Citizen panel formed to solve speed limit problems in Bluffdale

BLUFFDALE — Bluffdale officials are turning to residents to help solve problems with confusing speed limits.

The streets in question are the main collector roads, like 2700 West and 3600 West. On some of them, the speed limit is 25 mph, on others it's 35 mph. Sometimes it switches between the two speeds on the same street for no easily discernible reason. 

"We actually have as many complaints about increasing the speed to 35 (mph) as we do decreasing the speed to 25," Bluffdale Mayor Derk Timothy said.

Timothy said this causes some roads to be a lot busier than others as drivers look to go faster.

"It's almost not fair to the (people living along) the roads that are 35 (mph) because they get more traffic, rather than dispersing traffic evenly through the city," he said.

A lot of residents have asked if the speeds could be more consistent. So Timothy said the city has formed a panel of 14 concerned citizens to come up with solutions for these problems. He said they were instructed about their legal limits and traffic easing measures, but apart from that, left the ideas up to them.

"We did explain engineering studies to them," the mayor said. "We did explain traffic calming measures because those were some of the things they needed to be educated on before they could intelligently discuss speed limits and what to do about them."

The panel will present its ideas to the City Council on Feb. 28.

"I'm sure we'll come up with some good ideas that the City Council will react to," Timothy said.

The City Council will take the proposals under consideration, but isn't expected to make any decisions then. It will also be taking public input about the proposals when they're announced.

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