ACTION ALERT—Tell your state reps to stop the anti-traffic calming bill!
There’s a bill making its way through the Capitol that, if approved in its current form, would force Salt Lake City to halt its work on traffic calming, Vision Zero, neighborhood byways and livable streets for at least a year, while handing control of our local grid to the Utah Department of Transportation.
This bill, SB195, particularly lines 2867–2906, is an existential threat to the work of Sweet Streets and could undo the momentum we’ve built within Salt Lake City to transition away from car-dependency, with a chilling effect on our neighbors in Salt Lake County. While lawmakers claim SB195 is intended to plan for new traffic patterns around the Delta Center/Salt Palace district, the language of the bill is written so broadly and with such overt car-centrism that it prohibits any change to any street that would discourage speeding or aggressive driving, including a neighborhood stop sign or a crosswalk in front of a school.
We need your help to raise the alarm about this damaging bill. We need to make it clear to our elected Representatives and Senators that this kind of state overreach is unacceptable. We need to save our streets!
The pertinent text in SB195 Substitution 3, which passed the Senate with no notice or mention of this damaging text, only applies to Salt Lake City. Note that highway is defined early in the bill and the definition encompasses every street in SLC!
Step 1: Contact the House Transportation Committee
SB195 has already passed the Senate and will next be debated by the House Transportation Committee. The bill was not included in the committee’s agenda on Monday, but that could potentially change over the weekend. If it doesn’t, the bill would likely be heard on Wednesday at 8 a.m.
This committee is our last, best chance to strip the offending language (Substitute 3) before the bill goes to the House floor for a final vote. Before the weekend is over, please add your voice to this debate by emailing or calling (or both!) the following legislators, expressing your concerns about SB195 and asking them to go back to the 2nd Substitute version of the bill, which was broadly supported by stakeholders like UTA and City Hall. If any of the following lawmakers represent your area, include your zip code and let them know you’re a constituent! If you’re not a constituent, don’t be discouraged if you get a reply mentioning this. It still matters to them especially when many people are contacting them!
Don’t worry too much about the exact wording of your message. The main idea to get across is that you oppose the language of the 3rd Substitute version of the bill that instates a moratorium on SLC transportation projects and adds unnecessary oversight for projects big and small throughout the city. Feel free to add a personal touch - how has speeding/aggressive driving impacted you, the positive impact of traffic calming in your neighborhood, the importance of community control, especially when the people who live here know best, or how this would impact kids or the elderly in your neighborhood.
Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi (committee chairman)
kchristofferson@le.utah.gov, M: 801-592-5709
Rep. Ariel Defay, R-Kaysville (committee vice-chair)
adefay@le.utah.gov, M: 435-760-7726
Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Alpine/Highland (a cyclist!)
kchevrier@le.utah.gov, M: 801-520-6773
Rep. Rosalba Dominguez, D-Murray
rdominguez@le.utah.gov, M: 801-419-3283
Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan
kivory@le.utah.gov, M: 801-694-8380
Rep. Ashlee Matthews, D-Kearns/West Jordan/Taylorsville
amatthews@le.utah.gov, M: 385-264-2024
Rep. Clinton Okerlund, R-Sandy/Cottonwood Heights
cokerlund@le.utah.gov, W: 801-999-8605
Rep. Michael Petersen, R-Logan/Smithfield
mpetersen@le.utah.gov, M: 435-770-6925
Rep. Calvin Roberts, R-Draper
croberts@le.utah.gov, M: 801-438-4051
Rep. Jake Sawyer, R-Ogden/West Haven
jsawyer@le.utah.gov, M: 801-641-5928
Rep. Norman Thurston, R-Provo
normthurston@le.utah.gov, M: 801-477-5348
Step 2: Contact YOUR Representative and Senator
If you don’t know who represents you at the Utah Legislature, visit le.utah.gov and search your address. This will show the two lawmakers elected in your district, and you can follow those links to their individual biography pages, where emails and phone numbers are listed.
SB195 is eventually headed to the House floor so every member of that body needs to be alerted to its problems. And even though the Senate already voted, your personal senator can provide incredible influence in slowing down and altering legislation. Plus, if we succeed at getting the bill changed in the House, it would return to the Senate for an additional, concurring vote.
Step 3: Testify in committee
Every member of the public has a right to attend committee hearings and provide public testimony in support or opposition of legislation. And filling a committee room is among the most powerful statements the public can make. Lawmakers are human after all, and they don’t like to make people angry when those people are staring them in the face.
Tips for testifying:
1. Listen for when the chair asks who is present for public comment on SB195, then raise your hand and/or line up to speak.
2. At the microphone, state your name and your city of residence, speak calmly and clearly about your concerns and plan to have only 1 minute of time (sometimes 2, sometimes more, plan on 1).
3. Encourage the committee to move back to the 2nd Substitute of SB195, and to remove the moratorium on Salt Lake City traffic calming projects.
4. Occasionally, lawmakers will ask questions of public speakers. If this happens, breathe, be as simple and direct as possible, and stay on message—we oppose the 3rd Substitute, and we oppose any moratorium on local street work.
5. Be polite, thank the committee for their time, sign the roll of public speakers, then return to your seat.
Committee hearings typically last for two hours and the House Transportation Committee is scheduled to meet on Monday and Wednesday at 8 a.m. in room 445 of the main Capitol building. The 200 bus provides 15-minute service from anywhere on State Street and from the North Temple Frontrunner Station up to the Capitol.
The Sweet Streets board will do our best to keep our community updated about hearing schedules, but things move fast at the Capitol so don’t wait to contact your elected representatives and make your plans NOW to get up the hill and make sure your voice is heard!
Together, we can make a difference!
