Boulder County Vision Zero Action Plan
Traffic deaths have a permanent impact on those affected by the loss.
We need your help to shape a safer community.
Project Overview
Everyone deserves to arrive alive. Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all serious injury and fatal traffic crashes, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.
Recognizing the need for a coordinated approach to roadway safety, Boulder County, the City of Lafayette, and the Town of Superior (the Partners) jointly applied for SS4A grant funding to develop individual Vision Zero Action Plans tailored to each community while maintaining a shared commitment to reducing severe crashes and improving multimodal safety. By working together, the Partners are ensuring a cohesive regional strategy that prioritizes data-driven interventions, infrastructure improvements, and policy measures to make transportation safer for all users.
Each Partner is developing a Vision Zero Action Plan (VZAP), which will be a detailed analysis of traffic crashes and risk factors in the county and specific recommendations to comprehensively improve transportation safety in the coming years.
Read the Vision Zero Action Plan Drafts and Provide Feedback
The Vision Zero team is seeking community input on the Vision Zero Action Plan drafts. Review the documents and take short surveys below.
Superior
The Superior Vision Zero Action Plan Draft is open for public comment through the survey below. Please take the survey by 5/21/2025.
Boulder County:
- Expected mid-May
Lafayette:
- Expected early June
Review Past Project Materials
Introduction
Watch the following video to learn about the Boulder County, Lafayette, and Superior Vision Zero Action Plans, which aim to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries:
Vision Zero Action Plans – Introduction Video
Safety Analysis and Overview of Proposed Safety Improvements
Watch the following videos to learn about the safety analysis findings and draft recommendations developed for each agency.
Superior Roadway Safety Concerns and Solutions
Boulder County Roadway Safety Concerns and Solutions
Lafayette Roadway Safety Concerns and Solutions
Community Engagement
Phase 1 Engagement (Summer 2024): The purpose of this phase was to identify how people travel in the study area and locations where they feel unsafe. Engagement took place through an online survey with an interactive map, at the Superior 4th of July Celebration, Nederland Farmers Market, Lafayette Art Night Out, and the Ride for Magnus Event, and at virtual public meetings.
Phase 2 Engagement (Winter 2025): In this phase, feedback was gathered on draft safety improvements through an online survey and at the Superior Winter Festival, Boulder Winter Bike to Work Day, Nederland TownTalk, and the Lafayette Public Library.
- Phase 2 Superior Engagement Summary
- Phase 2 Boulder County Engagement Summary
- Phase 2 Lafayette Engagement Summary
Next Steps
- Community review of draft Vision Zero Action Plans
- Project team reviews community feedback and develops final Vision Zero Action Plans
- Superior Vision Zero Action Plan:
- Superior Town Council Adoption Hearing anticipated June 24, 2025 meeting
- Lafayette Vision Zero Action Plan:
- Lafayette City Council Adoption Hearing anticipated July 15, 2025 meeting
- Boulder County Vision Zero Action Plan:
- Boulder County Commissioners Adoption Hearing anticipated August
Safety Progress to Date
Boulder County
As part of the 2020 Transportation Master Plan (TMP), Boulder County established its Vision Zero goal of eliminating serious injuries and fatal traffic crashes in unincorporated Boulder County by 2035. The most recent safety analysis showed that between 2009 and 2018 about 35 individuals were seriously injured and 10 were killed in traffic crashes each year within unincorporated Boulder County and the mountain towns. Since 2001 the county Transportation Sales Tax program has supported several safety-related projects.
Examples of ongoing safety-related projects include the CO 119 Safety, Mobility, & Bikeway Project and US 287 Vision Zero Safety & Mobility Study.
Dedicated to meeting its Vision Zero target, Boulder County is embarking on its Vision Zero Action Plan effort to gain an in-depth understanding of current crash trends and risk factors and chart an effective course of action. For more information, see Boulder County’s Vision Zero webpage.
Lafayette
In November 2023, the City of Lafayette published its first-ever Multimodal Transportation Plan (MMTP). The safety section of the MMTP documented 653 crashes resulting in either fatalities or injuries occurring between 2015 to 2019 in Lafayette. Six crashes resulted in a fatality and 29 crashes resulted in severe injury.
Lafayette’s VZAP will create a prioritized list of safety projects, neighborhood speed mitigation guidelines, and a bicycle facility design community practice and plan. The project will also review traffic signal timing for best safety practices and develop a crash prevention and evaluation protocol, including a crash investigation taskforce and stakeholder list for education and outreach.
Superior
The Town of Superior is responsible for maintaining its 50 miles of streets, which includes pavement resurfacing, snow removal, traffic signals, street sweeping, school zone flashers, signage and striping. The Town’s Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program (NTCP) implements engineering, education, and enforcement to slow speeding traffic on residential streets. The NTCP is administered by the Public Works & Utilities Department in conjunction with the Transportation & Safety Committee (TSC).
Superior’s VZAP will include a video safety analysis to identify targeted locations where problematic behaviors and conditions exist (such as red-light running, speeding, pedestrian and bicyclist compliance, and intersection blocking, with a particular focus on vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-pedestrian/bicycle near misses).
FAQ's
Vision Zero is a transportation strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries for people using all modes of transportation while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. Vision Zero recognizes that humans make mistakes and therefore the transportation system should be designed to minimize the consequences of human error. The concept was first implemented in Sweden in the 1990s and has since then gained momentum worldwide. Learn more about Vision Zero.
Community engagement is a critical component of the project process. The project team conducted the first phase of community outreach in summer 2024 to learn about the Boulder County community’s transportation safety concerns. The second round of community outreach is launching in December 2024. The community for the planning areas (unincorporated Boulder County, Lafayette, and Superior) will be invited to provide feedback on the draft Vision Zero Action Plan recommendations for each jurisdiction. You can meet with the project team at the events listed above and by taking the recommendations survey. You can also submit a comment to the project team at any time.
This effort is led by Boulder County, Superior, and Lafayette (the Partners) who joined forces to apply for Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant funding to address regional traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. Each Partner will develop a Vision Zero Action Plan (VZAP) which will be a detailed analysis of traffic crashes and risk factors in the county and specific recommendations to comprehensively improve transportation safety in the coming years.
The project team will also solicit feedback from elected officials during study sessions and host Steering Committee Meetings (including representatives from Boulder County, Superior, Lafayette, Jamestown, Nederland, Ward, emergency/first responders, safety/active transportation advocacy groups, Center for People with Disabilities, CDOT, and more) to gather additional input.
Other jurisdictions in Boulder County are committed to Vision Zero and either have already completed a Vision Zero Action Plan or are working on one.
Additional resources are provided below:
- City of Boulder, Transportation and Mobility:
303-441-3200
City of Boulder Vision Zero webpage - Town of Erie, Public Works, Engineering Division:
303-926-2870
Erie Public Works, Engineering Division webpage - Town of Louisville: Public Works and Engineering Divisions:
303-335-4608
Email: PWorks@LouisvilleCO.gov - City of Longmont Transportation department:
303-651-8416
Longmont Vision Zero webpage - Town of Lyons, Public Works:
303-823-6622
Program Contact
Liv Lewin, PE
Email: visionzero@bouldercounty.gov
Phone: 720-564-2292
Boulder County aims to ensure all digital content and documents are accessible. While efforts have been made to maximize accessibility, some types of content have inherent technical limitations. For alternate formats or accommodations, please submit an ADA Web Accommodation Request Form or email ADA@bouldercounty.gov, or call 303-441-1386. View the county’s accessibility statement.”