Nibley • When Nibley leaders began preparing what has long been a residential area for heavy traffic, they wanted to find a way to protect cyclists, pedestrians, homeowners and other drivers.
As the city redesigned 1200 West to better connect State Route 252 with communities in the southern end of Cache Valley, officials installed a protected bike lane, enhanced pedestrian crossings and curves in the road to slow traffic. They also put in raised concrete slabs at intersections to force drivers into slower, wider turns.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) An intersection on 1200 West in Nibley on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. The concrete islands that were removed from the intersection's corners were meant to force cars to take wider, slower turns.
What they didn’t expect was sustained backlash from residents.
“We thought we were doing the right thing,” Mayor Larry Jacobsen said.
Late last month, the Nibley City Council voted to remove those raised concrete corners — what engineers call “mountable islands” — after residents mounted a fight that lasted more than a year.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The islands were installed at multiple intersections on the new road between 2200 South and 3200 South. Ever since Nibley began installing the traffic islands in late 2024, Jacobsen said the city has gotten pushback from the community — something that surprised him, especially given the public outreach campaign the city conducted.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
At a public hearing in October, Nibley residents kept the pressure on city officials, sharing worries about the islands being too close together, causing congestion and being impossible to avoid running over in some cases.
“Trucks have to drive over them to get through,” Nibley resident Chase Burbank said in an interview. “If someone’s waiting, it’s kind of really hard to turn left.”
On top of that, he said, they made it hard for people to follow the right of way.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Garrison Sagers talks about problems along 1200 West in Nibley on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.
Garrison Sagers, who lives near 1200 West, said his son was hit by a car in 2021 where the road intersects with 2980 South. While he thinks the intersection is better now, he called the islands “a terrible idea” and said he wishes the city would make the crossing a four-way stop.
“Ultimately, we wanted the intersection to be safer, and with the mountable islands, it just never felt safe,” he said. “… Getting in and out of our neighborhood was crazy some days.”
There are enough distractions already on the road, he said, and the islands only made that worse.
The city removed the slabs after the council’s Jan. 29 vote sealing their fate. As part of that vote, the council also decided to hire an engineering consultant to determine how traffic should be controlled where 1200 West intersects with Nibley Park Avenue, and also where it crosses 2980 South.
Landis Wenger, Cache County’s regional trails and active transportation coordinator, said Nibely’s use of mountable islands was a first for Cache County, just as the city built the first protected bike lane along the route.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A runner uses the bike path on 1200 West in Nibley on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.
While walking and biking are becoming more popular in many cities throughout the valley, some degree of public backlash is always expected, Wenger said.
“We can never make everybody happy,” he said. “Our primary goal is to design facilities not necessarily for the people that are already out walking and biking, but how do we get more people out walking and biking? How do we make it safer for those who don’t feel like it’s safe now?”
For his part, the mayor said Nibley will need to continue balancing the needs of drivers with a desire to get more people out of their cars. He said the city recently received a grant from the Federal Highway Administration for almost $300,000 to be spent “towards the goal of safe streets for all.”