Wasatch Bike Plan 2020 Update
In 2015, Bike Utah partnered with the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) and Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG) to create the Wasatch Bike Plan. The Wasatch Bike Plan is a multi-year project designed to encourage all Wasatch Front communities to create, adopt, and implement an Active Transportation Plan.
What is an Active Transportation Plan?
Active Transportation is any man-powered method of travel, such as walking, bicycling, or rolling to get from one place to another. An Active Transportation Plan (ATP) maps what types of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure exist currently and what types of lanes, paths, or trails should be built or modified in the future. Infrastructure is typically evaluated by looking at car speed and frequency, width of the roadway, and a number of cyclists/pedestrians that currently use or may use that facility in the future. These evaluations endeavor to determine what infrastructure is going to be functional, while also keeping users safe. The appropriate infrastructure is determined and added to the ATP. Ultimately, ATP are used to dictate which bicycle infrastructure projects get funded.
Do you think a bike lane on a busy road by your house should really be a buffered or protected bike lane to improve safety and encourage more use? Check your Active Transportation Plan to see what your community has determined is needed for that roadway.
Without an ATP indicating what types of bicycle infrastructure will be built in your community, where it will be built, and how it will be built, no funds will be allocated to the project and nothing gets done.
Bike Utah’s Involvement
It costs money just to create an ATP. Both WFRC and MAG offer grants that cities can apply for to support their Active Transportation Planning efforts. Bike Utah is available to support cities as they apply for funds to create their ATPs. We also consult throughout the planning process to ensure ideal bicycling infrastructure and other considerations are included and properly applied within the ATP. Bike Utah can also connect cities to appropriate additional outside resources in order to best complete their ATPs. This work is all free to the community as a part of Bike Utah’s overall mission!
Once an ATP is completed, WFRC and MAG funds can also help cities implement their plans. This step is where things begin to happen on the ground! It can take several years for plans to go from creation to implementation, but since the start of the WBP, there has been notable progress!
2020 Updates:
Click on the image, then click on the map to see details about each community. Click on “More info” within the text box to see conditions and timelines of each plan.
Wasatch Front Regional Council Developed an interactive map so you can see details about each community and their Active Transportation Plan progress.
Centerville, Bountiful, and North Salt Lake have completed their Active Transportation Plans. This means they can move on to search for project funding to get the planned bicycle infrastructure built in their communities.
Many communities lack resources to create their own Active Transportation Plan so they create a regional Active Transportation Plan.
This is incredibly functional for smaller communities. However, as communities grow they will need to move to their own Active Transportation plan.
In 2020, Magna, Kearns, Springville, and Santaquin were funded to create their own plans which will be more detailed and better meet the needs of their communities.
The following Active Transportation Plans are expected to be completed in the near future: Sandy/Draper combined Active Transportation Plan. Mid-Valley Regional Plan, North Davis, Tri-City plan in Weber County.
Herriman and Vineyard also received funding from WFRC & MAG to create their own Active Transportation Plans.
With the addition of Herriman working on their own Active Transportation Plan, all major cities in Salt Lake County now have an ATP or are creating one.
85% of the population of the Wasatch Front now lives in a community that either has an ATP or is working on one. 96% of the population in Salt Lake County now lives in a community that either has an ATP or is working on one! Do you now live in an area with an Active Transportation Plan? Click here to check.
In 2021 we will be targeting communities who are still not a part of an Active Transportation Plan and begin working with them to apply for funding.
To support our work on the Wasatch Bike Plan donate to our, “Roll Forward” Campaign this month. Together we can all make Utah a better place to ride!
