A cement barrier is put in to guard cyclists from site visitors on 200 West in Salt Lake Metropolis on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. A redesign of 200 West between North Temple and 900 South in Salt Lake Metropolis has reached key milestones on the best way to making a safer, extra environment friendly and multi-modal hall for residents, guests and native companies. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
Bikes are the perfect.
They're good for our bodily and psychological well being, in addition to for financial, environmental and sensible causes.
OK, not everybody feels that approach. Many drivers would like to not share the highway with bicycles, or pedestrians, for that matter. Additional, many who wish to bicycle are reluctant for one motive or one other.
A prime motive for this reluctance is hazard. That is smart, significantly given a latest spike in bicyclist deaths on the highway. The explanations for the rise in deaths are complicated however clearly embody rushing and harmful driving.
The person behind the wheel of a purple Toyota Tacoma who hit me in 2019 was doing each of this stuff. The driving force was rushing down 500 East in Salt Lake Metropolis, taking the nook heading east on 1700 South at 50 mph or extra, when he fishtailed into the oncoming lane. Had the motive force hit me with the grill of the automobile as a substitute of the rear quarter-panel — you would definitely not be studying this proper now. Thanks, driver, for not killing me.
In actual fact, surviving a collision with an vehicle going 50-plus mph is statistically nearly unattainable, whereas the probability of surviving a 20-mph crash is 95% survivable.
A brand new report from the Utah Basis means that one of many causes we're rushing extra typically and driving extra dangerously is a scarcity of police presence. Certainly, Utah police are giving 80% fewer site visitors tickets that they did in 2000 — even with a bigger inhabitants right this moment. Why?
Partially, it’s as a result of the police are busy with an rising and extra complicated workload right this moment than they have been 20 years in the past. Would a rise in police presence lead to slower speeds, safer driving, and fewer pedestrian and bicycle deaths? Definitely. For these of us who drove someplace right this moment, practically all of us broke a legislation by — on the very least — exceeding the posted velocity restrict.
In need of extra police on the road conserving our behaviors in test, there are methods to extend security. How? In a phrase: Infrastructure.
I exploit myself for example as a result of I typically trip my bike, however extra and higher infrastructure will profit all of us no matter our mode of transportation.
To grasp the significance of infrastructure, it's useful to know a well known categorization of cyclists by kind. Roughly, persons are both: fearless, assured, involved, or “no approach, no how.”
Over half of all People are within the concerned-about-riding class, however nonetheless involved in doing so. How can we assist ourselves get on our bikes?
I was the fearless kind. Since being hit, I've been downgraded to “assured.” The place I as soon as rode on any road, I now want protected bike lanes. Whereas these lanes that share blacktop with automobiles are nice, they're nonetheless not protected sufficient for some involved riders.
A good higher possibility is the kind of infrastructure we at the moment are seeing across the state — the paths which can be the main target of the Utah path community. These are connecting present trails which can be straightforward for Utahns to entry, these operating close to parks and rivers, and simply over the fences of a few of our personal backyards.
These embody the superb Murdock Canal Path in Utah County, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Rail Path in Davis County, the Ogden River Parkway Path in Weber County, and lots of others. In Salt Lake County, we're lucky to have an identical community of trails, however we even have some nice active-transportation targeted routes.
Have you ever ever taken UTA’s trolley to Sugarhouse? Alongside that route is a tremendous S-Line path that connects to different trails within the valley. Salt Lake Metropolis additionally simply completed some complete-streets infrastructure on 300 West and is engaged on an much more spectacular east-west route aptly titled the 9-Line on 900 South.
These are all primarily broad sidewalks. Whereas not excellent, such a infrastructure helps present the extent of security to bicyclists much like that of pedestrians. I now select the 9-Line as my bike commute on daily basis. It's merely safer than sharing the road with a 4,000-pound Toyota.
Security is on the coronary heart of the most recent Utah Basis report. As a part of the Wholesome Communities Collection, the report gives policymakers with concepts for investing in safer routes for pedestrians and bicyclists. This advantages all Utahns, not simply these involved in biking.
Once more, bikes are the perfect. With extra effort and funding to extend bicycle infrastructure, we may see rising numbers of individuals out and about having fun with energetic transportation, operating errands, seeing pals, going to high school, and commuting to work. With this, we would additionally see a rise in all Utahns’ high quality of life.
Shawn Teigen is the president of the Utah Basis, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public coverage analysis group.