(KCPW News) Bicyclists in Salt Lake City have a new tool to help them explore where and how to ride. This morning, the city launched a website with maps, information and safety tips at BikeSLC.com. Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator Becka Roolf says the site will also highlight several upcoming projects, like a cycle track that will be implemented along a portion of third east later this summer.
“That is a design where we are going to basically take the parked cars and move them out from the curb, and have the bicyclists run along the curb between the parked cars and moving traffic,” she explains. “So the parked cars will basically serve as a buffer. It’s called a protected cycle track because the protection is the physical object of those parked cars separating bikes from moving traffic.”
Roolf says the cycle track is a pilot project modeled after several other bike-friendly cities.
Salt Lake City Transportation Director Robin Hutcheson says the City started talking about developing the website in the fall after seeing a 27 percent growth in cycling from September 2010 to September 2011.
“In history, we’ve as a city devoted not very many resources to planning for bicycles and with Mayor Becker in the last several years, we’ve increased the funding for it tenfold, and that’s, I believe, putting us on the map,” she says.
The site also has tools to request a bike rack or maintenance of a cycling route.
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