As the Salt Lake City council wraps up budget talks, some residents are hoping to convince council members to fund improvements to what they say is one of the most dangerous roads in the city.
Residents who live in Salt Lake City’s Rose Park neighborhood say traffic exiting I-15 onto 600 north, moves dangerously fast.
“There’s been a number of accidents, both pedestrian and auto,” says Blake Perez, Chair of the Rose Park Community Council. “There’s even been a few deaths.”
The community council submitted an application to the city last year for safety improvements. The group is asking for bulb outs or curb extensions to reduce the distance pedestrians have to walk to cross the road and flashing beacons to alert drivers to crossing pedestrians. The roughly $80,000 request wasn’t included in the mayor’s budget proposal. But Perez hopes the council will include it in the budget they approve.
“The community in the way that we’ve acted and presented ourselves has been tactful and tasteful and I have some belief that a pedestrian safety project will get funded,” Perez says.
Tonight is the last night the council is scheduled to take public comment on the 2016-2017 budget.
Councilman James Rogers, who represents Rose Park says he’s communicated the urgency of the issue to the rest of the council and he feels optimistic that the project will be funded.
