OREM — Orem city officials are adapting their transportation master plan to add lanes in anticipation of an influx of drivers and restrict parking to encourage walking and cycling.

The city's transportation commission presented three different resolutions to the City Council Tuesday night, explaining that a growing population and future plans from the Utah Department of Transportation were the reasons behind expanding and reclassifying roads.

The first resolution was to expand Geneva Road in Orem from its planned four lanes to six, which means three lanes in each direction plus a center turn lane.

"We have a reason to believe it's going to need to be six lanes," said Paul Goodrich, Orem transportation engineer. "The state of Utah and (Mountainland Association of Governments) is saying that because of other regionally significant connections, we really need to have six lanes instead of four."

Geneva Road will play a role in future connections such as the East Lake Parkway and potentially the Mountain View Corridor.

The larger Geneva Road would look similar to University Parkway, but it would have shoulders with landscaping and multiuse paths — similar to what 800 North in Orem will look like when completed, although 800 North will only have a multiuse path on the north side of the street.

As Geneva Road approaches Provo on the south and Lindon on the north it would narrow to four lanes, with a turn lane.

"These are concept designs, we still need to work with UDOT but we'll work with these as the concept in mind for the future of Geneva Road," Goodrich said.

The plan would also restrict parking along the sides of Geneva Road to promote bike and transit use.

"I think we're setting a model here for our city," said Councilwoman Margaret Black. "That (we) value the mass transit, vehicles and walking. I think that's very commendable."

The second resolution addressed planned UDOT changes for I-15 in anticipation of population growth in Vineyard and Utah County in general.

The city adopted a UDOT plan that includes frontage roads running parallel to I-15 south of the University Parkway exit that will allow more access to the freeway, as well as an additional I-15 interchange at 800 South in Orem to give quicker access to Utah Valley State College and pull traffic away from the Parkway exit.

"Frontage roads are so crucial to us," Washburn said. "They solve problems, relieve pressure on the Parkway, on Sandhill Road. That's really really an important element of this particular option."

The city's approval of the option doesn't lock UDOT into that option, but simply conveys Orem's preference. Orem also upgraded its own city road classifications to ensure its roads will mingle well with the larger thoroughfares and be able to handle larger flows of traffic.

Some of the changes included upgrading 1600 North from Geneva Road to 1200 West from a minor arterial to a principal arterial (five to seven lanes to seven) and 400 South from Geneva Road to 1200 West from an urban collector to a minor arterial (two to three lanes to three to five lanes).

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