SALT LAKE CITY — A wide-ranging transportation bill is still on track to study changes to Salt Lake City’s busy roads, but it has been adjusted to remove a one-year pause on road safety projects after pushback from the city and others.
Members of the House Transportation Committee voted 10-2 Thursday to advance a fifth substitute of SB195 following a passionate discussion on the study, which represents a small portion of the omnibus bill.
The version of the bill that cleared the Senate last week called for a “mobility and environmental impact analysis” to address anything that could “decrease the number of vehicles that can travel on a highway per hour.”
That includes highway reduction strategies, such as “the impacts of the highway reduction strategy on state highways, local highways, mobility, traffic flow, pedestrian and nonmotorized vehicle flow, the economy, public health, quality of life, air quality, maintenance and operations.”
It included a moratorium period from May 7, the date the section goes into effect, until March 6, 2026, barring the city from implementing a “highway reduction strategy or execute an existing highway reduction strategy, including the reduction or narrowing of traffic lanes.”
That section was amended to still call for the study, but it removes the moratorium period. It also narrows its study area to collector or arterial roads west of Foothill Drive, north of 2100 South, east of I-15, and south of 600 North, which would include major downtown routes like 300 West and State Street.
The study — to be led by the Utah Department of Transportation in coordination with the city — will seek “alternate routes for traffic and impacts on surrounding roads due to any lane reduction,” as well as impacts to vehicle trip time, air quality, safety and other aspects.
The initial language was crafted to account for frustrations coming from the business community and others who regularly travel into the city, said Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, the bill’s floor sponsor. They believed those measures were negatively impacting traffic.
However, he and Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, the bill’s sponsor, explained that the changes were made after multiple meetings with Salt Lake City, which voiced concerns that the bill’s “broad implications” could impact many of the city’s planned safety projects. They also received “hundreds” of emails from people for or against it.
“We felt like we came up with something that, maybe, neither party is completely happy with, but it’s a compromise that we can agree with,” Christofferson said. “It sends this to a study to look at it … and work out something that will be logical and beneficial to both groups.”
Rachel Otto, chief of staff for Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, thanked Harper for narrowing the scope and improving the review process before the committee vote.
“It’s really crucial for Salt Lake City to enact traffic safety measures and make sure that we have a multimodal transportation system that functions safely for all users,” Otto said. “We also want to be sensitive to the growth that Salt Lake City is seeing and ensuring that we are really building a city that works for everyone.”
Residents who attended the meeting were split on the changes, but mostly supported that bike lanes and other safety measures continue. Some argued in favor of the third substitute, while others still had problems with the newest version of the bill.
Janet Hemming, former chairwoman of the Yalecrest Neighborhood Council, called on the committee to keep the moratorium because she believes speed bumps the city has already added to other parts of the city will cause traffic congestion and “harmful” emissions in her neighborhood.
Dave Iltis, a roadway safety advocate who pushed for the city to join the Vision Zero Network, argued the fifth substitute is still troublesome because of the possible lane narrowing ban, which he said could create safety issues without improving capacity. He and a few others who spoke still found it to be “government overreach.”
Most committee members agreed with Christofferson that people are going to be upset with the bill, but they believe the changes are proof of the legislative process working. Rep. Clint Okerlund, R-Sandy, called the fifth substitute a “masterpiece of collaboration” as it took into account concerns from both sides.
“I think (it) does a careful job addressing a lot of the comments we heard,” added Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo. “It puts this into a planning and study environment, as opposed to prohibiting things or moratoriums.”
The bill could still go through modifications. It now heads to the House floor for a full vote before it returns to the Senate for a vote to accept the new version before it heads to Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk for final approval.
The legislative session ends on March 7.
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