State legislators’ interest in the design of Salt Lake City’s streets seemingly hasn’t waned.
A new bill released Tuesday would prohibit Utah’s capital from making changes that could slow down vehicle traffic on its busiest roads. The bill would also widen restrictions on traffic calming and instruct officials to “mitigate impacts” of recent projects on three specific streets: 200 South, 400 South and 300 West.
The bill prompted frustrated reactions from Salt Lake City Council members during a Tuesday afternoon meeting.
“Why would the state want us to not address one of the leading causes of death in the city?” Capital Hill and Marmalade council member Chris Wharton said. “... All we’re trying to do here is preserve people’s lives.”
The proposed changes are a part of Senate Bill 242 from two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Wayne Harper of Taylorsville and Rep. Kay Christofferson of Lehi. The legislation also addresses transportation-related taxes, fees and spending.
The bill follows 2025’s SB 195 proposed by the same lawmakers that required Salt Lake City and the Utah Department of Transportation to study the impacts of slowing traffic on city streets with things like speed bumps and reduced lanes. Officials in Utah’s capital have long looked to make the city’s famously wide roads safer for walkers, joggers and bikers while promoting alternative forms of transportation.
On Wednesday, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, defended the bill and said legislators should treat Salt Lake City differently.
“The capital city is a spot where people gather,” Adams said. “... So, there is a little bit of difference in a capital city than there is perhaps in a city that’s not a capital, so we’re going to continue to find that balance.”
Here’s what the bill would do:
• Repeal requirements for a study now that one is completed.
• Make it harder to reduce on-street parking.
• Create a four-tier system of categorizing roads based on the amount of traffic they carry.
• Prohibit traffic-calming measures on the biggest roads, like 800 South, if the projects reduce vehicle capacity.
• Require that UDOT approve changes to so-called Tier 1 roads, like 800 South, and Tier 2 roads, like Main Street or 900 East.
• Widen the area of state oversight to a swath bounded by Foothill Drive, Redwood Road, 600 North and the city’s southern boundary.
• Require the city to ensure traffic continues to flow, emergency vehicles aren’t slowed, and businesses remain accessible where traffic-calming measures were either installed or are under construction on 200 South, 400 South and 300 West.
In response to questions about what changes lawmakers want to see to those three specific roads, Harper told reporters Wednesday that officials don’t necessarily have to tear up newly installed traffic-calming measures or cycling paths on those streets.
“Nothing in here says that they have to take it out. They just have to make sure that it is not causing an impediment to the pedestrians, the bicyclists or to the drivers that would deteriorate safety,” he said. “... So, taking out bike lanes, no, that’s not intended.”
Harper also noted that he had been meeting with Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall since August. Mendenhall confirmed discussions about the bill had been taking place and said the talks had been in “good faith” and “collaborative.”
District 1 City Council member Victoria Petro, who represents a swath of the west side that would be under UDOT’s microscope, criticized the lawmakers’ proposal.
“I don’t trust that someone who operates at the state — just by virtue of where they operate, by virtue of why we have different levels of government — can understand the neighborhood-by-neighborhood analysis,” she said. “... I cannot imagine even ceding an inch that we’ve gained for our west-side traffic calming.”
Council members seemed united in their reaction to the bill, which was published during their meeting Tuesday. East Bench council member Dan Dugan, who sits on the board of directors for the Utah League of Cities and Towns, vowed to fight it.
“We’ll do our damndest,” he said.