Urban Planning

Courthouse Station, Salt Lake City, in the rain 

Yesterday I attended a Webinar concerning Next Generation Urban Bikeway Design.  Last week I attended a Webinar which explored Enhanced Multi-Modal Level of Service standards.  (A webinar is a seminar that uses phone lines and internet connections to link up several groups of people at different locations.)

It's really not as complicated as it sounds - certainly not the Webinar part and especially not the Multi-Modal part.

It has to do with how livable our cities are, and how friendly they are to pedestrians and bicyclists. It's a question being asked by urban planners all over the world.  It's also something all of us city-dwellers have a stake in, and my company happens to do planning of this kind.

A "sharrow" bike lane
in Long Beach, California

When I mentioned this to my brother, he announced that a huge international urban planning conference was recently held in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Evidently Salt Lake City was chosen as a site for this conference as it is a model for urban smart design - all because of Brigham Young's preference for wide streets!

When Salt Lake City was originally laid out, Mormon leader Brigham Young opted for an orderly grid of north-south/east-west streets and announced he wanted all major thoroughfares wide enough to turn a team of horses around in them.

What this means for the modern Salt Lake City of today is that the streets are so wide planners can easily accommodate pedestrians, bike lanes and light rail as well as automobiles.  Pretty nifty, huh?

Since I work for a company that does traffic and transportation planning and engineering, I found it interesting to note that pioneer and Mormon Prophet Brigham Young's forward thinking is now getting some worldwide attention in urban planning circles.

Brigham Young remains one of my heroes.  He was an incredible man and the more I learn about him, the more I appreciate him.

Kudos to one of the first (if not the first) of the "modern" city planners!

Brigham Young (aged 57)

- SLC photo: JD Evensen