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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/16/2026 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY * BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Minutes of the March 16, 2026 Meeting Present from the Bicycle Advisory Committee were Alla Chernenko, Esther Daranciang, and Kerry Doane. Electronically present from the Bicycle Advisory Committee were Laura Lewis, Rebecca Bauer, and William Davis. Members absent from the Bicycle Advisory Committee were Jeannie Rollo and Maxwell Hoagland. Present were Lt. Steve Wooldridge, Lynn Jacobs, and Dave Iltis. Electronically Present were Amy Lyons, Ben Trueman, Brian Conley, Troy Saltiel, Meredith Muller, and Graham. The meeting was held both electronically via WebEx and in person and was called to order at 5:01 p.m. by Esther Daranciang. Esther welcomed everyone and everyone introduced themselves. Approval of Minutes Motion: Kerry Doane motioned to approve the minutes of the February 9, 2026 BAC meeting. Alla Chernenko seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Jordan River Parkway Trail — Closure procedures Lt. Wooldridge explained that trail closures for public safety typically occur when there are significant issues such as drug activity or hazardous conditions. These closures are coordinated with Public Lands/Parks and generally require City Council approval, though emergency closures can happen more quickly. For construction-related closures, the Transportation Division requires traffic control permits and emphasizes maintaining pedestrian and bicycle access, often through signed detours. Several concerns and opportunities for improvement were discussed: • Inconsistent communication about closures and detours • Need for clearer and more consistent detour signage ("breadcrumbs") • Importance of monitoring and maintaining signage during closures • Desire for better public notification (e.g., SLC Moves, posted timelines) • Suggestions for improved police presence on foot/bike vs.vehicles on trails Page 1 of 5 BAC 03-16-2026 Minutes Report Out Rebecca Bauer said she was riding on 210o East by the Foothill Library, and the winter tore up the pavement, and it's gotten worse over there when you're trying to get to Sunnyside. She never realized you can kind of cut through that neighborhood, she's always gone on Foothill and thinks some signage of a bike route would be super helpful. Laura Lewis has just been riding more as the weather's getting better and it's awesome. William Davis took a bunch of pictures but hasn't sent them yet. These are things like bike lanes being too narrow or completely disappearing. He did want to shout out that 1820 South is really garbage. The bike lane approaching 3200 West is non-existent, it is literally a 6"hole, nothing is left. The tracks crossings on that road are ridiculous, they're really bad. As a matter of fact, cars don't even use the main road, they just go right into the bike lane because the tracks crossings are so bad. Alla Chernenko said this was her last Committee meeting. In relation to the detour currently around 1300 South on the Jordan River Trail (JRT), that is the worst JRT intersection in the city. Not as much from a safety perspective although a little bit but just because it kind of come out slightly kiddy corner, the northern and southern parts don't connect. She almost prefers when you're headed north that it spits you right out onto Glendale Street and sort of right with the detour as opposed to that weird turn on the sidewalk and the dirt desire path that just formed there. Alla said perhaps one day that could receive improvements, that would make her dreams come true. Her other observation is as much as Salt Lake definitely does still have room for improvement such as that intersection, she's had opportunities to ride further south in Salt Lake County recently. The border into South Salt Lake and then into Salt Lake after coming from the Taylorsville &West Jordan area is really pleasant. It's a much lower stress environment for cycling in the City so she appreciates all the work Salt Lake City Transportation has been doing. The contrast is very striking, as active transportation advocates, we can get pretty critical and get on your case,but personally she does appreciate the work that Transportation does. Her parting words are that she appreciates everyone, she feels she has learned a lot and hopefully she can go on to be a more effective advocate for stuff she cares about. She will come back as a member of the public when issues arise. Lynn thanked her for her service and Esther gave her a certificate. Kerry Doane announced that Bike Utah has announced their Bike Summit which is August 18th in West Valley City and people can learn more about it at bikeutah.org. They're calling for speakers and session proposals. If people haven't been to it, she highly recommends it as bike and active transportation people. At