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California Avenue Community Livability Project

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Overview

The California Avenue Community Livability Project was implemented to increase livability, safety, and mobility for all roadway users. The project transformed California Ave from Redwood Rd to 700 West from a four-lane undivided roadway into a complete street with one vehicle travel lane in each direction, a continuous two-way left-turn lane and bicycle lanes. The project was constructed in August 2011.

A "Before" and "After" photo comparison of a street running next to a large parking lot. The top "Before" image shows a wide road with four lanes for cars, two in each direction. The bottom "After" image shows the same street restriped to include one car lane in each direction, a center turn lane, and new bike lanes on both sides.

Traffic volume and speed data

When traffic volumes are within a certain range, converting a road from four lanes to three generally has little impact on how much traffic it carries. Traffic on 1300 South fell within this range, so we expected minimal change. This type of conversion often lowers travel speeds, as drivers must follow the pace of the lead vehicle without an extra lane to pass slower traffic.

A table comparing traffic speed and volume on California Avenue (between Redwood Road and 700 West) before and after the "Community Livability Project". The beige rows show data from 2011 and 2013 (before), and the green rows show data from 2018 (after). The numbers show that while the amount of traffic stayed about the same (around 12,000 to 13,000 cars daily), vehicle speeds decreased slightly or stayed the same after the project was finished.

More data

Crash analysis

Overall Crashes on California Ave – Redwood Rd to 700 West
Roadway Improvements completed in August 2011
SLC Data Set
Date RangeOverall CrashesPed CrashesBike Crashes
8/1/08 to 7/31/096713
8/1/09 to 7/31/105511
8/1/10 to 7/31/114922
10/1/11 to 9/30/125531
10/1/12 to 9/30/134500
10/1/13 to 9/30/144002
10/1/14 to 9/30/153521
10/1/15 to 9/30/164010
10/1/16 to 9/30/175101
3-Year Annual Average Before5712
6-Year Annual Average After4411
% Change-22.2%
Injury Crashes on California Ave – Redwood Rd to 700 West
Roadway Improvements completed in August 2011
SLC Data Set (Severity 3+)
Date RangeOverall CrashesPed CrashesBike Crashes
8/1/08 to 7/31/09912
8/1/09 to 7/31/10511
8/1/10 to 7/31/11722
10/1/11 to 9/30/12810
10/1/12 to 9/30/13900
10/1/13 to 9/30/14302
10/1/14 to 9/30/15321
10/1/15 to 9/30/16810
10/1/16 to 9/30/17501
3-Year Annual Average Before712
6-Year Annual Average After611
% Change-14.3%

Contact us

Dan Bergenthal, Project Manager

Email: [email protected]

Related

SLC Transportation Division
Street projects

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