Flatiron Flyer lines The Flatiron Flyer will offer six lines, named FF1, FF2 and so on. The six routes will collectively will replace existing RTD lines BV, BX, BMX, BF, 86X, HX, DM, S and T. Each Flyer line will make local stops, and all but FF2 will stop between two and five times on U.S. 36. • FF1: Boulder Transit Center to Union Station, with five stops along U.S. 36 • FF2: Boulder Transit Center to Union Station, with one stop (McCaslin Boulevard) along U.S. 36 • FF3: U.S. 36 and Broomfield Station to Union Station, with two stops along U.S. 36 • FF4: Boulder Junction to Civic Center Station, with four stops along U.S. 36 • FF5: Boulder Transit Center to Anschutz Medical Camus, with three stops along U.S. 36 • FF6: Boulder Junction to Union Station, with three stops along U.S. 36.

The Flatiron Flyer bus system was designed to offer rapid transit on U.S. 36 between Boulder and Denver making use of new express lanes and, when traffic slows or halts altogether, cruising past on the shoulder of the road.

But in a development arriving just weeks ahead of the Flyer’s Jan. 3 debut — and that somehow went unforeseen for six years by both state transportation planners and a coalition of mayors and commissioners along the highway’s corridor — the buses’ privilege to drive on the shoulder will have to be sorted out in the Legislature.

Before its drivers are allowed to use the shoulder, the Flatiron Flyer, operated by the Regional Transportation District, will need Colorado lawmakers to pass a bill granting a special exemption.

The Colorado Department of Transportation has taken the lead on that bill proposal, with RTD and Boulder prepared to perform back-up lobbying duty when the time comes.

The need for such a bill surprised nearly everyone involved on the project. CDOT and RTD officials interviewed Friday could not explain the oversight.

“It’s a little puzzling as to why people didn’t figure this out earlier, CDOT and RTD being the people in mind,” Boulder City Council member (and ex-mayor, as of last week) Matt Appelbaum said. “The bus-on-shoulder thing has been talked about forever and ever.”

“It does seem like this kind of crept up on people,” said Carl Castillo, Boulder’s top lobbyist to the state. “Kind of like a last-minute, ‘Oh, we have to address this.’ …There may very well have been some lack of communication.”

Confidence the bill could move quickly

With no one seemingly able to offer a scapegoat for the lapse, beyond the shoulder law’s relative obscurity, and the fact that it has never before been challenged in Colorado, urgent attention now turns to getting something negotiated at the State Capitol as soon as possible.

“Based on the conversations we’ve had with the stakeholders, we are confident that the bill will move through quickly,” said Andy Karsian, state legislative liaison for CDOT.

For the past several weeks, the loudest, and perhaps sole voice of dissent on the shoulder proposal has come from the Colorado State Patrol.

The shoulder of the road does serve a purpose for emergency vehicles, law enforcement and pull-overs, and State Patrol Trooper Josh Lewis said Friday that his office prefers to keep shoulders clear shoulders.

Asked whether the State Patrol wants to see the shoulder open or closed to buses, Lewis declined to comment, but indicated they would not attempt to prevent any exemption bill.

That likely bill won’t move, however, until at least Jan. 13, when the Colorado House of Representatives returns to session. And it’s unclear when lawmakers would even bring up the matter once the session begins — though it doesn’t hurt that Dickie Lee Hullinghorst, Speaker of the state House of Representatives, is from Boulder.

Of Hullinghorst’s possible role, Appelbaum said, “I would certainly hope we would ask her to ensure that a bill of this sort get quick action.”

‘I think it’s a pretty big issue’

Even with preferential treatment, though, it’s hard to imagine the bill reaching the governor’s desk before February, at the earliest.

“It’ll be something of an issue. Hopefully not a huge issue,” Appelbaum said of the shoulder-less opening. “Its tolerable. It’s not perfect.”

Sherry Ellebracht, RTD’s government relations officer, downplayed the setback.

“Bus rapid transit will work without the bus on shoulder,” she said. “The bus-on-shoulder is an added advantage, but our buses will be able to operate in the managed (express/H.O.V) lane.

“It would only be if the managed lanes slow to a certain speed that the buses would have the privilege to travel on the shoulder. It would only be if the entire roadway were clogged.”

Indeed, the luxury CDOT is now hoping to finagle would have limitations; Flyer buses could only drive on shoulders when general traffic were moving under 35 mph. Once on the shoulder, buses could never travel more than 15 mph faster than the general traffic.

But, as Boulder City Council member Sam Weaver commented, even a bus going 15 mph while the rest of the highway sits in bumper-to-bumper would still live up to the Flyer’s mandate to be reliable and significantly faster than existing U.S. 36 buses.

“I think it’s a pretty big issue that the buses be truly rapid transit,” Weaver said. The lack of shoulder access is “not a deal killer for bus rapid transit, but it would certainly make the rider experience less pleasant and full of delays.”

Alex Burness: 303-473-1389, burnessa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/alex_burness