SALT LAKE CITY — Everen Brown has worked at his office on West Temple near 300 South for decades. This summer, he says a giant piece of concrete appeared on the road.
“Are people going to understand how to navigate this?” he asked. “This particular island, to me, it seems like it poses a huge safety risk because it's got a ramp that somebody could go up on a scooter or on a bike, and then on the end of this, there's nothing. It's just a huge drop.”
It’s not the first of its kind in downtown Salt Lake, but it’s probably the largest, Brown said.
“They all have tire marks on them because people can't make that sharp of turns in large vehicles, and I wish the city would have taken that into account,” he said.
Salt Lake City transportation director Jon Larsen says the platform has a purpose: to keep pedestrians and bicycle riders safe.
“We call it a ‘protected intersection’ because it has curbing and things to create more protection for people walking and biking from being hit by cars,” he said.
By the end of this month, there will be signs and pavement markings so people know not to ride on top of the barrier, Larsen said.
“Once it's all complete, it'll be pretty obvious where the cyclists should go,” he said.
Larsen said Salt Lake City was the first in the country to create this type of protected intersection.
“Right now, we're averaging, unfortunately, around 20 people a year who are killed on our streets in Salt Lake City,” he said. “Any chance we get to rebuild the street and retouch a street, we're going to put it back safer.”
Brown feels that the city would be better off putting money toward tackling bigger issues to create a city people want to walk and bike in.
“A lot of people are still scared to come to downtown Salt Lake because of the homeless and of people asking them for money,” he said. “I think until that's taken care of, I don't think you're going to have a lot of people really wanting to come to downtown Salt Lake.”
