Coffman Street Busway Project

The Coffman Street Busway project seeks to transform Coffman Street into a world-class multimodal street that will safely accommodate bus transit, general purpose traffic, pedestrians, bicyclists and parking.

The City of Longmont hosted a series of in-person, block-by-block meetings with business and property owners, leading up to a Citywide open house meeting on Sept. 27, 2021, to share information about the Coffman Street Busway Project in downtown Longmont and receive feedback on the project. At the meetings, and through the Engage Longmont platform, residents and business owners expressed a variety of comments, concerns and support for the project with feedback revolving around the topics of bike traffic, pedestrian traffic, trees and community character.

Specifically, residents and business owners most frequently expressed the following:

• Requests for signage and signals to increase safety and flow for both bikes and pedestrians
• Desire for increasing connectivity for bikes and pedestrians
• Strong support for preserving existing trees and adding new trees
• Desire for the reservation of on-street parking where possible

Based on technical design expertise and community feedback, the project team has made the following overall design changes:

• Decreasing dedicated bus lanes between 3^rd and 4^th avenues to maintain on-street parking and existing trees, as well as enhance the pedestrian environment
• Narrowing of cross-street roadway widths, particularly at 4^th and 5^th avenues, to reduce the amount of time needed for pedestrians to cross the street
• Utilization of protected bike intersections at 4^th and Longs Peak avenues
• Reduction of the number of transit stops from three to two stops in each direction, resulting in:
  • Additional parking, preservation of existing trees and landscaping
  • The reduction in travel times for buses in this corridor
  • A new bus stop location at 4^th Avenue and Coffman Street (north and southbound), and removal of the originally proposed bus stops between 4^th and 6^th avenues

Additionally, the project team is working to address specific requests from property/business owners and residents. Please note that, due to project constraints and complexities, not all requests can be accommodated.

The project is now at 60 percent design completion, and moving into the final design phase. Additional opportunities for project feedback will appear here on Engage Longmont in the near future.

View the project website for more information and please reach out to coffman.street.project@gmail.com with any questions.

(Click on the green title above to view the full page)

Si necesita esta información en Español, llame al 303-651-8416.

Thanks to everyone in the community that came to the Coffman Street Busway Open House on September 27. Attendees had the opportunity to learn more about the community vision for Coffman Street, including important components such as transit and bike lanes and submit feedback on corridor characteristics such as trees/landscape, parking and bus stops. The project team is in the process of evaluating this feedback for consideration as the project moves to 30% design.

There is still time to learn more about the project and submit feedback right here on Engage Longmont! View the boards presented at the open house below and visit the “Corridor Characteristics” tab to leave feedback about specific community characteristics along the corridor. The boards are listed by topic or you can download all of the project boards in one PDF file.

To submit feedback to the project team, please use the Q&A Tool at the tab above, email the project team at coffman.street.project@gmail.com or call 720-340-2115.

Topic 1 - About the Coffman Street Busway Project

The Coffman Street Busway Project extends from 1st Avenue to 9th Avenue and will become a world-class and truly multimodal corridor. Download the PDF to learn more.

Click on Image to Download PDF

Topic 2 - Studies that Envisioned and Created the Project

Multiple studies envisioned and created the Coffman Street Busway Project, including Envision Longmont, the Enhanced Multi-Use Corridor Plan and the SH 119 Multi-Modal Planning and Environmental Linkages Study. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 3 - Funding Sources

Longmont has levered federal and state resources to fund most of the project. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 4 - Guiding Principals

Guiding principals aid the project by identifying what the project is seeking to accomplish, ensuring that every project concept developed meets and the vision and narrows and directs interested parties' input and feedback. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 5 - Vision for Coffman Street

The Project seeks to make Coffman Street, from 1st Avenue to 9th Avenue, a world-class, cost-effective, multimodal corridor to support residents, businesses, bikes and pedestrians, commuters, the environment and the City. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 6 - Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

BRT is a quality, proven bus-based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable and reliable service along a designated corridor. The system has limited stops to improve speed, reduce travel time and maximize ridership. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 7 - Concept Evaluation

Conceptual-level alternatives were evaluated to determine which more fully meets the following criteria; safety, community character, cost and maintenance and modal considerations. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 8 - Parking Data

There are approximately 240 existing on-street parking stalls on Coffman Street between 1st and 9th Avenue. Less than 20% are typically occupied by adjacent properties during early morning hours and only 35 - 40% are occupied during mid-day. New developments on Coffman Street will offer additional public off-street parking options. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 9 - Visualizations

The project will bring protected bike lanes, transit, parking and sidewalks and trees for a walkable and vibrant community. Download the PDF to view the Coffman Street Busway visualizations.

