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Transportation Use Measurements

These documents reflect citizen opinions, transportation patterns and other trends in Boulder.

Bicycle Friendly Community

The League of American Bicyclists has designated the City of Boulder as a Bicycle Friendly Community and has granted the following awards:  

Modal Shift Report

The Modal Shift Report documents the results of the bi or tri-annual travel diary survey administered by the Audit and Evaluation Division of the city. This survey has been conducted since 1990 and asks representatives from more than a thousand households in the Boulder Valley to track all their trips greater than two blocks in length for a 24-hour period. This report tracks changes in the number of trips, trip type and characteristics, and mode of travel used over the years for Boulder Valley residents. Trip characteristics are also compared to regional and national data and are reported by standard demographic characteristics such as age, sex, student, owner/renter, type of housing unit, income, and car, bike and Eco Pass availability.

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Boulder Valley Employee Survey

The Boulder Valley Employee Survey (BVES) is a biennial survey of employees who work within the Boulder Valley. The BVES was designed to tap an important dimension of travel behavior within Boulder, that of employees who work in Boulder, but may not necessarily live here. The first survey of Boulder Valley employees’ transportation habits was conducted in the summer of 1991. This report tracks changes in the number of trips, trip type and characteristics, and mode of travel used over the years for Boulder Valley employees. Trip characteristics are also compared to regional and national data and are reported by standard demographic characteristics such as age, sex, owner/renter, income, distance from work, city of residence, job requirements, and car, bike andEcoPass availability.

Downtown Boulder Employees and the University of Colorado

Since 2005, a similar survey to the BVES has also been conducted for downtown Boulder employees. The downtown survey has been conducted at the same time as the BVES to achieve cost savings. The University of Colorado joined the effort and the study was expanded to include a survey of students, faculty and staff on the Boulder campus in 2005 and 2011. The same set of questions, with slight variances, was used for all of the study groups to allow for comparisons and to realize cost savings. Each survey was paid for and managed by the individual agency. The resulting reports for downtown Boulder employees, CU students and CU faculty and staff are listed below.

Comparison Reports

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American Community Survey Report

The American Community Survey (ACS) is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau to provide travel data between the decennial Census surveys.  The ACS reports the modes of travel for the journey to work trip for communities across the country and so allows for a comparison of travel between Boulder, similar communities, and with the regional and national averages.  These comparisons and the changes from the 1990 and 2000 Census are assembled in this report.  The 2008ACSdata shows that the City of Boulder continues to make consistent progress toward reaching the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and Climate Action Plan (CAP) goals of reducing single-occupant vehicle (SOV) travel, as measured by work-trip mode share.

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Downtown Bike Count Report

The 2009 Downtown Boulder Bicycle Parking Count was completed in August 2009 by city staff and volunteers.  It suggests that the number of people bicycling downtown continues to grow.  The annual count was conducted to estimate the demand for bicycle parking and the impact of converting old parking meters to bicycle parking racks as well as determine the need for and location of additional bicycle parking in the downtown area.  This was the third annual count conducted by the city.  Since the count was initiated, the downtown area has experienced a significant growth in the number of bicycles parked downtown, and in many areas, the demand for bicycle parking exceeds the supply.

Downtown Bike Count Report

Citizens Transportation Survey

Since 1997, the city has conducted the Annual Transportation Survey of Residents in the fall to assess citizen's opinions and experience relative to the transportation system. The first part of the survey asks a standard set of questions relating to the transportation challenges facing the community, the citizen's experience in getting around town, and their rating of various aspects of the transportation system. The second part of this survey focuses on a topical area of interest to the city, and has included neighborhood traffic mitigation, photo enforcement, traffic signals and transportation financing. This report tracks the changes in citizen opinion over time, and reports results by standard demographic characteristics such as age, sex, student, owner/renter, type of housing unit, income, and car availability.

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Report on Progress

For a number of years following the 1996 TMP, the city produced a Transportation Annual Report as an effort to bring together all the data collected by the city related to transportation and evaluate this data relative to the objectives of the 1996 TMP. This effort was discontinued with the 2003 TMP planning process, which started with a comprehensive assessment of results under the city's transportation policy direction. However, there remained an interest in periodically reporting progress to Boulder citizens and the numerous communities and organizations interested in Boulder's transportation story. The November 2010 Transportation Report on Progress is intended to both present the results of Boulder's transportation policy direction as well as tell the story of how the community and city developed the policies and programs that helped produce these results. We expect to update this report about every two years.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 February 2013 14:19