Contested crosswalk returns to Sandy City

SANDY — Some parents in Sandy were desperate for a crosswalk to be repainted on Sego Lily Drive after Sandy City repaved the road this summer, and their hard work paid off.

The city and the Canyons School District, who approve students’ Safe Walking Routes, had been unable to agree on a solution for months.

On Friday, Sandy City repainted that crosswalk.

“This is such a relief,” resident Rosie Getts said as tears streamed down her face. “Now my son can walk safely to school.”

Getts and her neighbors had been arguing all the way up to the City’s Mayor, Monica Zoltanski, that the lack of an additional crosswalk along the busy road was forcing their kids to either jay-walk or to walk multiple extra blocks to a designated crosswalk down the road.

Sandy City traffic engineers pave over a crosswalk used by Mount Jordan Middle School students

Sandy City had intended to funnel all the kids down to a crosswalk at 150 East Sego Lily where they argued it was safer for more kids to cross in one place than spread them out but Getts and her neighbors said the kids weren’t doing that.

The students cross Sego Lily Drive to get to the neighborhood that leads them to Mt. Jordan Middle School.

For four months, the city had been telling them that there weren’t enough students in the area to warrant another crosswalk and that federal laws didn’t allow for two crosswalks within 600 feet. The city’s engineer said the Mayor urged her traffic engineers to meet again with Canyons School District, who also wanted another crosswalk to sign off on a required Safe Walking Route.

“It was very apparent early on, that we have the same goals,” Sandy City traffic engineer Ryan Kump said.  “And once that was on the table, and we both knew we have the same end result. It was just finding the solution that got us to the same place. And it quickly became obvious that just adding a crosswalk at 350 East accomplish both those goals for both parties.”

This might look like an ordinary crosswalk in Sandy, and for the most part it is.

But it's been a bit of a back and forth to get it installed. And we were there as one mom, who took her fight all the way to the Sandy City mayor, learned they're painting it today❤️ @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/YuRevGJ7JQ

— Lindsay Aerts (@LindsayOnAir) November 17, 2023

Klump said that they agreed that his team’s initial surveying of the number of kids who were walking to school didn’t account for those kids who could potentially walk if there was an additional place for them to cross.

“It was us not fully appreciating the volume of students that had the potential to use this crosswalk,” Kump said. “We got some more up-to-date data from the district that showed a total of 18 students would be forced to walk out a direction based on our previous decision, which was two to three times what we were counting in the field.”

Getts said she was grateful to the city for listening.

“It’s great, my kid will be safe now,” Getts said.

Sandy City is still urging kids to be careful in this crosswalk, reminding parents that just because a crosswalk exists doesn’t mean cars stop.

The city plans to assess how people are most using it to determine if more signage is needed.

Just one is too many, but students are among the frequent pedestrian victims hit and often killed by automobiles. KSL TV is working to raise awareness and find solutions. We invite you to share your stories and your ideas and help us spread the word and get one of our decals to remind drivers to Stop For Students.

Click here to get a free Stop For Students sticker.