Boulder Bike Route Safety Map

By the City of Boulder's own count the city has "more than 300 miles of bikeway, including 96 miles of bike lanes, more than 80 bike and pedestrian underpasses, 84 miles of multi-use paths, 50 miles of designated bike routes and Neighborhood GreenStreets." That underpass network is the thing that makes Boulder unusual for its size: a rider on the creek paths can cross most of the city without meeting an arterial at grade. Two blocks away, on 28th Street or Arapahoe, the ride is a different sport entirely. Brakeaway rates any Boulder route 0–100 on protected infrastructure, path and underpass connectivity, intersection risk, arterial exposure and surface quality. Paste a Google Maps link, upload a GPX, or connect Strava. Informational only — not a substitute for local judgment. Verify conditions before you ride.

Score a Boulder route

How Brakeaway scores a Boulder route

Every route is analyzed across five factors, weighted for the conditions Boulder riders actually meet: a deep grade-separated creek-path system, a small set of arterials that absorb most of the severe crashes, a protected-lane network that is being built corridor by corridor rather than all at once, and real climbing the moment you turn west.

Protected infrastructure and path connectivity. What share of your line sits on a multi-use path, a physically protected lane, or a grade-separated crossing? Boulder's Greenways system is, in the city's words, "a series of corridors along riparian areas of Boulder Creek and its 14 tributaries," and the multi-use paths threaded along them are the highest-scoring surface in town. A painted lane on an arterial is scored as exposure, not protection.
Intersection and arterial-crossing risk. The 2022 Safe Streets Report found that "the majority (67%) of severe crashes between 2018 and 2020 occurred on principal arterial (41%) and minor arterial (26%) roadways, despite these street functional classifications accounting for about 17% of total centerline miles within the city," and that 40% of severe crashes happened at signalized intersections. Brakeaway penalizes both riding along those corridors and crossing them at grade — which is exactly why an underpass is worth so many points.
Bicycle-specific crash exposure. Boulder is an outlier here and the model reflects it. The same report found that "although bicyclists were involved in only 6% of all crashes (about 118 per year) from 2018 to 2020, they were involved in 36% of all severe crashes (about 18 per year)." Corridors where the city has documented bike-involved crashes are weighted more heavily than raw traffic volume alone would suggest.
Surface quality and path conflict. Boulder's paths are mostly smooth asphalt or concrete, but they are genuinely busy shared space, and the city posts a 15 mph speed limit on multi-use paths with instructions to "slow down in high-traffic areas and yield to pedestrians." Brakeaway scores mixed-use congestion and unpaved connectors differently from open separated path, and flags the dismount zones downtown and on University Hill where riding is not permitted at all.
Elevation and grade. Boulder sits against the Flatirons, and west-bound routes climb hard: Boulder Canyon Drive, Flagstaff Road, Lee Hill Drive and the Table Mesa Drive approach toward NCAR all carry sustained gradient, while the creek paths and the east-side grid are close to flat. Grade is folded into the score rather than reported separately.

Highest-scoring Boulder bike routes

These are the routes that repeatedly land in Brakeaway's High Confidence band, because the separation is physical and the arterial crossings are vertical rather than horizontal.

Boulder Creek Path — Boulder Canyon to Stazio Ballfields

The spine of the whole system. The city describes it as "a popular, 5.5-mile multi-use path that extends to Boulder Canyon on the west end and Stazio Ballfields on the east end (just past 55th Street)," running "through downtown and by many attractions, including the Main Library, Civic Area Park and Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse." It is maintained jointly by Parks and Recreation and the Utilities Department's Greenways Program. In OpenStreetMap the path carries a string of tunnel-tagged segments where it passes beneath 6th Street, 9th Street, 17th Street, Broadway, Folsom Street and 30th Street — the reason it holds a near-flat score across its full length instead of dropping at every major street.

The creek greenways — Goose, Wonderland, Bear and Skunk

Boulder's second tier of paths branches off the Boulder Creek corridor and covers most of the city. Each carries its own grade separations in OpenStreetMap's data: the Goose Creek Greenway runs beneath Mapleton Avenue, Folsom Street, 28th Street, 30th Street, Pearl Parkway and Foothills Parkway; the Wonderland Creek Greenway beneath 28th Street, 30th Street, Valmont Road and the Diagonal Highway; the Bear Creek Greenway beneath Baseline Road, South Broadway, Mohawk Drive and the Denver–Boulder Turnpike; the Skunk Creek Greenway beneath Broadway, Colorado Avenue and 38th Street. Add the Fourmile Canyon Creek Path, which ducks under 28th, 30th and 47th, and the South Boulder Creek Trail, and you have a connected low-exposure grid that most on-street networks in comparable cities simply do not have. Scores drop where a greenway ends and puts you back on an arterial — pre-scoring is worth doing precisely at those seams.

