson. “The corridor has my full commitment to keep these highly important projects moving forward in order to make US 36 the multi-modal corridor we truly need for it to be.”
DRCOG Approves $15 million for Phase 2 of the US 36 Express Lanes Project
<during their August board meeting, the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) committed $15 million for Phase 2 of the US 36 Express Lanes Project, which will extend the express lanes from 88th Street to Table Mesa.
“This new funding from DRCOG brings us closer to completing Phase 2 of the project,” said 36 Commuting Solutions Chairperson, George Gerstle. “Though progress has been made, it is imperative that we secure the remaining funding needed to finish Phase 2 in order to make US 36 a truly multi-modal corridor.”
For more information on Phase 2 of the US 36 Express Lanes project,