Topic 10 - Public Engagement

A variety of public engagement opportunity were available to the community, including a public survey, property-owner questionnaire, adjacent property owner meetings and a public open house. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Topic 11 - Next Steps

The City of Longmont plans to complete preliminary design in February 2022. Download the PDF to learn more.

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Thank you to everyone who participated in the Community Interest + Concerns survey. We had approximately 200 survey responses and 80 people sign-up for future project updates. The key takeaways from the survey are as follows. A full summary of the survey can be downloaded here.

Stakeholder desire to be involved
Survey-takers indicated a high level of support for working with the City on the design and development of Coffman Street. Specific comments referred to the importance of engaging neighborhoods and businesses, seniors and people with disabilities, and bicyclists. Additionally, the number of survey responses indicates a high level of interest in the project.

Safety

Overwhelmingly, survey-takers advocated for safe design. Safe facilities for cars, pedestrians, bikers, and bus-riders is reflected in the majority of comments, and the topic of safety rose to the top of the three questions. While safety meant different things to different respondents, dominant comments included safer bike lanes, safer pedestrian routes, and increasing safety for drivers.

People-first design

Many comments emphasized the importance of protected bike lanes, safe and accessible facilities for pedestrians, options for micro-mobility, and accessibility to the businesses and neighborhoods that Longmont’s residents frequent.

Car-first design

Many comments emphasized the importance of providing a design that meets the needs of Coffman Street’s current users. These comments included topics like sufficient parking, improving current traffic and travel-time, providing a safe driving environment, and creating a Coffman Street that has space for car traffic.

Less is more

For some survey-takers, Coffman Street could be improved but does not need to be revolutionized. These respondents advocated for a less-is-more approach to improvements, such as simpler upgrades for bikes or retiming of traffic lights to improve traffic flows.

Trees and Longmont’s character

The characteristics that survey-takers highlighted as important to Longmont include its historic buildings, old trees, and general aesthetic. Preserving and protecting the trees in particular were important to respondents because of their age, beauty, and climate-change benefit.

Impacts during construction

For many respondents, the primary concern about the project related to impacts during and caused by the construction process. These concerns included impacts like noise, dust, traffic delays, road closures, and business accessibility. Additionally, concerns were tied to the timeline for construction and, for a few respondents, whether construction would adversely impact peak business days.

Cost and funding

Survey-takers asked questions about the project cost, funding sources, and whether taxpayer dollars would be used to fund the project. On occasion, this topic was tied to project equity, ie. ensuring that other areas in Longmont would also benefit from planning projects.

Relationship to Main Street

Survey-takers asked many questions and provided a range of input relating to Coffman Street’s relationship to Main Street. Opinions ranged across a broad spectrum--from making Main Street a pedestrian-only route, to 2 moving all buses to Coffman, to reopening “covid-lanes” on Main for car use. However, the relationship between the two streets is an area of importance to many stakeholders.

The Coffman Street Project Team extends a sincere thanks to everyone in our community who took the time to participate in the survey. These results will inform how we move forward on the project. Stay tuned for additional engagement opportunities in early fall of this year.

The Coffman Street Busway project site is in the City of Longmont and extends from 1st Avenue to 9th Avenue. The project includes the construction of multimodal roadway improvements including travel lanes, bus lanes, bike lanes, on-street parking, landscaping, and wide sidewalks within the existing approximately 100-ft right-of-way. Corridor improvements also include traffic signal modifications, utility relocations and upgrades, stormwater facilities, irrigation, lighting, electrical, and urban design elements.

The vision of the project is to make Coffman Street a world-class, multi-modal corridor to support residents, businesses, visitors, bicyclists, pedestrians, and commuters, while protecting the character of the street and the environment. In addition, the project is envisioned to provide direct travel for buses through the downtown core off Main Street.

Coffman Street was identified as a priority area based on a number of different factors, including public feedback. Prior to implementing an EMUC, the City conducts parking utilization studies, traffic counts and analyzes intersection approach treatments. Public meetings were held in early 2019 to review draft concepts and gather community input on the full EMUC plan. Public meetings specific to Coffman Street are planned throughout the design and construction phases of the project.

The Coffman Street Busway project is the result of many years of planning and coordination between the City of Longmont and agencies responsible for transportation planning throughout the Front Range of Colorado. The Envision Longmont Multimodal and Comprehensive Plan (2016), the Enhanced Multiuse Corridor Plan (2018), and the SH 119 Planning and Environmental Linkages Study (2019) all identified Coffman Street as a corridor to accommodate Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) through the downtown core of Longmont.

The survey will be open until June 6.

Take the Survey In English
Responde la encuesta en español

By LUCAS HIGH | BizWest / Daily Camera

By SAM LOUNSBERRY | Boulder Daily Camera