900 East reconstruction: Sweet Streets calls for one important change
Salt Lake City is preparing to reconstruct 900 East in Sugar House from Hollywood to 2700 South. The proposed redesign will include space for improved crosswalks and the addition of space for people to travel by bike.
Much of the redesign will be a welcome addition to the city, with protected space for people to commute and visit local businesses by bike and on foot. New connections will be made with Parleys Trail, Fairmont Park and the town of Millcreek.
There is one significant missed opportunity, and we’re asking the city to listen to residents’ requests, adhere to the city’s Complete Streets ordinance and make one important change.
Continue the bike lanes to and from Hollywood Avenue
As designed, the city plans to discontinue the bike lane before it reaches 2100 South. It is following its own common practice of prioritizing vehicle turning lanes rather than continuing bike lanes through intersections, which are the most dangerous areas for all road users. We won’t conflate those issues and will focus on the missed opportunity this would create.
While many of the businesses in Sugar House face 2100 South, that street is currently inaccessible for people traveling on bikes. This means for many, the only way to visit Sugar House is by car. One way to provide easier access outside of vehicles is to make more connections from the neighborhood streets to the north and south.
The city’s Bike-Ped Master Plan from 2015 identifies Ramona (~1900 South) off 900 East as a future neighborhood byway. Ramona is out of this project’s range and scope. But if the lanes were extended to Hollywood (~1960 South), people could access businesses from the north. With its traffic calming and low vehicle counts and speeds, Hollywood already functions as a neighborhood byway.
This would also create a connection between the incoming route on 900 East with the McClelland Trail to the east via Hollywood and a planned neighborhood byway on 800 East to the west via Redondo Avenue.
Hollywood Avenue in Sugar House largely functions as a neighborhood byway. Extending bike lanes north of 2100 South to Hollywood would provide access to Sugar House businesses from the north. Travelers on the McClelland Trail could also bypass Sugar House by using Hollywood and 900 East to continue traveling.
To be clear, we’re not asking the city to change its design based on our ideas. We’re asking the city to follow the requests the neighborhood made in a 2019 survey. People asked the city to prioritize walking and biking infrastructure and to promote safe vehicle speeds through design.
Shared lane markings (sharrows) have been shown to be more dangerous than nothing. As far as we’re concerned, sharrows are not safe places for children to ride bikes and are therefore not bike infrastructure. So the city is effectively ending the bike lane short of 2100 South and not following its Complete Streets ordinance for this important segment.
The city says it will study continuing bike lanes through 2100 South in the future. That’s not good enough.
We’re calling on the city to listen to the requests residents made; Follow guiding principles for safety; Make more connections for people to travel this neighborhood outside of a vehicle; And make important connections in the city’s neighborhood byway network.
We encourage the public to email comments to 900east@slcgov.com no later than Feb. 28, 2021.
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ABOUT SWEET STREETS: Founded in 2020, Sweet Streets is a nonprofit that educates and advocates for people-first planning, budgeting, implementation and operation of our streets and public spaces in Salt Lake City.
