TAYLORSVILLE—Natalie Gochner has seen firsthand the effect of multi-modal streets in Salt Lake City, she said Friday. She’s used the buffered bike lanes added to Main Street through a road diet to ride to events at the Delta Center, and she has watched the transformation of communities along 900 South after construction of the 9-Line Trail.
“I spend a lot of time in the capital city and I’ve seen what is happening—and it is different,” Gochner, a member of the Utah Transportation Commission, told her colleagues. “Go see the life on the street that they are creating for their neighborhoods.”
Gochner’s comments came during discussion of SB195, which strips Salt Lake City of its local street authority and instead requires UDOT approval before making any change to a collector or arterial roadway that reduces the space afforded to drivers of private vehicles. The law, sponsored by Taylorsville Republican Sen. Wayne Harper, is limited to the city’s east side, but goes far beyond state-owned highways like State Street and Redwood Road, effectively tying the city’s hands on would-be alterations as minimal as a new school crosswalk, if that crosswalk impedes drivers in any way…