Council declines immediate lane-narrowing on Emigration Canyon; will revisit with larger improvements project

The Emigration Canyon council voted to keep the road striping as it is and to defer any decision about narrowing vehicle travel lanes to the larger Emigration Canyon improvements project, following extensive public comment about safety and road use.

Residents told the council they are concerned about collision risk, access for large vehicles and school buses, and loss of private property if the road were widened. Many urged stronger enforcement and other measures rather than immediate restriping. The council’s motion to leave the current striping in place carried by voice vote; the record of individual yea/nay tallies was not provided at the meeting.

The debate centered on a staff proposal to study reducing motor-vehicle lane widths from 11 feet to 10 feet and adding marked bicycle accommodations in some stretches. Supporters of maintaining the current lane widths cited the 2016 Lochner report incorporated in the Emigration Canyon general plan (2022), which recommends 11-foot travel lanes with a one-foot buffer and a four-foot bike lane where road width allows. Multiple speakers said narrowing lanes or creating new paved shoulders on constrained sections would push pavement into private yards and affect driveways and fences.

Several longtime canyon residents described frequent high-speed recreational cycling, riders traveling side-by-side, and incidents in which motorists cross the double yellow to pass cyclists. “If I’m going down the canyon with an 8,000‑pound trailer behind me and a cyclist goes over the line, I’ve got two choices: panic stop or push the cyclist,” said Roger Bird, who identified himself as a canyon resident. Kirby, a Granite School District bus driver who submitted a letter read into the record, described repeated incidents of cyclists not stopping for school-bus red lights and said narrowing lanes would force bus drivers to cross the center line to manage tight turns and the bus’s tail swing.

Cameron, a city project manager, reviewed staff analysis and said the city’s traffic engineer recommended against immediate lane narrowing. Ian Hartman, the traffic engineer cited in the staff presentation, concluded the road is classified as a major collector and that reducing lane width is not recommended at this time. Cameron said the option is not off the table and will be examined as part of the multi‑million‑dollar Emigration Canyon improvements grant program being developed with UDOT.

Council members stressed that public involvement and further study will be part of the main improvements project. The council’s motion to keep current striping was offered and seconded during the meeting and carried by voice vote. Council members also discussed further research items, including crash data comparisons with other canyons, enforcement levels, and potential pilot treatments such as rumble strips and targeted repainting of bike-lane markings on lower sections of the canyon.

The meeting record shows a large public turnout during the public‑comment portion; many speakers urged more enforcement of existing laws, more frequent sweeping of the shoulder area, and targeted traffic calming rather than an immediate change to lane widths. Council members asked staff to collect crash and enforcement statistics and to incorporate public feedback into the scope of the UDOT-funded improvements effort.

Acknowledging the intensity of public feeling, the council resolved to leave striping unchanged for now and to require the engineering consultant for the Emigration Canyon improvements project to analyze lane-width options, rumble-strip feasibility, signage needs and enforcement implications as part of the upcoming design work.