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Park City walking and biking survey is open until November 14

Park City Bicycle and Pedestrian Crossing.png
Park City Municipal Corporation
Park City Bicycle and Pedestrian Crossing.png

Pedestrians, cyclists, and anyone with thoughts on what they'd like to see on neighborhood streets can take an online survey to help craft Park City's future. KPCW has details on how to weigh in with your vision for pathways, sidewalks, crossings, and neighborhood walkability.

Park City Active Transportation Planner Austin Taylor leads a bicycle and pedestrian planning group consisting of Park City residents, business owners, and organization directors. This group will compile survey data and make recommendations for future walking and biking projects.

"It's going to be a list of infrastructure projects for the next 15 years that the city will follow. If you remember, back in 2007, there was the walking group and the walkability bond. And what came from that was a big list of construction projects. The city has built almost all of the things that were on that list. And so, now's the time to come back, talk with the community, see what people want. Ask what types of infrastructure are going to make it safe and convenient to walk and bike."

A remaining bond fund balance of $3 million has grown to $5 million in the 15 years since the bond was approved. Taylor said the committee has received about 100 responses so far. They'll compile responses this winter and bring recommendations to the Park City Council in early summer next year.

Taylor said the introduction of E-bikes might change the way Park City designs roads, paths, and trails.

"So, in Park City for the longest time, we've focused on off-street, multi-use, shared pathways where cyclists, pedestrians, anyone else on wheeled non-motorized vehicles are sharing the path. Or in a lot of cities, they have on-street bike infrastructure, they've got bike lanes, they've got protected bike lanes, and that separates the bicyclist and the pedestrians. So, when you have somebody on an E-bike, riding 20, maybe even 25 miles per hour, it's probably more appropriate for them to be in an on-street bike lane than to be sharing a narrow pathway with pedestrians."

Taylor is hosting neighborhood walking audits until November 14. Three walking tours are scheduled this week in Park Meadows, Prospector, and Old Town.

Austin Taylor

"I will personally go and walk through your neighborhood with you if you reach out to me. We want to get a holistic perspective on what needs to improve with our street network and the residents and the people who live here know best."

 Taylor said traffic calming techniques could reduce speeding on neighborhood streets. Park City has a Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, and due to emergency access, it won't authorize using speed bumps. Instead, the city uses other traffic calming measures.

"And you can do that with chicanes. They force drivers to drive around them, slow down, drive around. We can do curb extensions, which narrow the street and make the turning radius tighter. So, you have to be more cautious. We're not against street narrowing, and we're not against traffic calming, and we want to implement more of it.”

The survey is open at parkcity.org/active until November 14. Taylor is available to walk neighborhoods until then. You can reach him through his email at austin.taylor@parkcity.org.

KPCW reporter Carolyn Murray covers Summit and Wasatch County School Districts. She also reports on wildlife and environmental stories, along with breaking news. Carolyn has been in town since the mid ‘80s and raised two daughters in Park City.