Salt Lake City officials are sounding the alarm over a new Utah Senate transportation bill that could put the brakes on many neighborhood traffic‑calming projects unless the city teams up with the Utah Department of Transportation first. SB242 would set up a tiered street map and block highway‑reduction strategies on the busiest corridors, a move city leaders say could slow or derail bike lanes, lane reductions, and other safety work residents have been asking for.
What SB242 would change
Introduced this week by Sen. Wayne Harper, SB242 is a transportation omnibus that would prohibit highway‑reduction strategies on Tier 1 roads, create a four‑tier map of major corridors, and require UDOT approval for certain Tier 2 projects. It also spells out lane size rules and limits when cities can remove three or more on‑street parking stalls, according to KSL.
How this ties to last year's review
SB242 is the latest chapter in a policy conversation sparked by last year's SB195, which instructed UDOT to study recent Salt Lake City road projects and required the city to produce a mobility plan. Regional planners and other stakeholders have been working to balance the preservation of key vehicle‑capacity routes with road safety and construction impacts. The Wasatch Front Regional Council has outlined those earlier shifts and the broader push for clearer statewide standards for city streets, which lawmakers say SB242 is intended to address.
City leaders push back
Salt Lake City council members and the mayor's office argue the bill could weaken neighborhood safety efforts and limit how quickly the city can respond when residents ask for traffic calming. "All we're trying to do is preserve people's lives," Councilman Chris Wharton told KSL, which also reported that city police and transportation records show Salt Lake City averaged about 16.6 vehicular deaths on non‑freeway roads and more than 60 serious crash injuries per year from 2020 to 2024. The mayor's office says it is still reviewing SB242 and is continuing to work with the bill's sponsors and community partners as the language evolves.
What happens next
The Legislature must act on SB242 before the current session ends on March 6, leaving a few weeks for committees to amend or narrow the proposal. The 2026 general session is scheduled to run from Jan. 20 to March 6, according to the League of Women Voters of Utah. City officials say they will keep pushing for enough local flexibility to keep neighborhood safety projects moving while lawmakers debate the bill.
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