SALT LAKE CITY — On 300 South in downtown Salt Lake City, there’s a marked bike lane, but there’s no concrete barrier to protect the cyclists riding in it.
A group dedicated to making Salt Lake City's streets safer created a “human-buffered bike lane” Monday afternoon to protect cyclists.
It was a demonstration where members of "Sweet Streets" put themselves on the street to show the importance of protected bike lanes in the city. Their hope is to create protection between the cycling lane and the roadway.
“On this block, there’s a lot of commercial here and there’s no protection," Troy Saltiel with Sweet Streets said. "This is one of those hotspots, where they pull over for a couple minutes, they want to go get their food, but they’re making it dangerous for people out here using the street.”
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 195 this legislative session, which prevents Salt Lake City from building new street safety infrastructure on collector and arterial roads located east of I-15 and west of Foothill Drive.
“Right now, it kind of feels like they’re just blocking the actual residents that live here and what they want, and we want safer streets for biking and walking and driving as well,” Saltiel said.
Sweet Streets said the first protected bike lanes in Salt Lake City were created more than a decade ago on 300 South and 200 West, but over the years, the original lanes have deteriorated. They said this results in frequent and dangerous conflicts on the road.
One cyclist at the demonstration, Kyle Holland, said he’s run into difficulties on this roadway.
“I used to commute for a whole academic year up to the University of Utah on these bike lanes, like three to five days a week,” Holland said.
“Even though it’s just a small demonstration, we can really get the word out that you cannot park, stop or stand in bike lanes," he added.
DRIVEN TO CHANGE
