Based on the community dialogue over the past few months, it’s fair to say that there is no local issue more contentious at this moment than the proposed changes to Iris Avenue.

The project, which is part of the city’s Core Arterial Network (CAN) initiative and its Vision Zero goal of eliminating fatal and serious injury crashes on city streets, is focused on improving safety and connectivity along the stretch of Iris Avenue from Broadway to 28th Street. Iris Avenue is one of Boulder’s busiest streets and sees a disproportionate number of crashes.

City staffers initially proposed four alternative designs for the project, all of which would add protected bike lanes along Iris Avenue. Each alternative would arrange the bike lanes and traffic lanes in a different configuration: Two options would narrow Iris from four lanes to two with a center lane for left turns and emergency vehicles, while the other two would keep the four lanes but physically widen the road to make room for the bike lanes.

Transportation department staffers have now solidified a recommended design for the improvements. They recommend Alternative B, which would reduce Iris’ width from four lanes to two with a shared center lane and have a two-way protected bike lane on the north side of the road.

This recommended alternative would implement what is called a “road diet.” While controversial to some because it reduces the number of lanes for cars, arranging roads this way can calm traffic, create more consistent speeds and reduce certain types of crashes, among other benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

This alone — the potential for increasing safety along Iris — should be more than enough to get everyone on board with this project.

As it stands, Iris is a dangerous street. As part of the CAN initiative, Iris was identified as being an abnormally risky road for everyone — pedestrians, bikes and cars.

According to the city’s Safe Streets report, “67% of severe crashes occur on arterial streets despite them making up only 17% of Boulder’s streets.”

On Iris alone, there were 345 crashes from 2016 through 2023. One hundred and forty-three of those were rear-end crashes. Twenty-two involved pedestrians and bicycles.

It should go without saying that crashes involving pedestrians are severe more often than not. Despite making up just 2% of crashes from 2018 to 2020 in Boulder, pedestrian-involved crashes accounted for 18% of all severe crashes. Over the same time span, bicyclists were involved in 6% of crashes around the city but accounted for a harrowing 36% of severe crashes.

As the CAN project suggests, it should be our prerogative to do everything in our power to reduce the number of pedestrian- and bicyclist-involved crashes. The proposed Alternative B for Iris Avenue would do that.

To start, protected bike lanes make everyone safer. According to a 2019 CU Denver study of data from 12 cities over 13 years, “Building safe facilities for cyclists is one of the biggest factors in road safety for everyone. Bicycling infrastructure — specifically, separated and protected bike lanes — leads to fewer fatalities and better road-safety outcomes for all road users.”

As for other types of crashes, according to the Department of Transportation, road diets reduce the number of rear-end crashes by creating a dedicated left turn lane. They also reduce risk to pedestrians by creating fewer lanes for pedestrians to have to cross. And finally, they have a calming effect on traffic, creating more consistent speeds, which logically leads to increased safety.

Despite the obvious potential for making Iris safer for everyone to use, some have pushed back strongly against any proposed changes. The primary argument has been that reducing the number of lanes will increase traffic on one of North Boulder’s most vital thoroughfares.

But the fact of the matter is, the recommended alternatives were designed by experts who know what they are doing — and what they are doing is increasing safety with minimal change to travel time. According to city estimates, Alternative B is likely to increase the travel time on Iris by a mere 40 to 60 seconds.

Of course, it is worth recognizing that the people who commute back and forth across Iris every day are leading busy lives. We have to get to work or drop the kids off at school or make it to class on time. And in that context, an extra minute or two may seem like a lot.

But our safety and the safety of our community must always trump sheer convenience. If we have to choose between saving 40-60 seconds every time we drive down Iris and potentially saving just one life every year, the choice should be obvious.

Finally, some have suggested that road diets don’t work based on the failed attempt to “right-size” Folsom in 2015. But the reality is that a lot has changed in the last nine years. And, more simply, the Folsom and Iris projects are fundamentally different.

“Unlike the temporary, pilot nature of the Folsom Street Living Labs project, the Iris Avenue project includes robust community engagement since 2023, including citywide and localized engagement opportunities, as well as with stakeholder groups such as the disability community and the business community in partnership with the Boulder Chamber,” Aisha Ozaslan, the city’s communications program manager, said in a statement. “The project also included extensive data collection and analysis.

“Whereas a major focus of the Folsom Street Living Labs project was to implement protected bike lanes with some pedestrian crossing improvements, the Iris Avenue Transportation Improvements project is more than a bicycling improvement project, as it has a more holistic, corridor-level approach to addressing common crash types and risk factors for future crashes for all modes of travel,” the statement continued. “The proposed reconfiguration of Iris Avenue as part of the recommended Alternative B would address … common crash types and risk factors for people driving as well as improve outcomes for our most vulnerable road users — people walking, bicycling, and accessing transit.”

When all is said and done we must remember that driving a two-ton vehicle is an inherently dangerous task — not only for us but for everyone around us. Reducing the number of lanes on Iris and installing a protected bike lane may slow some of us down, but it will collectively speed us toward a better future where our infrastructure prioritizes green alternatives and safety — not just convenience.

— Gary Garrison for the Editorial Board