9/13/2021 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY
TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD
Minutes of the September 13, 2021 Meeting
Electronically present from the Transportation Advisory Board were Benjamin
LaRiviere, Courtney Reeser, Daniel Mendoza, Dave Alderman, David Parrott, Ellen
Reddick, Greg Sanchez, Jenn Diederich, Jim Espeland, Jon Larsen, Kerry Doane,
Marjorie Rasmussen, and Reid Ewing.
Members absent from the Transportation Advisory Board were Myron Willson, Paul
Schulte, and Suzanne Stensaas.
Also present were Ben Wood, Becka Roolf, Tom Millar,Amy Lyons, Luke Garrott,Alex
Cragun, Joe Taylor,Alex, Taylor Anderson,Ashley Trinh, Dave Iltis, Julianne Sabula,
and Lara Handwerker.
The meeting was held electronically and was called to order at 4:o2p.m. by Courtney
Reeser.
Welcome and Introduction of Guests — Courtney read the anchor statement and
welcomed everyone.
Public Comment— Luke Garrott said he is a Board member and co-founder of Sweet
Streets which is a local group that is advocating for and educating about people first
streets and public spaces. He said that later on the agenda TAB is going to discuss
Courtney's letter in support of a 20 is Plenty or rather a reduction in the city's speed
limit in residential areas. He wants to encourage the Board members to support that
letter and support the notion. The people at Sweet Streets understand that design more
than anything affects how fast drivers drive but some good recent data also shows that
posted speed limits make a difference too. They are trying to convince the City to make
this change as a kind of holistic approach which includes another presentation TAB is
going to see today, which is Street Typologies, which is very designed and focused.
Sweet Streets thinks the policy of lowering the speed limit in most places in the city to
2omph is a good idea and encourage TAB to support it. Taylor Anderson said he is also
a representative of Sweet Streets and appreciates the Board's conversation from the last
meeting. He thinks this topic came up when the discussion around engineering and
design being the most effective way of slowing driver's speeds came up. He said they
agree and understand that and are supportive and are hopeful to see a future where we
have re-engineered streets and where we have safe speeds,which is going to take a very
long time. It's also the number one piece of feedback they have gotten. Sweet Streets
started this local campaign,but it is a worldwide effort to make safer speeds throughout
cities across the world. The number one piece of feedback Sweet Streets has gotten isn't
that people are going to be upset over slower speeds, not that they think their driving
time is going to go up, they just want effective traffic calming, they want safer streets,
they want them now and so do we. Taylor understands everyone can agree that wanting
streets that are engineered to target streets is the best way to go, it's just going to take a
very long time and he doesn't think it's an either-or question. Other cities have found
Page 1 of 6 TAB 09-13-2021 Minutes
that new posted signs do have an effect on people who are driving at dangerously high
speeds. He would recommend looking at recent research out of Boston and Portland. It
might also be why the World Health Organization and AAA both recommend 2omph
default speed limits in cities. Setting a 2omph speed limit on local streets would also set
a safer baseline when it comes time to redesigning each individual street. It's going to
again, take a very long time. There are ro,000 of those streets across the city but he
thinks that's a nice safe baseline that the City can follow. We might have lower speeds
when the Traffic Engineer decides that's the case, but more than 1,000 SLC residents
say they support this change and we're asking the TAB in their capacity as an advisory
Board within the city to join the cause as well. Courtney spoke for Alex Cragun from
Sweet Streets who also seconds the statements of both Luke and Taylor. Dave Iltis with
Cycling Utah wanted to comment on the Complete Streets Committee meeting that
happened recently. His opinion is that the Committee erroneously decided that roo
South should not get any sort of bike accommodations or traffic calming other than
existing pedestrian bulb outs. He said the Committee clearly broke the law, they
violated the spirit of the law and they violated the letter of the law when they came up
with convoluted reasons for not including bike lanes. Dave said better biking is better
for everybody because it means that speeds slow down, it's better for pedestrians, it's
better for cyclists, it's better for motorists and the recalcitrance of SLC to not want to
have better cycling conditions on roo South is baffling given the push towards lower
speed limits that were just expressed by Sweet Streets. His hope is that the Complete
Streets Committee will reconsider this since the striping isn't done so there is still an
opportunity to change this. Regarding speed limits, he said SLC is addicted to speed
and if you look at some of the streets where we have super high speed limits like goo
West where there are community centers, schools and lots of businesses, there has been
no effort to change the speed limit there. There has been no effort to change the speed
limit on 800 South and on recent construction by the zoo where kids are going by, the
speed limit remains Oomph which is an invitation for a child to be hit in the crosswalk
there. He pointed out the two studies that Taylor quoted from Portland and Boston and
said the speeds citywide need to drop by 5-ro mph on every single road starting with a
blanket of 2omph if necessary.