Longmont-to-Boulder (LoBo) Regional Trail

Boulder County describes the LoBo as "a 12-mile trail system that runs through Gunbarrel, Niwot, and open space properties connecting the City of Boulder with the City of Longmont," rated easy, with trailheads at Cottonwood, Twin Lakes, Monarch, Niwot and Lefthand Valley Grange. The county notes that regional trails and regional trail connectors are open to commuters 24 hours per day, and that e-bikes are allowed except on a short signed area near Twin Lakes. It scores as a long, uninterrupted separated corridor; the connections at the Boulder end are where the number moves.

US 36 Bikeway — Table Mesa to Westminster

The regional commuter link toward Denver. The City of Westminster describes a bikeway that "extends from 80th Avenue at U.S. 36 to 96th Street at U.S. 36, midway between Broomfield and Louisville," continuing "from 96th Street to Table Mesa Park-n-Ride in Boulder," and notes it "is 12 feet wide and built from concrete the entire length." A consistent 12-foot concrete section beside a highway scores very differently from a shoulder, and Brakeaway treats it as separated infrastructure.

30th Street and Colorado Avenue protected intersection and underpass

Completed in fall 2023, this is the city's showcase piece. The project built "a pedestrian and bicycle underpass fully separated from vehicles, providing a connection to three corners of the intersection," constructed "the first fully protected intersection in Boulder," and created "almost a mile of protected, separated paths for walking and biking connected to 30th Street and 28th Street." The city's own background is blunt about why: "30,000 cars and 1,500 bicyclists and pedestrians travel through the intersection in a typical day," and "86 collisions took place between 2012-2016, 18 of those involving bicyclists." Total funding was $15.9 million, shared between the city, CU Boulder, DRCOG and CDOT.

Baseline Road, 30th Street to Foothills Parkway

Boulder's most-watched on-street corridor, from 30th Street to Foothills Parkway. Phase 1 ran from 2022 to 2023 and installed concrete tall curbs as bike-lane protection; the Boulder Chamber's transportation newsletter reported at the time that Boulder would be "the first city in the United States to install tall curbs, which are currently also being used in Canada." The city reported that "following Phase 1 improvements, Baseline Road near Inca Parkway saw a 37.8% increase in average daily bicycle traffic, with ridership patterns indicating a shift toward bicycling for trips to and from work and school." Phase 2 began in spring 2026 with a $3.2 million DRCOG-managed grant, adding floating concrete bus-stop islands, a signalized crossing between 33rd and 34th streets, protected intersections at Mohawk Drive and 30th Street, and a speed limit reduced "to a consistent 35 mph along the entire corridor." It is worth knowing what Phase 2 does not do: the city states that continuous bike lane protection "is not included in the final design due to budgetary constraints," that protection grows by 64% — "roughly 3,550 linear feet of existing protection" expanding "to over 5,850 feet" — and that "because no new tall curbs could be funded in Phase 2, the remaining segments of the corridor will be entirely post-separated." Brakeaway scores the corridor as it stands, not as designed, so posts and curbs do not score alike.

Boulder by area — what to expect

Downtown and Pearl Street

Flat, dense and well served by the Boulder Creek Path one block south. The catch is legal rather than physical: riding bikes and other wheeled devices on the sidewalk is prohibited downtown on and around the Pearl Street Mall, and dismount zones apply. Routes that plan to end at Pearl generally score best by riding the creek path and walking the last block.

CU Boulder, University Hill and the Colorado Avenue corridor

Heavy bike volume, heavy conflict. The city's own assessment of the pre-2023 conditions at 30th and Colorado is worth reading twice: "the existing on-street bicycle facilities create a high level of stress for many bicyclists. This leads some bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk instead, which is a common cause of crashes in Boulder." The protected intersection and the sidewalk-level protected lanes on 30th Street between Arapahoe and Colorado changed that picture materially. University Hill's commercial area is a dismount zone.

