Amended fire restrictions: Stage 1 fire restrictions in western Boulder County. Fire restrictions rescinded in eastern Boulder County.

Boulder County government offices closed Monday, Oct. 14, in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The District Attorney’s Office is open Oct. 14.

Boulder County Vision Zero Action Plan

Thanks to everyone who provided input on the Transportation Safety Survey. Watch for a project survey summary coming soon!

Vision Zero Action Plans for Boulder County, Lafayette, and Superior

City of Lafayette logo

Town of Superior logo

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 importance of implementing a regional approach to roadway safety, Boulder County, Lafayette, and Superior (the Partners) joined forces to apply for 2023 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant funding.

The grant will enable each Partner to 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 plans will build on the Safe System Approach which designs and manages transportation systems – road infrastructure, vehicles, and related policies – to minimize risk, understanding that humans sometimes make mistakes. And when a mistake does lead to a crash, a safe system is one that lessens severe impacts on the human body, regardless of which mode one chooses for travel.

Key stages of the project include:

  • Data Analysis: Documenting major crash trends, developing the high-injury network (corridors where the most crashes are occurring), and identifying risk factors
  • Project Prioritization: Identifying and prioritizing specific projects to address existing issues and proactive measures to address risk
  • Fact Sheets & Performance Measures: Developing concepts for priority projects and determining how we will monitor progress/success
  • Action Plans: Creating to-do lists of specific actions (both infrastructure, such a roadway improvements, and non-infrastructure, such as educational campaigns), noting responsibility and potential funding sources for implementation

Project Schedule

The project launched in April 2024, and the current stage (through September) is focused on data analysis. The project team will document major crash trends for each of the Partners, develop the high injury network and identify risk factors during this stage. During the next stage (August-November), the project team will develop potential projects and prioritize them. The third stage (September-December) includes the development of fact sheets for priority projects and performance measures to track progress. The Partners’ draft action plans will be available for community review on this webpage by early 2025. The project team anticipates publishing the final action plans in early Spring 2025, with adoption by late Spring. Community and stakeholder engagement will include a series of study sessions with elected officials in late 2024 and early 2025 and four Key Steering Committee Meetings, beginning in June of this year. During the first phase of outreach (late June to late August), the community is invited to connect with the project team and provide initial input. The second phase of outreach will launch in late fall, and solicit community feedback on draft recommendations.

Connect with the Project Team

Meet the Project Team at an Event

Phase 2 outreach events are planned to start in January 2025.

Past 2024 Events

July 4 – Superior 4th of July Celebration

July 21 – Nederland Farmers Market & Party in the Peaks

August 9 – Lafayette Art Night Out

August 11 – Ride for Magnus

Get help in your language at 720-564-2292 or visionzero@bouldercounty.gov.

Past Online Public Meetings

Superior Vision Zero Action Plan Public Meeting, August 1, 2024

Boulder County Vision Zero Action Plan Public Meeting, August 8, 2024

Lafayette Vision Zero Action Plan Public Meeting, August 20, 2024

Safety Progress to Date

Boulder County

Bike lane adjacent to traffic with green, horizontal striping and a white figure of a bicyclist with an arrow indicating travel direction.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

Cover page of Lafayette’s October 2023 Multimodal Transportation Plan, featuring a woman and man bicycling on a paved path and a woman and child on bicycles at a transit stop.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

A street with two vehicle travel lanes, a striped bike lane with green dashed striping, a yellow, red and white sign with STATE LAW YIELD and a yellow arrow pointing to a red colored crosswalk, and a sidewalk with a pedestrian walking towards a transit stop shelter with trash can.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 recently concluded the first phase of community outreach, including a survey and mapping exercise on transportation safety. The second round of community outreach will launch in January 2025, when the community will be invited to provide feedback on the draft Vision Zero Action Plans. 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:

Program Contact

Liv Lewin, PE
Email: visionzero@bouldercounty.gov
Phone: 720-564-2292

Contact Us

Community Planning & Permitting

Ask a Planner
Email: planner@bouldercounty.gov
Phone:303-441-3930

Courthouse Annex Building

2045 13th St.
Boulder, CO 80302

Hours

8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday
Map and Directions

Mailing Address

Community Planning & Permitting
PO Box 471
Boulder, CO 80306
Community Planning & Permitting website