the TAB meeting they discussed the Temple re-opening and the closures. That is an issue that the city will be facing, and she would just say, maybe mostly to Lynn, that she's actually been hearing a lot of real concern about those closures. She knows there is a meeting on the loth, and she thinks that Council is voting, so if any of us as individuals want to look into that and comment before the City Council votes, that would be by the 24th. Kerry was trying to look through projects and stuff getting ready for this meeting and she's a little confused. She had to redo all her City passwords and have different passwords for SLC Moves, MySLC, and ShapeSLC. Lynn said ShapeSLC is the newest and they're hoping to migrate everything to that. Esther Daranciang said something that was talked about before the changing of the Division Directors was auto triggering al of the crosswalks that are designated as bikeways. This would be like goo South and 300 West. Lynn said it would be sending them to what's called recall. Esther said yes, when she bikes up to it and maybe hasn't Page 2 of 5 BAC 03-16-2026 Minutes had time to push the button, she still wants to know if it's safe for her to cross. And she also thinks as a driver, when you see that pedestrian light going, then you're thinking a little bit more about it as well so that hopefully would also improve safety. Lynn explained why that's not something that is going to happen any time soon but said UDOT is starting to use Lidar and while it will take a long time to be system wide, it does some amazing stuff. He thinks that's the better solution and said setting the signals for recall makes the cycle run longer for everyone. Public Comment Format Lynn announced and clarified the public comment policy, emphasizing that: • Public comments must be made only during the designated agenda time • Each speaker is limited to 2 minutes • Comments should remain respectful and civil • The policy is intended to respect board members'time while still allowing public input • Staff are available outside the meeting for additional discussion Public Comment Dave Iltis said that is an absolutely horrible policy that you have. Lynn said it's citywide and Dave said, no, it's my time and this an absolutely horrible policy. This group, one of the powers and duties of this group is to provide a venue for public input and help act as eyes and ears for issues pertaining to bicycling and a coordination body and resource for organizations. You're failing in that by doing that. As former Chair of the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee, it's easy to allow people to come. You look here month after month,year after year, in both the TAB and this group, I'm probably the only person that shows up regularly. You turn people away because of your uninviting awful policies. They are policies that do not,yeah you respect the board, the board has the right to talk first and such, but you cut yourself short by squelching public comment. You cut yourself off from ideas,you cut yourself off from public input, and you're just turning into something that is making it even less inviting than it has been over the last few years. It's pathetic. He's saying bluntly to Lynn, it's a pathetic policy. The other part of this is that the PNUT Board,just in terms of length of comment, 3 minutes. Here we restrict it to 2 and he would encourage them to reverse this. This is antithetical to open government, it's antithetical to what this committee was formed at 35-40 years ago or in 1978. It's absolutely antithetical to that and ultimately it hurts you as the head of Transportation and the Transportation Division by not hearing from the people who are here to leave comments because we're interested and we care. And you're saying we don't care about you,we don't want to hear from you, keep your comments to 2 minutes and then shut up and go away. He thinks this is an absolutely awful policy to change. Ben Trueman said he sees so many familiar faces. He's there to make a plea to the Transportation Division for traffic calming near the Glendale Regional Park on 1700 South. He thinks most of this will be preaching to the choir,but hopefully everyone has seen that there was an accident last week. A 6-year-old boy was hit by a car while riding his bike near the Glendale Regional Park on 1700 South,just last week. He remembers when he was on the Bicycle Advisory Committee asking the Transportation Division, sometime around when the funding was announced for that park, if there were plans to do traffic calming. From what he recalls at the time, the answer was no, which was pretty shocking to him. There's allegedly plans to add a HAWK signal on the crosswalk Page 3 of 5 BAC 03-16-2026 Minutes that is there right now, but he thinks they really need more traffic calming. That road right now is five lanes: it's two lanes each way plus a middle turn lane. He thinks the lanes are about io' or io 1/2'wide