At the last meeting of Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees, one of the Trustees, Kevin Bracy Knight, presented a summary of the City’s public outreach survey about what the public would like to see in a potential Eldo to Walker (E2W) Connection.
Based on Kevin’s analysis, here’s the latest:
Analyzing the publicly available data from a big city-led outreach effort showed that pretty much everyone wants to see this connection approved and made part of a regional trail.
Based on 475 respondents, almost 82% said a new or improved route that was multi-user (pedestrians, bikes, and horses) would be their desire. Here’s which potential connector these people want to see.
- There is very strong support for the south trail option, which would be a completely new trail that runs roughly parallel to the railroad on the south side of this area and would place the hiker/rider in the woods a considerable about of the time.
- Even more popular than that is a loop that would incorporate a new south trail and an improved north trail.
- One third of the people who, while they don’t care where a new trail goes, do want a new trail.
By user type (i.e. comparing what bikers want to what hikers want), there were no large differences. While fewer hikers were as interested in a new trail as cyclists, the overall preference among both groups was for a new trail, the south outvoted the north option, and people love the idea of a loop trail.
COMING UP
There is another opportunity for public comment coming up after the consultants hired to evaluate the feasibility of each of these trails is sorted through by various open space agencies. That meeting will be a critical opportunity for you to hear important info, and more importantly, have your voice heard. We’ll let you know once the date for that meeting has been set. Stay tuned.
Note: Kevin performed this analysis on his own using the data from OSMP. His analysis doesn’t represent any work done by the City, nor is he employed by the City to perform this work.