North Boulder

The Wonderland and Fourmile Canyon Creek corridors carry most of the low-exposure travel here. The weak link is east–west: the city notes that Iris Avenue "provides one of the only direct east-west connections in North Boulder," and that the 2023–2027 Vision Zero Action Plan identified Iris from 19th to 28th streets as part of the High Risk Network, with "five of the six risk factors that account for the most frequent and severe crashes." Until the planned two-way protected path is built, Iris scores low and parallel greenway routing scores much higher.

East Boulder, Boulder Junction and Gunbarrel

Path coverage thins as you go east, and the arterials get faster. The Pearl Parkway multi-use path, the Goose Creek Greenway and the 61st Street and Valmont connections in the city's Confluence Area Multi-Use Path Projects are filling what the city calls "missing links, identified since the 1980s in the City of Boulder's Transportation Master Plan." The LoBo Trail is the main Gunbarrel connector.

South Boulder

The Bear Creek and Skunk Creek greenways, the South Boulder Creek Trail and the Baseline Road South and North paths carry most of the traffic. Table Mesa Drive and S Broadway are the corridors to plan around — S Broadway and Table Mesa Dr. is one of the four signalized intersections the 2022 Safe Streets Report flagged with three severe crashes in 2018–2020.

The streets Boulder riders route around

The High Risk Network. Boulder's Vision Zero program is built on it: the HRN "accounts for just 7% of city streets, or 26 centerline miles, but has roughly five times more risk than all Boulder arterial streets when measured by crashes per vehicle miles traveled," and "48% of fatal and serious injury crashes between 2016-2020 occurred on the HRN." Brakeaway penalizes riding on and crossing those corridors.

28th Street, Broadway, Arapahoe, Foothills and Canyon. The 2022 Safe Streets Report named four signalized intersections that each recorded three severe crashes in 2018–2020: "Foothills Pkwy. & Arapahoe Ave.," "28th St. & Colorado Ave.," "Broadway & College Ave. & 14th St." and "S Broadway & Table Mesa Dr." The city's automated speed enforcement corridors tell the same story from the other direction: "the AVIS state highways within city limits include parts of Broadway, Canyon Boulevard, Arapahoe Avenue, Foothills Parkway, 28th Street and Baseline Road."

Speed, everywhere else. Between 2018 and 2020, "one out of every three severe crashes involved speeding." In 2020 the city lowered the default speed limit from 25 mph to 20 mph and set all residential streets to 20 mph — residential streets make up 70% of all streets in Boulder, which is a large part of why Boulder's quiet-street routing scores as well as it does.

What Boulder is building next

The Core Arterial Network is the framing for almost everything on-street. The city defines it as "the connected system of protected bicycle lanes, intersection enhancements, pedestrian facilities and transit facility upgrades," says it "will focus its efforts on 13 individual corridors over the next several years," and names "Baseline Road, Iris Avenue and Folsom Street" as the three priority corridors. City Council elevated the CAN as one of its 10 priorities in January 2022 and reaffirmed its commitment to Vision Zero in December 2024.

The money behind it is real. In December 2023 the US Department of Transportation awarded Boulder "a monumental $23 million Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant," with "implementation and construction phases occurring between 2026-2028." Boulder County voters separately renewed a 0.1% sales tax in 2022 for 15 more years, a measure PeopleForBikes describes as leveraging "an estimated $260 million in matching regional, state, and federal funding for a total of $390 million over 15 years, with at least 15% dedicated to regional trails and commuter bikeways." For riders, the implication is that corridors scoring in the middle today may score meaningfully higher after construction — so re-score an old commute every few months.

Things worth knowing before your first Boulder ride

Know your device class. Boulder's rules are specific: Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes (max 20 mph) are permitted on multi-use paths; Class 3 e-bikes (max 28 mph) are not, and are restricted to streets and bike lanes. E-motos "are not allowed on Boulder's transportation system." Getting this wrong turns a high-scoring path route into an illegal one.

The Safety Stop is state law. Colorado's 2022 Safety Stop allows people on bikes to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs, applying to anyone 15 years of age or older, with riders required to slow to 10 mph or less. It does not change who has the right of way, and Brakeaway does not score it — but it explains a lot of what you will see at Boulder intersections.

Shared bikes and scooters are everywhere. The city's partnership with BCycle and Lime "saw over 1.6 million rides in 2025," Lime devices are speed-limited to 15 mph with lower limits in designated slow zones, and central Boulder is becoming a larger mandatory parking zone. Brakeaway scores a BCycle or Lime trip exactly like a trip on your own bike.