Motion: Jim Espeland moved to approve the minutes of the August 2, 2021 meeting.
Dave Alderman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Report Out
TAB Members
Ellen thanked Marge and Jon for being so helpful and beginning to make safety
improvements on Foothill. She said there is momentum behind it and Jamie Stokes
with the Mayor's Office is helping them put in more trees. This physical change in the
environment will hopefully slow down traffic. She said everyone is starting to get
focused and being helpful and she appreciates this tremendous group. David Parrott
said at the last BAC meeting they had a chance to go over the 1300 West Neighborhood
Byway Nan, they talked about the Transportation Master Nan and had a nice
impromptu CIP discussion. The members hopefully made their CIP recommendations
to the City Council on an individual basis. BAC is also getting a lot of new members so
they should be up to steam in the next few months. Ben said he's noticed a lot of 20 Is
Plenty signs in his neighborhood which is definitely an indication of support in his
district. He also asked about the curb cut on the S-Line Trail at Main Street. Jon said
Page 2 of 6 TAB 09-13-2021 Minutes
that section is in South Salt Lake, so he has no information on it. Reid spoke about their
findings related to UVX and said they are going to be doing a lot of Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT) in the future. He prefers light rail for many reasons,but it is more expensive so
BRT will be a quality transit option, probably for the future of SLC as well. They found it
did take cars off the road which was also the case with the University Trax line in SLC.
They have now looked at the S-Line at 2100 South and found that they can't detect an
effect on traffic volumes which isn't necessarily bad news. Street cars aren't thought of
as competitors to the automobile, they are represented as economic development tools.
There has been a lot of economic development in that corridor and that's the goal so
even if street cars can't divert a lot of auto traffic to transit, they still serve a very
valuable purpose. He will report their findings to the Board when the research on 2100
South is complete. Kerry asked if they discerned the ridership on the bus route on 2100
South as well as the autos and streetcars. Reid said they looked at bus ridership,but
he'll ask the doctorate student conducting this research the details and report back. He
said they are doing a 7-8-year period which is before there was a streetcar,but they are
not able to use 2020 in a time series analysis because it was an outlier year. Jim said
he's happy to report that Google Fiber is finally fixing some streets in District 2. Kerry
said UTA had their August change day. There weren't a lot of changes in SLC except for
nth Avenue which will turn into a flex route. She said UTA is working with SLC on
finding and locating new bus stops for the anticipation of new routes in Rose Park which
will hopefully happen in August 2022. They are struggling getting and keeping bus
operators right now to operate their service. Daniel spoke with some of his neighbors
who are concerned about the rezoning between South Temple and 600 South and 900
East to 1300 East to allow large apartment buildings. He asked if TAB has any role in
that as it would create horrible congestion. Reid said he's sympathetic, although he
generally likes density, but it must be done selectively and carefully with full recognition
of neighborhood character. He would be curious to hear more about it as it sounds like
a massive rezoning and would like Daniel to report on it as they might want to weigh in
on it. Daniel said he'll investigate and report on it in the future. Reid said it's within the
Committee's purview to comment and take a position on things like that. Even though
it's land use, it drives transportation. Marge said UDOT has been busy coordinating
with SLC and getting the 600 North bike lanes over the structure from 30o West. She
said they have some good momentum going on getting some concepts done quickly for
Foothill. On 300 West they met with the City to look at the pedestrian crossings that are
badly needed and then the bulb outs that the city is putting in. They will also be putting
in some pedestrian crossings by Reed Avenue just below the Marmalade District by 800
North. She said there's a lot going on around the valley but those are the main things
they are working on within SLC. Courtney said she appreciates the project notifications
she has been getting on 6o0 North and the excavation to add the end off ramp lane has
begun. She had a conversation with a neighbor who lives on 1000 West regarding the
impact of the restriping project, and he wanted to know if there is anything that can be
done regarding safety in that area to help reduce speed and reduce the possible traffic
impact. One of the things that came up was a 4-way stop on 30o North and moo West,
although he liked the idea of a roundabout but since there is a fire station right there, a
roundabout wouldn't work. He is also going to be proposing a CIP for 500 north and
1000 West. She said she has also seen a lot of Sweet Streets signs in her area. They
have also been doing what they can to make sure people feel heard in her area. One of
the things is that the communities have not necessarily felt heard, and she thinks their
communications have improved quite a bit in the last couple of months.
