Advocacy Alert – September 4, 2019 – Salt Lake City has begun the process of rebuilding 300 West between 500 S and 2100 S, with construction to take place in 2021 and 2022. The project is in the planning stages, and Salt Lake City is conducting a survey on how the road should look. The street is slated to be completely reconstructed, and will get better sidewalks and bike lanes as a result.
According to the Salt Lake City project page on the Mystreet section of the city’s website, the street will be reconstructed and will “follow our city’s Complete Streets Ordinance, Transportation Plans, and Climate 2040 Plan.”
According to the city’s website, 300 West “improvements will include upgrades to curb and gutter to improve drainage, upgrades to sidewalks and bus stops to increase safety and access for people walking and taking transit, in addition to other street enhancements to increase mobility, transportation options, and air quality.”
The stated goals of the project are:
· To incorporate safety features to reduce and prevent serious or fatal crashes
· To improve access and travel conditions for people walking to key destinations along the street
· To provide a comfortable travel experience for people driving, biking, and taking the bus
· To prolong the lifespan of the roadway by renovating underground utilities and pavement surface
· To keep community members informed and mitigate construction
The survey looks at multiple options for bike lanes, including regular bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, 2 way cycletracks, protected bike lanes, and European style raised ‘sidewalk’ bike lanes.
This is good news for cyclists, as the Complete Streets Ordinance requires that all user groups be accomodated when a street is rebuilt. Since Funding Our Future bond money is being used for the project, this will help to ensure that bike lanes and better sidewalks are installed as part of the project.
Submit comments on 300 W or email to be added to the project notification list: [email protected]
Our comments on the project:
We can’t wait to see new bike lanes on 300 W!
The biggest issue with the 300 West project is that it is too narrow in scope. UDOT needs to be part of the process so that 600 S to N Temple and then to 600 N is included. The entire stretch needs bike lanes. 300 W between N. Temple and 600 N could have bike lanes tomorrow if it were restriped. The lanes are ridiculously wide there, and this would slow speeds and improve mobility in Salt Lake City by serving all user groups: pedestrians, bicyclists, transit, delivery, and cars, in that order.
But, if UDOT isn’t part of the conversation then we will end up with a piecemeal solution that is better than the current situation, but that fails at the boundaries.
300 West has too wide lanes and too high speed limits and speeds. The 300 West project needs to incorporate speed limit reductions from the start. Since narrower lanes help to slow speeds, the 300 West project should strive for 10 foot lanes for automobile traffic.
Overall, we are very pleased that this street will be reconstructed. Consider adopting some of the provisions from Life on State (although that study may lead to a failed State Street since it doesn’t consider reducing lane widths or removing car lanes, and doesn’t seriously consider adding bike lanes).
Some needs for 300 West:
1. 10′ travel lanes.
2. Fully protected bike lanes.
3. If sidewalk bike lanes are chosen, please be careful so that this doesn’t result in higher speed car traffic.
4. Please immediately lower speed limits, and absolutely include lowering speed limits and speeds as a goal in the project.
5. Reconfigure the unsafe Target crossing.
6. Reconfigure the bike crossing for the 1300 S ‘alternative’. It appears to us to be not so great for cyclists.
7. Plan for safe ingress and egress to and from the new homeless shelter, with bike lanes.
8. Add a bike path along the Trax line from 1300 to 2100 S. (out of scope, but should be part of the discussion of the bigger project).
9. Make sure any new streetlighting is low color temperature and power and doesn’t blind drivers and cyclists with glare, and is Dark Skies compliant.
10. Fix 700 S to include bike lanes so that the crossing at 300 W is better.
11. Same for 1700 S – but add protected bike lanes on 1700 S. Think big, not small.
(While a few of these suggestions could be considered outside the scope of this project, they really are part of it in that we need a connected bike lane system that interfaces with 300 W).
12. Salt Lake City needs to ask businesses such as the Burger King and Lowe’s at 1300 S to actually clear their sidewalks in the winter. In the storms last winter, they did not.
13. Salt Lake City needs to work with S. Salt Lake so that the bike lanes on 300 W continue south of 2100 S and connect to the S Line trail.
14. Salt Lake City needs to work with UDOT on 2100 S at 300 W so that they actually pay attention to the transportation needs of SLC instead of repaving with the same configuration as before.
15. We can’t wait to see new bike lanes on 300 W!
700 south 300 W is dangerous. I’ve had 2 close calls there on a bike, a few on foot, and been harassed by motorists.
Comments are closed.