Ratings are not route scores. PeopleForBikes gives Boulder a City Rating of 66 and ranks it 197th out of 3,019 cities, against an average network score for all cities in 2026 of 36. That is a statement about the city, not about the line you are going to ride tomorrow — which is the gap a per-route score exists to close.

Pre-score the seams, not the miles. On a Boulder route, almost all of the score damage happens in the short segments where a path ends and an arterial begins. Run the route first and look at where the line goes red.

Resources

Frequently asked questions

Is Brakeaway free to use for Boulder routes?

Yes. Scoring routes — in Boulder or any other city Brakeaway covers — is free. Upload a GPX file, paste a Google Maps directions link, or connect Strava to import existing rides. Every score is informational data, not a substitute for local judgment; verify conditions before you ride.

Why do Boulder's underpasses matter so much to a route score?

Because they remove the part of the ride where Boulder's severe crashes concentrate. The city reports more than 300 miles of bikeway, including 96 miles of bike lanes, more than 80 bike and pedestrian underpasses and 84 miles of multi-use paths. The 2022 Safe Streets Report found that 67% of severe crashes between 2018 and 2020 happened on arterial roadways and 40% happened at signalized intersections. Boulder's creek paths pass beneath Broadway, 28th Street, Folsom Street, 30th Street and Foothills Parkway rather than crossing them at grade, which avoids that exposure entirely, and Brakeaway scores it accordingly.

Which Boulder routes score highest?

The grade-separated creek corridors. The Boulder Creek Path is a 5.5-mile multi-use path that extends to Boulder Canyon on the west end and Stazio Ballfields on the east end, just past 55th Street. The Goose Creek, Wonderland Creek, Bear Creek and Skunk Creek greenways branch off it through the Greenways system, which the city describes as corridors along riparian areas of Boulder Creek and its 14 tributaries. Outside the city, the Longmont-to-Boulder (LoBo) Regional Trail is a 12-mile trail system through Gunbarrel and Niwot, and the US 36 Bikeway is 12 feet wide and built from concrete the entire length.

Which Boulder streets does Brakeaway flag hardest?

The arterials. Boulder's High Risk Network accounts for just 7% of city streets, or 26 centerline miles, but has roughly five times more risk than all Boulder arterial streets when measured by crashes per vehicle miles traveled, and 48% of fatal and serious injury crashes between 2016 and 2020 occurred on it. The 2022 Safe Streets Report named four signalized intersections that each had three severe crashes in 2018–2020: Foothills Pkwy. and Arapahoe Ave., 28th St. and Colorado Ave., Broadway and College Ave. and 14th St., and S Broadway and Table Mesa Dr. The city's automated speed enforcement corridors cover parts of Broadway, Canyon Boulevard, Arapahoe Avenue, Foothills Parkway, 28th Street and Baseline Road.

Is Boulder's protected bike lane network growing?

Yes. The Core Arterial Network is the city's connected system of protected bicycle lanes, intersection enhancements, pedestrian facilities and transit facility upgrades, and City Council identified 13 individual corridors for focus, with Baseline Road, Iris Avenue and Folsom Street as the three priority corridors. In December 2023 the US Department of Transportation awarded Boulder a $23 million Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, with construction phases occurring between 2026 and 2028. Brakeaway refreshes infrastructure data monthly, so re-score an old commute periodically.

How does Brakeaway handle e-bikes, BCycle and Lime in Boulder?

A shared or electric trip scores exactly like a trip on your own bike — assist does not change the infrastructure under the wheels. What does change is where you are allowed to ride. Boulder permits Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes on multi-use paths, but Class 3 e-bikes are restricted to streets and bike lanes. Multi-use paths carry a 15 mph speed limit, and riding is prohibited downtown on and around the Pearl Street Mall and in the University Hill commercial area, where dismount zones apply. The city's shared micromobility partnership with BCycle and Lime saw over 1.6 million rides in 2025.

How often is Boulder route data updated?

Infrastructure data is refreshed monthly from OpenStreetMap and published City of Boulder and Boulder County datasets. Changes such as the Baseline Road Phase 2 work, whose construction travel impacts were expected to end in fall 2026, and new Core Arterial Network segments are reflected in scores within about 30 days of appearing in the source data.

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Last updated: September 24, 2026.