Page 3 of 6 TAB 09-13-2021 Minutes
Comprehensive CIP Scoring Prioritization
Joe Taylor, SLC Transportation
Joe gave a presentation to show clarity and understanding regarding the CIP scoring
process. The goal of scoring the projects is to try and enrich the environment of the
projects with as much data as possible but these scores are not used by Council to
determine which projects are funded. He explained the differences between the CIP and
the Constituent CIP programs. He showed a list of the projects funded and how much
they were funded for in the last round of CIP applications. Joe gave a scoring example
and went over some pros and cons of the scoring system and how a project is properly
evaluated using equity, sustainability, safety, and good governance as the scoring
criteria. Courtney asked if a project isn't chosen if it is forwarded to the next year.
Becka replied in chat that a new application would need to be submitted the next year.
Courtney asked if there is a place to see the crash heat map. Becka said the City data is
very similar to what UDOT has on their website however, there are some forms in one
data set vs another. Taylor Anderson listed the website for the City's heat crash map in
the chat which can be found here: https://slcgov.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/
index.html?appid=326333659bcb4873b64cc9a4oe3749d5. Reid suggested they run the
scoring system by City Council and Jon said it was transmitted to them in 2020.
Council said they like the current process and wanted to stick with that for now,but the
CIP Board did ask for some of these criteria. Reid asked if this might be an area where
TAB can be involved in choosing criteria and giving higher weights to certain areas, for
example crashes are important and he would give that more weight. Through a
deliberative process,you can arrive at intuitive support from a body that has been
appointed by the City Council. Julianne noted in the chat that the Council pulls
guidance from the master plans. Kerry suggested that if TAB were to weigh in on this, it
might be better to make the scoring criteria smaller and more distinct. Joe said they
could look at specific areas rather than the entire list of scoring criteria.
Typologies Design Guide Update and Finalization
Tom Millar, SLC Transportation
This presentation was postponed to the October meeting due to time constraints.
Complete Streets
TAB Members
Jon said the City adopted a Complete Streets ordinance over 10 years ago which
designates a Complete Streets Committee made up of the City Engineer, the Division of
Transportation Director, and the Planning Director. The sole purpose of that
Committee is to determine if an exception is warranted when a street is rebuilt for not
providing a bikeway or walkway. In 2015, City Council adopted a Pedestrian Bicycle
Master Plan which has a lot of great policy guidance as well as maps, project lists with
time frames and recommendations for which street should get which type of treatments
from Neighborhood Byways, to spot improvements, pedestrian improvements, different
types of bike lanes, etc. Since the Ped/Bike Master Plan was adopted 5 years after the
Complete Streets ordinance and is more specific, we generally look at that more for
guidance when we rebuild a street or have an opportunity to restripe. Jon said the other
thing is that the Complete Streets ordinance doesn't mention anything about transit and
in 2017, the City adopted a Transit Master Nan. With all of that, he thinks it would be
appropriate to explore an updated, modernized Complete Streets Ordinance. The Street
Typologies project can provide even further guidance on what sorts of treatments are
appropriate for each street and goes a step further looking at the adjacent land use and
Page 4 of 6 TAB 09-13-2021 Minutes
the interplay between the buildings and the streets and the sidewalks. It also looks at
the aesthetics and recognizes that streets are not just for moving people but are also the
frontage of businesses and homes which all need to be taken into consideration when
looking at street design. He said they have been asking for and receiving money for
Complete Streets projects and transformations throughout the city and he gave some
examples. Dave Alderman asked if the complete streets projects are done just for the
purpose of bringing the streets up to those specifications or is that when the City redoes
a roadway, they build it to that spec. Jon said it's both and they have a complete streets
checklist that they look at before they rebuild. Kerry asked if that checklist included
transit,bicycles and pedestrians and Jon said it does include all three. The Complete
Streets ordinance has a very literal reading of having to put a bike lane on any street that
is reconstructed and doesn't differentiate between street types. The City didn't have the
Ped/Bike Master Plan when it was adopted so as staff,we generally have not striped
bike lanes when we stripe a local street but on the majority of streets, we end up putting
in bike lanes. There are a few exceptions like ioo South and on the Ped/Bike Master
Plan, it does not call for any sort of bike lane. Reid asked Jon to run through why they
decided not to put bike lanes on ioo South. Jon said he thinks the ideal would be
having high comfort bike lanes on every collector and arterial in the city,but the
Complete Streets Ordinance even recognizes that cost and use are considerations and
delegates that authority to the Committee. He said when they looked at ioo South, it is
the main east/west connection that all emergency vehicles use to get to the hospitals and
the fact that 200 South and 30o South are already well established with bike lanes and
the Ped/Bike Master Plan calls for South Temple to have well buffered bike lanes, they
felt strongly that ioo South should maintain those two lanes of travel each way. The
effort of the project team was focused on pedestrian safety and it already has sidewalks
and wide park strips,but the crossings can be uncomfortable and maybe even unsafe.
