At first blush, driving on poorly maintained roads with fraying edges and potholes may seem like only a minor irritant, but dilapidation does have serious consequences for vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians.
During a recent Salt Lake City Council meeting, Councilwoman Lisa Adams presented pictures of potholes in her neighborhood near 2100 South and 2100 East. It was a reminder to the rest of the City Council that basic infrastructure maintenance and replacement in Sugar House is lacking, but every neighborhood in Salt Lake City has a problem with streets. Our Salt Lake City Streets Department can barely keep up and, from speaking with local residents, they are very aware that the problem is getting worse.
During a recent meeting with my neighbors in Sugar House, I spoke with two residents that had experienced extreme damage to their vehicles from driving on our roads. One of my neighbors expressed that an unfilled pothole stopped her typical commute and damaged her axle because her tire dropped into a hole and instantly stopped the car. Another told me that he drove over some deep potholes and his bumper was damaged on multiple occasions.
Drivers aren’t the only citizens feeling the pain. A mother of two little girls told me that she loves riding bicycles to Sugar House park with her daughters, but the fraying blacktop is so bad on the roadside that she rides higher on the crest of the road to avoid the fractured roadside. This is not a safe option, and she is concerned for her children’s safety.
Experts say that Salt Lake City needs approximately $35-$40 million a year just to keep the basic infrastructure of our streets in good condition. However, if you look at our current budget you will see that we are seriously underfunding our streets. Clean paved roads provide a significant benefit to families and our economy. Streets allow citizens to move through the city quickly and efficiently while driving their children to school, sports, or other activities. Well maintained blacktop allows individuals to travel quickly from work to home. Fully maintained roads allow trucks to deliver products efficiently to the many businesses in Salt Lake City that keep our economy thriving. Even more important is the quick and efficient access for our first responders. Well maintained infrastructure is critical to the highest and best use of our city.
Poorly maintained streets can affect bicyclists more than cars. A bicyclist’s life may be endangered by substandard streets much more than someone driving a car or truck. If a bicyclist can’t avoid a pothole, there is a greater chance of injury. Salt Lake City encourages cyclists to use our roads, but we need to back up the rhetoric with action and quickly find and repair potholes and replace our dilapidated streets.
Other cities in the United States such as Omaha, Neb., have made the decision to trade in potholes and poorly maintained blacktop for gravel roads. I do not believe this is the right course of action for our city, but unless we place a greater emphasis on the repair and replacement of our infrastructure, we are by default choosing to return to roads more commonly found in the 19th Century than in the 21st.
Salt Lake City should collectively place a higher priority on the repair and replacement of our streets. Our infrastructure is critical to the economic development of the city and the quality of life of its residents. I believe we should be known as a welcoming, clean, and success-driven city rather than a city with dilapidated infrastructure. We should lead from the front and not behind. This is a big challenge, but we can come together and address this issue.
To emphasize the point, I created a humorous video that you can view online about this serious subject with toddlers driving on our city streets. Search YouTube for “Sugar House Potholes.”
Benjamin Sessions is a candidate for Salt Lake City Council District 7, a trustee on the Sugar House Community Council and a member of the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce.