Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

UDOT to Increase Speed Limit Along Wasatch Front Freeways

Flickr: Garrett
I-15 at 1000 North in Salt Lake City

Officials at the Utah Department of Transportation want to raise the speed limit on Utah’s urban freeways to 70 miles per hour. 

This year the legislature passed a bill authorizing UDOT to study speed limits on all of Utah’s freeways. UDOT engineers then decided that the first ones they’d look at would be Utah’s urban freeways. Those include I-15 from Spanish Fork to Ogden, all of I-215 and I-80 from about Bangerter Highway to the mouth of Parley’s Canyon. Jason Davis says before making the recommendation they looked at a number of variables, including the geometry of the roads and the number of accidents.

“We feel very confident that we’ve done a very thorough analysis, looking at all the data, and that a 70 mph change is a good thing for everyone driving the roadways.”

He also says they don’t believe the change in posted speed limit will have a noticeable impact on drivers.

“We don’t believe that this is going to increase people’s speed," he says. "All we’re doing is making the posted speed compliant with what the traveling public is already driving.”

Davis says UDOT does not want to change the speed limit eastbound on I-80 between Bangerter and I-15 and between about 1300 East and Parley’s Canyon. He says they expect to change the signs everywhere else sometime in mid-December. 

KUER is listener-supported public radio. Support this work by making a donation today.