The traffic backups on Park Avenue, Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive are notoriously some of the worst in Park City throughout the year.
They also are some of the area’s most important roads, connecting the entryways to Main Street and the mountain resorts while also carrying traffic between neighborhoods and commercial districts. The backups are typically the worst during the ski season, but there are lines of cars even in the shoulder seasons.
As Park City leaders continue an expansive discussion centered on the future of the Bonanza Park district as well as a City Hall-owned parcel within Bonanza Park, the municipal government has compiled opinions from Parkites covering a wide range of topics. Officials have released results from a variety of public-engagement efforts, including a well-attended open house held in July.
One of the exercises during the engagement efforts focused on what sort of mobility improvements are desired in Bonanza Park, which covers 200 acres east of Park Avenue and on both sides of sections of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive. The district is a challenging one for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists with the primary streets being so busy with traffic. There have been improvements over the years, such as a pedestrian-bicyclist tunnel underneath Bonanza Drive, but the district is still widely seen as difficult to travel through regardless of method.
The mobility improvements that Parkites who took part in the exercise identified as desirable include an assortment of options of varying ambition. Some would likely cost millions of dollars, but others would appear to be significantly less expensive. There are options that would be designed to address the traffic itself and others that would be expected to assist pedestrians and bicyclists.
The most popular choice, garnering 58 votes, was traffic-calming measures. The selection, though, did not include details about any specific measures. Traffic calming has long been used throughout Park City and has involved a variety of measures, depending on the location. Speed limits have been lowered in certain places and crosswalks have been improved to be made more visible, as examples. City Hall offers a formal process for requests for traffic calming measures.
The No. 2 choice, with 51 votes, was additional trail connections, which also did not provide specifics. There has been longtime support for the concept of trail connections within City Hall and in the community with trails crisscrossing Park City and the Snyderville Basin. They are considered to be traffic-fighting measures since someone can reach so many destinations on bicycle or foot through the trail system.
The other mobility improvements noted during the exercise highlight the disparity of possibilities. The improvements, listed in order of votes:
• Streetscape improvements, garnering 50 votes. Improvements to the streetscape in Bonanza Park could be accomplished as a standalone project involving municipal streets or as part of a wider effort encompassing state-controlled roads in Bonanza Park as well as private property.
• Pedestrian bridges or tunnel crossings, tied with 48 votes. Bridges or tunnels for pedestrians and bicyclists can be among the more expensive options. Park City, though, has been successful with tunnels, such as underneath Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard. Bridges have garnered little support amid worries about issues like the visual impact.
• Wider sidewalks, tied with 48 votes. Wider sidewalks are generally supported in Park City since they are seen as a relatively easy method of providing a better pedestrian experience.
• Safer crosswalks, garnering 44 votes. The differing sorts of streets in Bonanza Park — busy ones like Park Avenue, Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive in the vicinity of numerous smaller ones — would appear to make the task of increasing the safety of crosswalks on a large scale a challenging one. It seems options could include installing pedestrian-activated lights at more locations as well as improving the visibility of crosswalks.
• On-street bike infrastructure, garnering 40 votes. Even with the pedestrian-bicyclist routes through Bonanza Park, there are riders regularly seen on the streets as well. The concept of street-level improvements for bicyclists has been embraced in other parts of Park City, such as via bicycle lanes.
• Intersection/signalization improvements, garnering 38 votes. Any effort to improve intersections currently with stoplights — those along Park Avenue and Kearns Boulevard — would require City Hall to work with state transportation officials since stoplights are on roads controlled by the Utah Department of Transportation.
The discussions about Bonanza Park and the 5-acre City Hall parcel within the district have drawn attention from people who live, work, own businesses or own properties in Bonanza Park and elsewhere as City Hall considers the use of the municipal ground and a vision for the wider acreage. The process is seen as crucial since the land is strategically placed and there are tracts of ground that are considered to be candidates for redevelopment.