Boulder was expected to remove more than half of the green-and-white bollards dividing the vehicle and bicycle lanes on the “right-sized” portion of Folsom Street on Tuesday night as officials continue to fine-tune the city’s controversial Living Lab traffic experiment along that corridor.

The removal of the flexible plastic posts is one of several tweaks to the Folsom project that came out of the Boulder City Council’s Aug. 25 study session, at which a majority of council members wanted to continue with the project with small changes to try to make it work better.

However, at an update about the project Tuesday night, City Council members said they wanted to hold another meeting, now scheduled for Sept. 29, to discuss the future of the project.

Councilwoman Lisa Morzel, who was not present at the Aug. 25 meeting but proposed in an email that the project be removed south of Pine Street, asked detailed questions Tuesday about how the city is monitoring the impacts of the project and reminded her colleagues they had originally supported her call for a public hearing on the Folsom project sometime this month.

Councilman George Karakehian, who opposed the project from the beginning, said it has the potential to become an election issue.

“This has divided our community, and you can continue with the small fixes and changing the colors of bollards and changing the paint, but this is broken,” he said.

But Councilman Macon Cowles said the council shouldn’t retreat from its position taken just two weeks ago that the project should continue for at least a year. The Boulder City Council also approved the right-sizing pilot project and the Transportation Master Plan, whose goals the right-sizing project was meant to advance.

“A couple weeks ago, we agreed we would let it unfold for a bit to see what additional data we could collect,” he said. “And now the people who think this is an unmitigated disaster can watch it unfold live on camera, 24/7, and it’s not that bad. We’ve had this discussion. I think the council needs to stand firm in its original decision that this is an experiment, and we need to see how it unfolds.”

The Sept. 29 meeting will not include a public hearing on the project, as City Council members believe they have received adequate feedback in the nearly 2,000 emails and online comments, as well as in phone calls and conversations in person.

According to a memo to the council, 200 of the 350 flexible plastic bollards on Folsom between Valmont Road and Canyon Boulevard would be removed overnight Tuesday night.

City officials hope that by doing so they’ll achieve the following benefits:

• Make it easier for drivers making right turns into driveways, alleys and streets to do so without blocking traffic on Folsom

• Make it easier for drivers to back out of the several residential driveways along that portion of Folsom

• Allow more space for drivers to pull over to let emergency vehicles to pass

• Make the bike lane less constrained so that it will be easier for cyclists to pass each other

• Reduce the “sense of clutter” along the Folsom corridor

“I think we’ll get feedback almost immediately as to whether people like the changes or not,” Mike Sweeney, acting director of public works for transportation, told the City Council. “In terms of data, we’ll need several weeks to see if they’re making a difference.”

In addition to cutting the number of bollards, city crews planned to re-stripe several of the painted median islands on Folsom on Tuesday night to create more center left-turn space. City officials, in their memo to the council, say that will also help with making it easier for vehicles to turn into and out of driveways and alleys.

The areas that were to be re-striped Tuesday night include:

• North of the median on the north side of the Folsom and Canyon intersection

• South of the median at the Folsom and Walnut Street intersection

• On both the northbound and southbound approaches to the Folsom and Pine Street intersection

Several changes to Folsom already have been completed, according to city officials, including modifying the timing of the traffic signal at Folsom and Pearl streets during the afternoon rush hour to shift several seconds of green lights from Pearl to Folsom streets. City workers also have removed overgrown vegetation from the median at the Folsom and Walnut pedestrian crossing in an attempt to improve visibility.