This street received a surface treatment in the summer of 2020.
Community input about this street
In Spring 2020, Salt Lake City gathered community input for possible changes to the striping design of this street.
Thanks to everyone for participating in our survey for the street resurfacing projects. For the 500 East project, our major takeaways from our survey are summarized below. *Click on the green bar to expand to the survey summary.*
While the scope of this project is to resurface the street and address potential improvements achieved through restriping, the survey asked a variety of questions that helps the City better understand how people use the street, challenges they experience, and things they enjoy about the street. While not all issues and feedback can be addressed through this specific project (and may not be relevant to street and transportation projects), this community input provides context, helps identify themes, and can inform future projects.
Survey Summary
Who took the survey?
The survey had a total of 122 respondents (not all people answered all the questions) and were a mix of people that live on the street, use the street to commute, own property, and those that use the street occasionally. The large majority of those that took the survey walk, bike, and drive on 500 East daily or weekly. While not all comments are consistent, this summary represents a compilation of the most common responses to the questions asked.
What do people like about this street?
People that took the survey commented on liking the street for its light vehicle traffic and speeds compared to 700 East, the locations of the crosswalks and the proximity to Liberty Park and the benefits that brings to this street.
“It’s just a great park facing & public street that serves traffic excellently between two very popular & populated areas of our young city.”
“I like that it is close to the park and has good crosswalks, I enjoy that it has good sidewalks.”
“I like that the park is right next to it. I also like the curb extensions on the west side of the street.”
“Proximity to Liberty Park and surrounding neighborhood, with restaurants and other businesses on the corners of 900 South and 1300 South.”
What do people not like about this street?
Respondents commented on disliking the volume and speed of traffic, lack of striped bicycle lanes, missing sidewalks on the East side of the road, road surface conditions, and the lack of traffic control measures at certain intersections.
“I was bummed when this street was painted to have sharrows and the bike lane removed. With so many users at the park, it would be great to have a walk bike space immediate parallel to the park.”
“The cars and no bike lane”
“The overflow commuter traffic from 7th east is congesting it”
“No separate defined bike lanes. Cars often speed.”
How safe does this street feel?
People responded feeling very safe to neutral about traveling on 700 South by most modes, except for bicycling and bicycling with children. Locations where people felt unsafe were generally spread over the entire area with hot spots at intersections. People cited lack of a bike lane as the reason they feel unsafe.
Other considerations
Respondents indicated the “Mobility of People” was the most important function for this street.
Thank you to everyone who took the survey!
Draft Design
The survey helped inform our Draft Design which can be viewed below. Thanks to everyone that commented on the draft designs. The comments received helped to inform the final design. *Click on the green bar to expand to the survey summary.*
Draft Design
Draft Design
The draft design would add a northbound bike lane to the roadway so that it is consistent with 500 East to the south and to meet the stated preference of the community as received in the outreach part of the project.
There would be no changes to the amount of on-street parking or number of through vehicle travel lanes as part of this project.
Draft Design – Cross-Section View
Draft Design – Plan View
As a comparison, below is a cross-section of the existing conditions.
Please note: the default layout is the existing layout and it is an option for this project. Please feel free to let us know if you prefer the existing layout.
Existing Conditions – Cross-Section View
Final Design
Thanks to everyone that commented on the draft designs. The comments received helped to inform the final design.
Striping on this roadway will be changed as part of the resurfacing. The changes include:
- Bike lanes will be added to both sides of the roadway, in accordance with input received from the Liberty Wells Community Council
- The Center Turn Lane will be permanently removed from the roadway.
Below is a cross-section view of the upcoming striping layout (view looking north):
The changes to the striping layout have been determined based on a thorough evaluation by the Salt Lake City Transportation Division. The evaluation included a review of the traffic volumes, existing roadway characteristics, public outreach and engagement with the Liberty Wells Community Council and Bicycle Advisory Committee.
As a reminder, please send us any comments you may have by sending an email to: StreetResurfacing@slcgov.com.
What is next?
| Early Spring 2020 | Project Announcement and community input. | |
| Spring 2020 | Draft conceptual design available for community input. | |
| 3-4 weeks before surface treatment | Notice of final design made public along with information about what to expect on the 1-3 days when the surface treatment work will affect use of this street. | |
| Summer 2020 | Surface treatment and restriping by SLC Streets Division. Project completion in August 2020. |
Timeline
Contact
Social Media: @SLCgov @SLCmoves #SurfaceTreatments
Email: streetresurfacing@slcgov.com
Phone: 801-535-6630
Funding
Increased pavement maintenance is one of the projects funded through the Salt Lake City Funding Our Future initiative.