Where We're Going

Existing Plans

Quality active transportation planning has already occurred in West Jordan by the City, Salt Lake County and by UDOT. UDOT has drafted and adopted a State Bicycle Plan and UDOT Region 2 has a detailed map that displays projects and gaps for bicycle facilities in West Jordan. This was a starting point for identifying potential projects.

The Wasatch Front Regional Council has developed a Regional Transportation Plan, Wasatch Choice 2050, that includes a detailed active transportation section. In developing this plan, WFRC worked closely with all the cities in the region. The plan identifies bike/ped projects in West Jordan including: buffered bikes lanes on 2700 West, a 10 foot sidewalk/shared use path on Redwood Road, and a shared use path along U-111 among others.

Figure 4-1: Online map of WFRC's Regional Transportation Plan

Figure 4-2: Online map of Salt Lake County's Active Transportation Implementation Plan

Salt Lake County also has developed an Active Transportation Implementation Plan (ATIP). The County considers this an evolving document. This allows recommendations like those produced from this report and its corollary planning process to influence the content of ATIP. The plan is focused on creating a high-comfort bicycle network intended to attract a broad spectrum of cyclists. It tends to stay away from adding new facilities to arterials where vehicle speeds are high, instead, the ATIP provides planned buffered and non-buffered bike lanes on collectors. Some identified projects in West Jordan are a buffered bike lane on 2700 West, bike lanes on 1300 West, and to add buffered bike lanes on New Bingham Highway.

1,000 Mile Goal

In 2017 Governor Herbert initiated the 1,000 Miles Campaign to build 1,000 new miles of family-friendly bike paths, lanes, and trails by 2027. Bike Utah is designated to helping carry out the implementation of the 1,000 Miles Campaign. This statewide goal is an indicator that Utah is heading toward more active transportation.

What are family-friendly bike lanes, paths, and trails?

∙   On-street bike lanes that provide a high level of comfort for all users

∙   Multi-use pathways that serve as transportation and recreation routes for people of all ages and abilities

∙   Mountain bike trails for a range of skill levels

∙   Neighborhood bicycle routes so individuals, families, and children can get to local destinations, including work, school, parks, church, and businesses

As the projects in this plan are built, West Jordan will be contributing to this 1,000 mile goal.

Figure 4-3: Cyclists along the Jordan River Trail

Planned Growth and Active Transportation

It is possible that West Jordan may add 30,000 more jobs by 2050. The impact of this increase on the transportation system can be reduced by the creation of a safe and connected active transportation network. When last inventoried in April 2010, agricultural and vacant land made up most of the acreage in West Jordan, followed closely by single family residential property. It is most likely that the majority of growth in West Jordan will occur on this vacant and agricultural land, most of which is located west of 5600 West. As new construction continues, the development of the western portion of the active transportation network's backbone can be simultaneously implemented. This offers an advantage to the alternative of retroactively incorporating active transportation infrastructure after development has occurred. In such cases there are potentially more hurdles to creating a connected AT system. Some issues are that developers will have completed projects and therefore will not be required to include AT in their costs or design, roads will not necessarily be planned utilizing ROW for AT, and once land is developed, options to connect to other existing networks may be few and far between.

West Jordan's current General Plan has goals and policy measures that align with many of the outcomes of a robust active transportation net- work, such as mitigating negative environmental impacts and promoting sustainability. Creating new mixed-use areas is an important element to West Jordan's growth, as well. This type of zoning can be highly complementary to active transportation because of the variety in origins and destinations on a relatively small footprint of land allowing for short and frequent trips.

West Jordan's population is projected to grow from 112,185 today, to 135,000 by 2050. This growth trend means that there will be more cars traveling the roadways and more pedestrians and cyclists using the trails and bike lanes. The current number of miles of trail, bike lanes, and sidewalks in West Jordan will need to increase to keep up with the future demand for active transportation. Figure 4-4 is a graph showing the planned 20% increase in West Jordan City's population.

Figure 4-4: Bar graph of projected growth in West Jordan

As the City of West Jordan grows, the number of cyclists and pedestrians will also grow. Many Utah communities are integrating active transportation designs into new development. As the western part of West Jordan becomes developed, it is critical that the city requires developers to incorporate measures and design components that benefit pedestrians and cyclists, such as shared-use paths, bicycle parking and landscape beautification that offers shading and/or improved lighting at newly developed areas.

Figure 4-5: West Jordan aerial showing paths and bike lanes

Figure 4-6 shows an increase of approximately 23,000 new West Jordan residents and the general locations of this expected population growth over the next 30 years. These different zones indicate where new homes are anticipated for future residents. Much of this growth is planned on the undeveloped parts of West Jordan, most notably west of 5600 West.

Figure 4-6: Map of population growth in West Jordan projected into 2050