Ban Law Office PC - Utah Veterans Disability, Utah Environmental Law » Transportation Issues

More Info on Ucarshare

Joel — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:38:08 +0000

The new car sharing program in SLC is off to a pretty good start with 400 participants and efforts to increase this number could make a dent in taking more cars off the road. Wanted to pass along information about the cost savings of participation. These savings are quite substantial. The locations will increase over time, but right now they are centrally located downtown and the university. The procedures to use the cars couldn’t be any easier since you can use the web to reserve, check in with a card, and check out with card as well. Also right now there is no enrollment fee. The program uses the toyota prius at .59 cents a mile, ford escape at .69 cents, ford focus and toyota yaris at .49 cents. The cost is typically capped at $10.00 per use even going up to 185 miles in a single usage.

Look for New Bike Lanes and Green Lanes

Joel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:25:50 +0000

The City has released a schedule of work that has been done already or will be done in the near future in the area of bike lanes and other transportation projects. The city has already created significant new bike lanes in the SW quadrant of the City and will soon install new green lanes and conventional bike lanes in other areas of the city including Main Street going south to South Salt Lake. Other projects include new installation of bike racks throughout the city and improvements to 1300 east to create more pedestrian crossings and hawk lights for safer passage across the street.

Car Sharing in SLC

Joel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:10:48 +0000

SLC has contracted with U Car Share (a subsidiary of U-Haul) and now has a car sharing program just like more progressive cities such as Eugene/Portland, Or, Madison, and Berkeley. There is a one time $25 fee that I think can be waived through a promotional deal, and then each hour of use is $4.95 + .60 a mile. An e card is used to open the car and the keys are left in the ignition. Currently the cars are parked at the UTA TRAX lots but will be scattered throughout the city and around the University of Utah. The program has the potential to provide a way for people to get out of car ownership and into a car sharing program where if you use the program frequently would only amount to around $350 a month, which is a significant savings over typical car ownership. The program uses cars such as Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrids.

SLC Bike Lanes to Increase by 1/3rd

Joel — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:01:04 +0000

I was able to get some of the maps that detail the new bike lanes that will soon be painted this summer and fall. SLC Bicycle Coordinator Dan Bergenthal said that they tried to put new lanes where no road work would be required and all they would have to do is paint the lines. Recreational bike trails have been and will be expanded along the Jordan River and Parley’s Trail (PRATT), and soon these trails will connect. The Jordan River trail will actually connect to the Legacy Trail in the next couple of years. You can view this map here. In terms of city lanes the far west side is to see a huge increase in lanes along 4400 West, 2100 South (between 5500 West and 4400 West). Main Street all the way from 200 south to 2100 south will see new lanes as well as 700 south even though its proximate and parallel with the existing 800 south lane. The map can be seen here. The policy of the city is to put in lanes where ever there is ability to put in a lane due to available space and no road work is needed. It will take time to put in lanes along streets that need lanes but due to space limitations and on street parking it will be a tough grind especially along streets like 1300 south or 1700 south where a lane is really needed.