Park City has a traffic problem. We all know it. The question is what are we going to do about it?
We live in a great place that people love to live, to visit, and to move to.
Park City’s population and visits are growing as are Park City businesses. That success brings pressure on our roads.
Park City is also highly accessible. We have a large city nearby, a world-class airport, and major six-lane (I-80) and four-lane (U.S. 40) highways in close proximity. These highways aren’t going to go away and they certainly won’t shrink, which means most visitors, workers and residents will continue to rely on cars, along with buses and seasonally, bikes.
Yet from those major highways, there are only two entry points into Park City, S.R. 224 and S.R. 248. S.R. 224 is four lanes, S.R. 248 is four lanes near U.S. 40, but narrows to two lanes coming into Park City and then widens again to four lanes between Bonanza Drive and Park Avenue.
Once in town, Deer Valley Drive is four lanes, but getting to it from S.R. 248 via Bonanza Drive is only two lanes.
This patchwork creates predictable bottlenecks.
We feel most of the impact during peak winter hours, mornings and afternoons, but increasingly in the summer too. And while visitors feel it, so do locals simply trying to efficiently move around town.
The ski base areas at Park City, Canyons and Deer Valley Snow Park all have parking for cars. Parking space at Park City and Deer Valley’s Snow Park is not growing, and in fact it is shrinking as per the Snow Park redevelopment plans. So the number of cars going to those base areas (and using Park City roads and streets) is likely to stay the same as it is currently, or perhaps even shrink. And if the total number of skiers increases, they will either have to car pool more or take a bus, so it looks like the number of buses going to the ski base areas might increase.
Logic would say that we should make it easier for cars and buses to come into Park City, get to the ski base areas, and generally move around town. Basically, our goal should be simple: move existing traffic more efficiently.
If we reduce bottlenecks and improve traffic flow:
- Visitors and skiers get a better experience.
- Residents regain mobility.
- Businesses benefit from easier access.
This is not about reinventing transportation. It is about making practical improvements now. I am not a traffic expert, but some solutions are logical and straightforward. While long-term planning and long-term fixes matter, logic says we should start with short-term fixes that we can implement now:
1 – Adding Bus Lanes on S.R. 224: This project is finally underway. Done right, it should improve flow for both buses and cars all the way from Kimball Junction to Deer Valley Drive. But success should be measured and metrics should be shared publicly. Taxpayers deserve to see clear data on traffic improvements and bus ridership so they can determine if their investment in the added bus lanes was worth it.
2 – Fix the S.R. 248 Bottleneck: We currently funnel four lanes into two, then back to four. That is a recipe for congestion.
There appears to be plenty of pavement for having four lanes all the way from U.S. 40 to Bonanza Drive. In winter, when bike traffic is minimal or non-existent, re-striping could easily provide four lanes. In warmer months, lanes could revert to include bike access.
This is an easy, low-cost, high-impact, short-term fix.
And if shoulders, right turn lanes and/or a continuous center lanes for left turns are desired between Wyatt Earp Way and Sidewinder, there is plenty of right-of-way to add such pavement.
Having S.R. 248 be four lanes will not only enable car traffic to flow better, but bus traffic will flow better too, which should help encourage people to take a bus from the Richardson Flats parking area to the ski areas.
3 – Reconfigure Bonanza Drive: Bonanza Drive is a critical chokepoint between S.R. 248 and Deer Valley Drive.
Now is the time to reconfigure it to four lanes with a center turn lane. The city already owns 5 acres at Kearns and Bonanza Drive, purchased nine years ago for $19 million. Using a small portion of that land could help solve this bottleneck now.
And where additional right-of-way is needed (perhaps between Munchkin Road and Iron Horse Drive), targeted acquisition would be far less costly than continued congestion.
And for my fellow tree lovers, if we lose some existing trees by removing center islands, there is plenty of room to plant additional trees on the sides.
In addition to vastly improving the flow of traffic, improving this corridor would also support the many local businesses in this area by making the businesses easier to access.
4 – Improve Key Intersections: S.R. 248 and Bonanza Drive is one of the worst intersections in Park City. With proper lane expansion, we could add multiple turn lanes in all directions for this intersection as well as Bonanza Drive and Deer Valley Drive, dramatically improving traffic flow and reducing backups.
Jim Offerdahl
Park Meadows
