Boulder's fightfighter union wants the city to rethink how it approves traffic-slowing measures or face the possibility that the union will back a Nov. 7 ballot initiative to remove traffic circles and speed bumps citywide.

The 90-member International Association of Firefighters Local 900 represents all of Boulder's firefighting personnel below the department administration.

The union's executive board has decided to approach the City Council with concerns over the potential spread of traffic circles and speed bumps and how those obstacles may lengthen emergency response times.

Union members worry that traffic-slowing measures may be added throughout Boulder without adequate input from the Fire Department, said Lt. Ed Rozeski, the department training officer and Local 900 vice president.

"We either want to be in the mix on deciding traffic mitigation measures, or at least the city should inform the public and have a general vote on them," Rozeski said.

A citizen-driven "Seconds Count" ballot question in November will ask voters to approve the removal of traffic circles and speed bumps.

The Local 900 executive board considers the measure heavy-handed, Rozeski said, but would consider backing it if the city continues to use limited neighborhood polling to make experimental traffic-slowing measures permanent.

Last month, the city surveyed residents along Balsam Avenue and Spruce Street who lived within 400 feet of four traffic circles there. Of those who responded, 78 percent supported the circles, the city said.

Approving traffic circles and speed bumps that way worries firefighters, Rozeski said. He said they envision devices being added block by block in residential areas, eventually impeding the department's ability to respond to emergencies quickly.

"If we the firefighters — people who actually come to your house in an emergency — had to choose between having traffic circles on every other block throughout the city or having none at all, we'd choose having none," Rozeski said.

Warren Hultquist, Seconds Count co-founder, said he hopes the firefighter union's stance will force the city to poll those who live farther away from traffic circles and speed bumps.

"We're happy to see an explicit stance out of the union that response time is important and that is the concern about block-by-block mitigation planning," Hultquist said. "They're pushing traffic onto neighborhood streets and creating more demand. The result is a creeping program that make others clamor to have one on their block."

Contact Greg Avery at (303) 473-1307 or averyg@thedailycamera.com.