City of Boulder asking for input on opening pedestrian-only trail to bikes
As the City of Boulder looks into a Multimodal Improvements Assessment, a new trail connection is a safety concern from folks on both sides of the issue. A city questionnaire is open until August 30th, and one of the most focused on questions surrounds a potential Shanahan-Doudy Draw Trail connection that would allow bikes in the West Region of Boulder Open Space for the first time in decades.
"The question never went away because the issue was never solved. This multimodal opportunity has come up to talk about this again," said Wendy Sweet the Executive Director of the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance.
The advocacy group says there's a safety issue getting cyclists from town out to popular trails that allow biking around the Marshall Mesa and Doudy Draw trailheads.
"Right now, the way to ride from school or work or town involves going on roads with cars and crossing highway 170," Sweet said.
Several groups, including PLAN-Boulder, the Boulder County Nature Association and Audubon society say allowing bikes in an area that historically kept them at bay presents its own safety concerns. The last time the city looked into expanding biking into the trail network was in 2011.
"That area west of Broadway and up into the mountain backdrop was determined to be not appropriate for bike use," said Karen Hollweg who lives near Shanahan Ridge. "For equitability's sake we have to have some areas of open space that are open to pedestrians and not bikers."
Hollweg says the trails are heavily used by hikers, and runners, and adding bikes would present a safety issue.
Sweet says as biking trails have been pushed farther from residents, the city has looked into ways to reduce the need for bikers to drive to trailheads.
"Doudy Draw is the most popular area for mountain bikes that gets into the foothills, into the trees. A lot of the bike access in the City of Boulder is still out on the plains. We are asking for this one trail that would be rerouted depending on if this goes through," Sweet said.
"It's really a valuable ecological resource. And that's why we want to keep people on trail and able to enjoy it," Hollweg said. "It has to all be balanced and equitable."
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks website says it will take the questionnaire responses and then present potential solutions in November. If a city council vote is needed, final decisions would come in early 2027.
