Becker calls for funding of bikeways, trails

Carlton Christensen remembers organizing and taking part in a community service project to plant 400 trees along the Jordan River Parkway.

The Salt Lake City councilman has a picture of his then-6-year-old daughter, Jessica, posing with one of the 18-inch saplings they planted.

Today, that Norway maple tree is about 30 feet high, Christensen said, and Jessica is 16.

"It's a reminder to me that these are long-term commitments, both to the community and the environment in which we live," Christensen said. "If we don't take appropriate steps, we miss some great opportunities."

Christensen joined Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker at the Bend in the River trail head at 1030 W. Fremont Ave. for a press conference Tuesday to highlight advantages of funding trails and bikeways initiatives.

"For someone who has grown up and spent his entire lifetime on the west side, the Jordan River Parkway trail is the one element that connects our communities together," Christensen said.

Calling Salt Lake City a statewide leader in bikeways and trails and vowing to continue that, Becker is proposing a pair of major financial commitments to that effort in his 2008-09 budget: the hiring of a full-time bikeways and trails coordinator, and the allocation of $500,000 for bikeways from the city's capital improvements budget.

The bikeways and trails coordinator would work with city staff, the City Council and community groups to expedite development of trails and bikeways in the city, Becker said.

"We have to look at bikeways as a significant and substantial part of our transportation system," the mayor said.

The city's recently completed downtown transportation master plan calls for additional bike routes in the heart of downtown — including a mix of shared and segregated, on-street and off-street bike lanes.

"With all the growth in the price of fuel right now and the air quality, having a good bicycle system and a pedestrian system are very important to our community," said Tim Harpst, Salt Lake City's transportation director.

Salt Lake City recently received approval from the Federal Highway Administration to test a new bikeway marking system this summer, putting Utah's capital city "on the cutting edge of doing things different for bicycling in the community," Harpst said.