We looked at the crosswalks and crosswalk opportunities and really doubled down on
this project including a couple of midblock crossings, the addition of bulb outs, RFB's,
and other safety options. There isn't room to get adequate bike lanes with other high-
quality options on adjacent streets and in our professional opinion, we would be better
off diverting bike traffic to 200 South or 30o South and hopefully South Temple in a few
years. Reid asked about the traffic volume and Jon said it is under 2ok and if it weren't
an emergency route, they might not keep both lanes. Reid thanked Jon for his
thoughtful decision but said for emergency vehicles, a three-lane section creates a center
turn lane for them to use if the travel lanes are backed up. He said he's not sure why
others feel so strongly about it because there are bike lanes on other streets heading in
the same direction only one block away but asked if there was a win/win solution.
Courtney mentioned some of the neighborhood issues with removing lanes on ioo
South and said the purpose of the Complete Streets ordinance is to remind engineers
that all users are to be considered and that it is a misconception that a bike lane is
required on every street. Reid said we do know that road diets at the right traffic
volumes are much safer than 4 lane cross sections. There's been a lot of research done
before and after from 4 to a 3-lane cross section which seems to him to be as important
as anything. Courtney agreed but said they are doing pedestrian safety and there are
other bicycle facilities in the same area.
20 MPH Speed Limit Letter Discussion
TAB Members
Courtney read the 2oMPH speed limit letter which essentially said TAB supports the
efforts for the Sweet Streets, 20 is Plenty campaign. After some discussion, it was
Page 5 of 6 TAB 09-13-2021 Minutes
determined that not all Board members agreed with this campaign. While there are
safety and livability benefits, Reid felt they were overstepping and that the studies he
has seen don't support the benefits of this. He said that even if they would love people
to slow down, that's the reason they, as a Board, have been so enthusiastic about traffic
calming. When TAB looked at this before, people slow down marginally with signs but
with physical traffic calming, people must slow down. The Board felt they should
connect the 2omph on the streets that come forth with the Typologies Design Guide.
Citizens are wanting action now and this is an easy way to do it, but it may not be the
right way and if the City comes out with a 2omph program, are they going to generate
backlash before the Traffic Calming Program can even gain ground. They decided to
review some new studies, hear the Typologies update and talk about this at their next
meeting.
TAB WebEx Meeting Chat
from Alex Cragun to everyone: 4:03 PM
I am unable to speak(I'm at work), but I am a fellow board member of Sweet Streets
and would like to second the statement Luke G and Taylor A have given.
from Taylor Anderson to everyone: 4:49 PM
Is it not this map?
https://slcgov.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=326333659bcb487
3b64cc9a4oe3749d5
from Sabula, Julianne to everyone: 4:56 PM
For clarification, the categories (sustainability, etc.) were drawn from Council adopted
master plans, but the specific criteria were selected by staff.
from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:35 PM
Boston: https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/city-drivers-slow-down-for-lower-speed-
limit-in-boston#.W4W_MhOUNU.twitter
from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:35 PM
Portland: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2o18/o1/18/portland-will-reduce-residential-
speed-limits-to-20-mph/
from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:36 PM
Seattle: https://nacto.org/publication/city-limits/the-tools/case-studies-in-lowering-
speed-limits/
from mcrasmussen to everyone: 5:37 PM
https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title4i/Chapter6A/41-6a-S6o1.html
Motion: Reid Ewing motioned to adjourn the meeting; Kerry Doane seconded the
motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 5:41 p.m. and
the next meeting of the Board was scheduled for October 4, 2021.
Approved by TAB io-o4-21.
Page 6 of 6 TAB 09-13-2021 Minutes