What We Accomplished in 2022, Together.
Our campaign to promote safe speeds on neighborhood streets was a success! But that’s not all we accomplished together in 2022. We distributed hundreds of signs throughout the community to promote walking and biking. We hosted walking and biking tours all over the city. And we built community.
Here’s a recap of what we achieved together and a sneak peek at what we have planned for the new year.
20 is Plenty — Accomplished
In 2022, thanks to your help, we completed our campaign to lower the speed limit on most Salt Lake City streets to 20 mph. The Salt Lake City Council approved the change in May and posted signs on 73% of streets were changed in the summer.
Walk/Bike SLC Wayfinding
In May, we printed dozens of wayfinding signs pointing the traveling public to various locations in neighborhoods across Salt Lake City. The locations included schools, shops, restaurants and parks.
These signs listed the community location and included the distance and time needed to travel from a given point while walking or riding a bike. The goal of this initiative was to encourage people to travel outside a car, and to make them aware that often it’s not too far to travel outside a car.
Sweet Streets Meetups
Throughout the year, we held a series of monthly events to share our ideas, make new friends and grow the network. We plan to hold more of these events in 2023.
Walking and Biking Tours
This summer, we hosted a series of walking and biking tours in four neighborhoods throughout town. We highlighted new murals painted by local artists Downtown; showcased different types of streets (local, collector, arterial and neighborhood byway) in Liberty Wells; paired up with another local nonprofit to talk about daylighting waterways on the west side; and biked on the Jordan River Trail.
Growing the Network
We joined a statewide coalition called Families For Safe Streets, which fights to end all traffic violence through design solutions and advocacy.
Highlighting the Problem
We have maintained our SLC Traffic Violence Map, which tracks every known incidence of traffic violence in Salt Lake City. Our goal with this map is to show, in real time, the number of lives that are affected by traffic violence each year in our city. Official sources of this information are several years out of date, and it’s our belief that we can influence decision-makers when we show this violence as it happens. The map has been viewed tens of thousands of times and has been cited in the media numerous times.
Fighting Highway Expansion
We began building a coalition to oppose the displacement of people from homes near Interstate 15 as proposed by the Utah Department of Transportation. We successfully fought to push back the public comment until after the holidays, giving residents between Salt Lake City and Farmington more time to study the impacts of this proposed expansion and to make their voices heard about the project.
Created the 2100 South Coalition
Salt Lake City is preparing to reconstruction 2100 South in the heart of Sugar House, and we’re hoping to galvanize the community to support the most transformative option for the street. The coalition’s goal is to turn 2100 South into a true Main Street for the neighborhood, rather than a pass-through surface highway that damages the quality of life on the street. Join the coalition today.
New Campaigns in 2023
We’ve identified our next campaigns to advance our mission of building a people-first city and are preparing to roll them out by the end of 2022 moving into 2023.
Thank you for participating in this movement for people-first streets and spaces! We're ready to roll in 2023. Stay tuned!