City begins safety improvements at 11th and Harrison

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City has been working hard, trying to make intersections safer for our children and students.

While they have a ways to go, progress is being made at 11th and Harrison where multiple students were hit while walking to school.

We hear it all too often people speeding on streets surrounding neighborhoods and schools.

“It’s a street that people like to speed on,” Kristina Robb from the East Liberty Park Community Organization said. “It’s also a street that people like to ride their bicycle on and it’s also, being that there is a school half a block away, an area where we see a lot of children, families, strollers.”

The intersection has earned some notoriety.

“We did have some children hit in the crosswalk here and I think that really did push it over the top that, you know we couldn’t get people to slow down, residents were complaining and we were starting to see all of these real-life issues,” Robb said.

The city stepped in to do some work on 11th and Harrison. They put in large speed bumps as well as added visible crossing marks, and crossing flags. They also added protection to the crosswalk.

John Larsen from the city transportation division said, “Drivers, they pay a lot more attention. So if you’re crossing here and going slow to begin with they’re a lot more likely to stop for you.”

While the intersection isn’t fully complete, the city says the work it has done is leading to safe driving habits

“At the end of the day, we want everyone to make it home safely so by slowing cards down a little bit. It is amazing how much safer a street can be for everyone,” Larsen said.

The city said this is just the start of many safety upgrades that will come to intersections throughout the valley. If you know of intersections in a neighborhood or school that need some safety upgrades click here.