Emery Street Livability Improvement Pilot

Responsive Margin

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Overview

Emery Street borders Poplar Grove Park and is designated as a Neighborhood Byway — a comfortable, low stress route for people walking and biking. Starting 2022, the Salt Lake City Transportation Division worked with neighbors to improve the safety of the street through traffic calming. We conducted a pilot study using temporary materials to create a chicane, intersection improvements, and a new crosswalk. In late 2023, the traffic calming became permanent in the form of a speed cushion and raised concrete crosswalk. Insights gained from this project will help inform the Livable Streets Program and future Salt Lake City Transportation safety projects.

A picture of a raised crosswalk on Emery Street. The concrete crosswalk is stamped red to make the crossing more visible to road users. — Raised crosswalk

A picture of a speed bump on Emery Street in front of Poplar Grove Park. — Speed bump

Timeline

Community engagement for the Emery Street Livability Pilot was completed during the summer of 2022. A draft design concept was completed in Fall 2022 and temporary traffic calming features were installed starting May 2023. In late 2023, some of the temporary features were upgraded to permanent features, namely a speed cushion and raised crosswalk.

Summer 2022: Community engagement and draft design

Fall 2022: Final design

2023 – Spring 2024: Temporary traffic calming pilot study

Winter 2023 – Spring 2024: Construct permanent raised crosswalk and speed cushion

Emery Street pilot project

700 South traffic calming rings

Inspired by the quick-build treatments utilized in the Portland’s Slow Streets program, we installed planters and striping at the intersection of 700 South and Emery Street in May 2023. Our goal was to reduce cut-through traffic on Emery Street and calm traffic on both Emery Street and 700 South. This implementation accomplishes this with visual cues to alert drivers to slow down, narrow vehicle travel lanes, and a tight turn radius.

Traffic calming treatment with planters and striping on Ramona Avenue and 1000 East

Chicanes

In June of 2023, the SLC Livable Streets team installed two temporary chicanes and a crossing at the intersection of Emery Street and 800 South. The chicanes were installed to slow down traffic along Emery Street by diverting drivers slightly to the left and right. Each chicane included signage to inform the public about the purpose of the project. The crosswalk was striped in to provide a safe crossing of Emery Street to and from Poplar Grove Park.