each. The speed limit is 30 miles per hour, but he bikes on that road regularly and cars easily drive 40-45 on that road constantly. He's never seen any amount of traffic that really warrants having two lanes each way. He thinks there's a lot that could be done in that area especially, and he's concerned that as the park grows, and it's built out more, it's going be a huge draw for people from all neighborhoods to the north. He would just love to see some traffic calming there be on the discussion for the Bicycle Advisory Committee at some time in the near future. Utah Legislative Session The group discussed the outcomes and implications of SB242,which passed during the legislative session and replaces SB195 (effective May 6). The new law removes prior requirements such as the mobility plan and instead requires the City to enter into a formal agreement with UDOT governing "highway reduction strategies" and certain traffic calming projects. The study area has expanded significantly(now extending west to Redwood Road and south to the city boundary). The bill also introduces requirements to evaluate and mitigate impacts of specific projects. However, both"mitigation" and"highway reduction strategy" remain vaguely defined, creating uncertainty. Additional key points: • Parking considerations were improved late in the process, allowing use of existing off-street supply in analysis • The City has until January 1, 2027 to finalize its agreement with UDOT • Annual reporting to the Transportation Interim Committee is required (with potential sunset) • The agreement structure allows future flexibility(unlike codifying in state law) Committee Goals for 2026 The Committee continued discussing 2026 goals,with a strong emphasis on preparing for the 2034 Olympics from an active transportation perspective. Members reviewed Olympic venue maps and discussed how Salt Lake City's Games will differ from more spread-out Winter Olympics, making local walking, biking, transit, and micromobility connections especially important. The Committee identified a need to focus on small-scale, practical improvements that may otherwise be overlooked, such as: • Filling active transportation gaps between transit stations and event venues • Reviewing how rideshare, scooters,bikes, and bike corrals may affect access and curb space • Considering how to support both visitors and everyday residents during major events • Learning from the Temple open house as a shorter-term test case for closures, crowd management, and transportation communication Page 4 of 5 BAC 03-16-2026 Minutes Members also discussed the importance of better understanding existing city planning efforts so the Committee can provide useful input without duplicating work already underway. Several people noted the need for more detailed maps, clearer assumptions about closures and access, and stronger communication with community councils to gather input from residents. Motion: Kerry Doane motioned to adjourn the meeting; Alla Chernenko seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:28 p.m. Meeting Chat Ben Trueman 3/16/2026 4:58 PM • I remember single digit temps on my bike commute to work sometime in the past io years Troy Saltiel 3/16/2026 5:08 PM • Last time I rode the detour it wasn't signed well Troy Saltiel 3/16/2026 5:11 PM • That's the exact issue I encountered William Davis 3/16/2026 5:17 PM • I think we definitely need more officers walking and less driving the trail I almost hit an officers car behind the peace garden because he had his lights off it also separate officers from the community because they seem like as big of a problem because they won't step out of their car Troy Saltiel 3/16/2026 5:19 PM • Just make a web page that gets updated Troy Saltiel 3/16/2026 5:31 PM • Recall is in place at 400 S and 200 W! And it's way better Troy Saltiel 3/16/2026 5:33 PM • You ought to study how often people cross against the signal, l promise you it won't look good 3/16/2026 5:34 PM • Phasing for bikes can be way shorter than pedestrians Ben Trueman 3/16/2026 6:oo PM • I'm glad the transportation division wasn't surprised about SB242, but the majority of the public was. The lack of transparency from both the legislature and the city was disappointing to say the least Troy Saltiel 3/16/2026 6:oi PM • That area (State from S Temple to Zoo N) actually does need a bike connection, I just doubt it'll be good for bikes if they're not going through the public process You 3/16/2026 6:05 PM • https://www.olympies.com/en/galleries/salt-lake-city-utah- 2034-venues You 3/16/2026 6:05 PM • https://wasatchchoice.org/vision- map/*mapList=vision.transportation.landuse.econdev.recreation.ol mpics&selectedMa p=olympics&sideBarClosed=false&x=-12457o00&y=4O770oo&scale=2888A5 Rebecca Bauer 3/16/2026 6:14 PM • it will be shocking to see how they keep enough snow at Block 85 for big air Approved by the Bicycle Advisory Committee 05-18-26. Page 5 of 5 BAC 03-16-2026 Minutes