Are cars and trucks driving too fast in Moab? UDOT set to make changes.

Highway 191 motorists in the Moab region will soon have to slow their roll as the Utah Department of Transportation prepares to implement speed limit changes from roughly Old Airport Road south of Moab nearly to the entrance to Arches National Park in the north.

Cody Marchant, a Traffic Operations engineer for UDOT, and UDOT Region 4 Deputy Director Jared Beard on Tuesday, Nov. 12, appeared before the Moab City Council to discuss their plan to reduce speeds along the roughly 11-mile stretch, which is part of an overall Main Street safety assessment the pair has been working on with the city for the past several months.

While councilors had several suggestions, some are opposed to UDOT’s plan to keep the core downtown corridor at 30 mph, hoping instead it could be reduced to 25 mph between 300 South and 400 North.

According to UDOT policy, however, 30 mph is the lowest speed limit that can be set on Utah highways, even when they go through cities and towns with heavy pedestrian traffic, such as Moab’s downtown.

Mayor Joette Langianese said she appreciated the work UDOT has done and reminded councilors they have little influence on what is ultimately decided. “They can do what they want,” she said. “It’s their road.”

Beard and Marchant said they were willing to compromise.

Here’s the tentative idea, going from south to north:

Reduce the speed limit from Old Airport Road to the Old Spanish Trail Arena from 65 to 55 mph, a distance of nearly three miles;

Reduce the speed limit from Old Spanish Trail Arena to south of Mill Creek Drive — where a traffic signal will be installed in 2025 — to 50 mph;

Reduce the speed from Mill Creek Drive to 400 East from 45 to 40 mph and from 400 East to 300 South from 45 and 35 — at the Chevron — to 30 mph.

Maintain the 30 mph limit currently in place between 300 South and 400 North;

Extend the 30 mph speed limit to 500 West rather than 35 mph; and reduce the speed from 45 mph to 40 mph from 500 West to Courthouse Wash and increase the limit from 45 to 55 mph at Courthouse Wash.

Councilor Jason Taylor suggested — and his colleagues on the council largely agreed— that UDOT lower the speed limit to 30 mph at 400 East for northbound traffic and that the speed limit just past Courthouse Wash remain at 45 rather than be increased to 55 mph.

Beard told the council that UDOT would likely agree with those changes, but that the signs would be placed just north of the South Maverik, otherwise motorists might not notice the speed change. Taylor said the change would be “cleaner” for motorists and provide a benefit to the community.

Regarding the Courthouse Wash stretch, Taylor said there are several hotel properties and other businesses that use Highway 191, noting it is already difficult for them to access the highway at 45 mph. A 10 mph increase would only make it more difficult.

Beard hinted that also might be an easy compromise.

Why is 30 mph the lowest speed allowed?

Councilors Colin Topper and Kaitlin Myers, noting the high number of pedestrians that walk the downtown corridor, pressed the men to explain why the speed limit couldn’t be lower than 30 mph.

“UDOT is balancing the needs of all users,” explained Beard. “There’s lot of pedestrians but there’s also lots of people that just want to get through Moab.”

He suggested a traffic study might be in order, one that’s specific to downtown to complement a broader study that was completed last summer.

“I think downtown is a bit of an anomaly,” said Topper. “We need to make it pedestrian friendly. That’s our economic center.”

Myers also expressed support for a 25 mph limit between 300 South and 400 North.

Langianese said she would “love to see 25,” but since nobody knows what UDOT will ultimately produce, she suggested the council table the item “until we see a full plan.”

They voted unanimously to do so.

Councilors were not the only folks concerned with downtown’s speed limit remaining at 30 mph.

During the public comment period held at the meeting’s start, residents Kevin Dwyer and Karen Guzman-Newton, a former city councilor, strongly urged UDOT to amend its tentative speed limit plan.

The pair expressed gratitude to the two UDOT representatives present for the work done, but they also offered a critical evaluation of that work. Dwyer said he and Guzman-Newton completed a “quantitative analysis” of Highway 191 and determined that Highway 191 in Moab has “the highest fatality rate in Utah,” a statement they said UDOT confirmed.

The Times-Independent could not verify that claim as there is no official “most dangerous roads” list in Utah. Clearly, Highway 191 is rural and remote and has claimed its share of lives in and near Moab, including downtown, in recent years.

“‘Most dangerous’ is not a term we use in transportation,” said UDOT Region 4 spokesperson Kevin Kitchen. “How do you define dangerous?”

Kitchen, who took pains not to disparage the work put in by Dwyer and Guzman-Newton, said UDOT’s analyses go “much deeper.”

Dwyer said people who are driving through Moab on their way to somewhere else “typically drive faster.” He also claimed UDOT has not adopted the Federal Highway Administration’s Safe Systems Approach, which he said takes “a more holistic approach” that has been recommended by the Highway Safety Council.

Guzman-Newton said the survival rate of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle driving 30 mph is 50%. She said it rises to 80% when the driver is traveling at 25 mph.

She also suggested lowering speeds by 5 mph would reduce noise and also would help reduce the burden on law enforcement in providing enforcement.

Lighted crosswalks, narrowing traffic lanes and planting trees off the roadside were cited as ways to slow traffic. She also suggested UDOT install traffic cameras to help with enforcement.

“We can help make our streets safer and more livable for everyone,” she said.

“It appears that UDOT and local advocates seeking to reduce the severity of crashes have the same goal,” said Kitchen. “UDOT will continue to base and tailor regulatory traffic decisions for specific locations on the evaluation of the several variables that contribute to such crashes, while respecting the privacy of those involved, and respecting the parameters of authority granted to the department by law.”

Resident Pete Gross also supported a 25 mph limit in the downtown corridor during the public comment portion of the meeting.

The larger downtown plan

UDOT’s Beard and Marchant were in Moab in July to discuss with the city council an ongoing safety assessment for the downtown corridor.

At that meeting, the traffic study was discussed and it was revealed drivers on average speed up to about seven mph over the speed limit when it changes from 30 to 35, meaning they’re driving 42 mph.

That finding played a role in lowering the speed limits, but speed limits were one part of a larger plan.

UDOT offered three projects based on the difficulty involved in seeing them through. There are things that could be done now for relatively little expense, such as removing obstructions on downtown sidewalks like bike racks and repair damaged sidewalks — two projects for which the city would be responsible.

Priority 2 projects would fall under UDOT’s domain and include traffic signal timing and optimization and installing high-visibility crosswalks. The city’s role in priority 2 projects involves planting “less impactful trees on city sidewalks.

The longer term and by definition more expensive priority 3 projects include the creation of bulbouts to increase pedestrian visibility and shorten crossing distances. Both UDOT and the city would participate in this work. Marchant in July said the bulbouts would help make pedestrians more visible to motorists.

Variable message signs could also be installed, along with the medians. UDOT would be responsible for the signs and medians. Beard told The Times-Independent the potentially revised speed limit plan could be done within the next few weeks. He said it’s likely that UDOT will adopt a few of the suggestions that were made — but the request to reduce the speed limit in the downtown core could take longer.

This story was first published by The Times-Independent.