SANDY CITY, Utah — Sandy City is now implementing new traffic enforcement for the closures of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
It comes because of major traffic impacting nearby neighborhoods.
"If you need to drop something off, drop somebody off, take the kids to school, you can't get back to your home. You're stuck in the line," said Kelli Buttars, who lives on Little Cottonwood Lane.
Now each time there is a canyon closure, traffic previously lined up along Little Cottonwood Road will be diverted to northbound Wasatch Boulevard into the bike lane.
"The decision was made that the best case scenario would be to have for lack of a better term, a queue of cars that would line up on Wasatch Boulevard. Wasatch Boulevard is a wider road, it has a shoulder including a bike lane." said Public information officer Greg Moffitt with the Sandy City Police Department.
Once the canyon reopens, the line of cars on the Wasatch is the first to enter the canyon and are zippered into merging traffic coming from the Cottonwood Heights section of Wasatch.
The new plan was first implemented for Wednesday's closure for avalanche mitigation.
"Our police were out in force this morning starting before 5 a.m. to make sure all the drivers queuing up for the canyon closure know where to go on Wasatch Blvd," said Sandy Mayor Monica Zoltanski.
Mayor Zoltanski said the test on Wednesday morning went well, and they will continue to implement it, but only for days when there are canyon closures.
"There’s always room for improvement. And what I would love to see is a regional solution," she said. "So coordinated with Highway Patrol, Cottonwood Heights, Sandy, Draper, but as far as what sandy can control, that’s little cottonwood road, Wasatch Boulevard, I think this was a really successful start."
Buttars appreciates the solution for canyon closure days but is also eager to see what else will work to make it safe for families in neighborhoods like hers.
"This is an amazing place to ski and I think it's, it doesn't look good when we have people lined up in traffic problems for out-of-towners, but it's also not good for those who live here," said Buttars. "So all around any solutions that we can try as a community, I'm on board and excited to see happening."
