Salt Lake City’s most dangerous road has few usable crosswalks and oft-interrupted sidewalks. Folks at City Hall say they aim to change that with a cash infusion included in this year’s budget, though the obstacles are formidable.
“Redwood Road is the most dangerous street in the city based on the data, which is challenging because [the Utah Department of Transportation] owns it,” city Transportation Director Jon Larsen said. “But they’re willing to talk with us and work with us and partner with us to do some improvements.”
The planned changes along the major west-side thoroughfare are among several that Mayor Erin Mendenhall has proposed in her latest budget for fiscal 2026. The mayor included some big-ticket capital improvements in her otherwise flat spending plan — despite mixed economic prospects looming.
The mayor’s budget also signals that the city is prepared to forge ahead with plans for certain street-safety measures — despite a recent state law that requires UDOT to sign off on traffic-calming measures on some roads.
At a City Council budget hearing Tuesday, residents in several neighborhoods voiced support for additional calming measures such as street bumps in their neighborhoods, highlighting an appetite for slowing traffic in some areas as the city grows.
Mendenhall’s proposed budget, if passed, would allocate $2.3 million for safety improvements on three high-crash corridors in the city: Redwood Road, 900 West and 800 South.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Concrete barriers sit where there is no sidewalk on the west side of Redwood Road between Indiana Ave and 1040 South, on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
On Redwood Road, Larsen said the city would look to add more mid-block and signalized intersections to reduce dangerous jaywalking, as well as build longer sidewalks to keep pedestrians off the roadway.
Along 900 West, updates under consideration could include a separated bike path, raised medians and crosswalks, as well as flashing beacons indicating when pedestrians are trying to cross.
An analysis of 800 South calls for cutting it down from two lanes of traffic in each direction to one, along with adding a separated bike path and installing roundabouts.
Larsen said the latest budget proposal would probably not fully fund all the improvements envisioned on those streets — especially if a federal grant the city and state are seeking for Redwood Road doesn’t come through.
Mendenhall’s new budget also earmarks $3 million to start construction of the Green Loop project along a section of 200 East between City Hall and the city’s downtown library. Planners picked that starting point because so many events happen in that part of downtown, which officials have nicknamed the city’s “civic campus.”
“It’s a very special block and so it’s just a phenomenal opportunity to be able to have something that helps unite that civic campus,” said Larsen, who added that the improvements would acknowledge the spot “as a special gathering place for not just Salt Lake, but really the state.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pedestrian cross 200 East in front of City Hall, on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
The mayor’s ambitious vision for the Green Loop project, meanwhile, would create a linear park ringing downtown along 200 East, 900 South, 500 West and either North or South Temple. City officials have estimated the loop could cost up to $350 million and the latest vision is to complete it by 2034’s Winter Olympics.
Among other road projects set for funding, there are plans under review to extend the current 600 North-700 North road improvement project on the city’s west side to that road’s intersection with Interstate 215. The project would get almost $1.7 million under Mendenhall’s latest budget, and improvements to Rose Park Lane near the Regional Athletic Complex would receive about $700,000.
Assuming council members approve Mendenhall’s proposals, key transit policies, like 15-minute bus service on some Utah Transit Authority routes and on-demand transit vans for the west side, are marked for more cash.
So is the city’s ongoing livable streets program that makes safety improvements on neighborhood thoroughfares.
On Tuesday, groups of residents from several city neighborhoods asked council members to reconsider funding requests that had been rejected by the mayor’s office for traffic-calming steps in their neighborhoods, including speed bumps.
Area resident Gary Tedesco asked for the installation of traffic circles at the 300 South and 400 South intersections of 1200 East, citing boosted traffic to and from the University of Utah that he said has highlighted problems with limited street visibility.
“Traffic circles would go a long way toward mitigating, slowing down that traffic through these intersections as well as daylighting the intersections so we don’t have parked cars right up to the crosswalk,” Tedesco told the council. “You really do have to walk out into the street to see what’s coming. We contend that public safety is an uncompromisable value.”
Samuel Rowan, who lives on a residential stretch of 2100 South near Foothill Drive, told the council he also wants to slow down traffic on that road.
“I’ve been asking the city for at least five years now to consider in the budget installing speed bumps on our street,” Rowan said. “It’s been a big problem with many cars speeding down the street in a residential area.”
Those appeals from residents surfaced in the shadow of SB195, a new law that requires Salt Lake City to get UDOT approval for any “highway reduction strategy” on key roads in the city’s core neighborhoods.
State legislators have defined “highway reduction strategy” broadly in the bill, meaning speed bump requests such as Rowan’s would be subject to state review. Larsen confirmed the city’s Green Loop dreams will also have to pass UDOT review.
The council plans to hold one additional hearing on Mendenhall’s latest budget on June 3 for residents to weigh in on the new spending plan. Council members are obliged to pass a final budget by the end of June.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) City Hall and 200 East, on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
