Opinion: “Right-sizing,”crashes and growth
I just received a copy of a draft “Safety Analysis” report that the Boulder city government prepared in May. It analyzes the accidents that occurred during 2012-2014 on Folsom, Iris, 55th, and 63rd Streets — the streets that were up for “right sizing”— and the potential for avoiding crashes by altering the street layout, which the report calls “correctible” crashes. An observation (that also applies to the Housing Boulder debacle earlier this year) is that when there is insufficient information and analysis, the discussion quickly degenerates into an “I’m right and you’re wrong” food fight of little benefit to anyone. So, given the focus on auto safety, as well as that of bike-riders and pedestrians, this “Safety Analysis” absolutely should have been completed and disseminated prior to the council’s single decision meeting. On Folsom, which had the most crashes by far, the total number of potentially “correctible” crashes during 2012-2014 was 16 out of 242 total crashes (6.6 perc