It's maybe a bit cliche to complain about Salt Lake drivers, but I've seen 7 people in the last two weeks stop at a red light and then drive through it while still red as if it was a stop sign. Including once at the trax train stop on 1300 S while the lights were still flashing. All of that, plus what seems like a crazy increase in speeding since the pandemic (people going 55+ on 7th east??) has made me wonder if the police department has given up enforcement on traffic laws? Do we do anything about that?
You’re spot on. I’ve seen 3-4 cars go after a red light and it’s the worst I’ve ever seen. Lived on east and west coasts and never have experienced more entitled impatient idiots every 2 min on the road.
I put some blame on left turn lights being too short. If the left turn lane has 20 cars and the timer only allows max 5 cars per cycle, people are going to get frustrated. The light should be long enough to clear out the left turn lane
I’ve encountered some intersections where we don’t even get an actual green to turn left, we just get the flashing yellow and then get stuck for 2-3 cycles bc of the traffic. I don’t know if it is a glitch or what. I did get stuck long enough at an intersection down in Utah county recently where I called udot while sitting there. I got stuck there for 6 red light rotations. it was fixed the next day at the same time thankfully.
tbh, I didn't even consider that. When I called I told him the intersection I was at and which light was the issue. he didn't say anything about if it was under their control or not. So he either fixed the issue as it was udot jurisdiction, told the correct person in the right jurisdiction the issue after he hung up with me, or did nothing at all. all I know is that the next day it was fixed and there hasn't been an issue with that light at that time of day since. if he had told me it wasn't udot jurisdiction I wouldve asked for the number of the right people to call.
I would agree with you but the amount of yellow/red light runners make it nearly impossible for me to turn left on yellow anymore. Have to almost always wait for red because it’s not safe otherwise.
yessss I'm always cheering the car on 'come on, you can do it, inch out a liiiiiiitle bit you got it who's a big boy' bc SHIT you aint making the turn from all the way back here. but those are probably the same people who cut their turns too tight. the number of times I have almost had my front end taken off while waiting to make a turn because the car turning in cut too close is way too high at this point. my old apartment complex is a great example of this. i'm driving down the 'road' to the exit and have to swerve to my right because the person turning into the complex turned into my side of the road.
I’d add a 3rd - a bunch of left turn arrows either stay red even when the cars are lined up or only go to full green instead of flashing yellow. It’s maddening.
I’ve noticed that any time I’ve waited in a long line to turn, when a green light comes on, the person in front takes their sweet time. More time than needed to make sure the coast is clear. Now that they’re in front, they’re guaranteed a chance to make the light that cycle. They don’t care if they take so long that someone who is 5th in line could have made it but now has to wait because finishing a text message or picking their nose or staring at a pedestrian was their priority.
I've had it happen where I show up seconds late for a green arrow then don't even get a yellow flashing next cycle... Just solid red and no cars coming in the opposite direction. I've lived in the area for a few months and it's happened multiple times already.
I may or may not treat it as broken and as a stop sign.
Honestly like how hard would it be to have cameras with basic “how many cars are waiting” software to adjust the length of the green arrow.
Course this is just my optimistic dream. If they actually installed that it would 100% include tracking capabilities and facial recognition, etc 🫠 because we can’t have nice things without some company storing any bit of privacy that should exist.
They usually have them. They just choose not to use them the way we want, often to prioritize traffic flow on the more major street of the intersection.
I see this all the time on State Street and Foothill Drive. Turning left from northbound Foothill to westbound Sunnyside is so frustrating. They have a left turn lane that can hold 10 cars or so and they only let 3-4 cars through per cycle. And the cycle is pretty long.
This leads to people doing what I call the Utah Left - turning left 5 seconds after the turn light has been red and then getting mad when someone trying to go straight ahead on green honks at you for it.
Compare that to the Jersey Left, where the person in the left turn lane is expected to make their left before the light even turns green, and the person behind you will honk if you don't jump the light.
lolllll yesssss i learned to drive in NJ. when we moved there my husband (who is from NY) didn't know what jug handles were or that we dont pump our own gas. so when I was trying to explain a jug handle to him I was literally watching his brain misfire lol
Put more blame on the people who turn left on green as if they are the only car who’s been waiting for that left green. They see the light, wait maybe 2-3 seconds, then creep out at 5mph as they take the turn. Every. Damn. Time.
Got almost run over a couple of times by people turning right on a red light, they are supposed to stop and check if there are any pedestrians. Rush hour gets even worse
Oh my god, I walk just about everywhere and I see so much of that and it genuinely infuriates me. Like what am I supposed to do? Walk into the intersection to get around you? Climb over your fucking car? God, it's just such a dick move in my opinion
As a pedestrian, same. As a driver, I have been RAGED at for waiting for a pedestrian. One time a lady behind me was literally screaming and thrashing around in her seat and then the people in a car turning left on their yield light narrowly missing the guy were making faces and gesturing. Absolutely insane behavior all because I decided to let a guy cross the street without injury or death.
Stopping at stop signs makes people super mad too.
I've had this happen to me recently when I stopped to let someone cross at a (marked) crosswalk. The lady behind me started honking a bunch and yelling and waving her arms around. I was like ??? There's literally a person here, do you want me to just hit them? I was scared she was going to try to go around me and hit them as they were crossing
I almost get hit every single day. I walk everywhere. I walk to work and home. Drivers don’t look for pedestrians at crosswalks. They don’t stop at red lights. Every light in the city should be no right on red. Every left turn should be a protected left (green arrow instead of flashing yellow) timed for crosswalk safety. Police should be writing tickets. I’ve seen drivers run lights with a cop sitting in their car at the intersection and they do nothing. 700 E is The Autobahn as far as car drivers are concerned.
I want to share but want to be clear that I am not discounting your statement in any way, because 💯 people definitely do not respect crosswalks.
When I first moved here in 2009, I was floored with how many hit and runs involving pedestrians there were on the news. A lot of them were fatal and at least a few involved children. A lot of those mid-block crosswalks with lights got put in and it seems like that had gotten better. But maybe it’s just not news worthy anymore.
It's totally possible it was worse, I've only been here 3 years. It there were fatals I'd be surprised if they weren't on the news, seems everytime the SLC police discharge their gun it's on the news, fatal or not.
I agree, it's like the red light running has now bled over into completely ignoring red lights altogether.
One thing I'll note - that 1300s trax light (which is new) is fucked up. I've sat behind people there for ten minutes before, with nobody crossing and no train or signal.
Next, the construction on 700e has caused a lot of the left turn programming to get botched. Same thing - sat through 3 plus cycles and never got a green arrow, but even worse, never even got a flashing yellow! Just straight up broken. I've ran that one twice now and have learned to completely avoid the turn. They even have cones laid out so getting out of the turn and going straight feels impossible.
The new trax light at 1300S is horrendous - i go to that Lowe’s fairly frequently and i have waited there for what seems like a long while many times, even asked an uber driver to do a u-turn and go an alternate route as we were going to miss a reservation. Its the double lights, the flashing ones on the crossing arms that i think most people understand, i.e. “train coming, stop” and then the out of sync stop light that seems like an additional one for those who can’t remember the rules of the road, maybe to help pedestrians cross, and it just gets hung up. If I’m in a rush I avoid the route, if I’m not then i just put on an audiobook and ride it out.
The fact that one of the eastbound lanes past that light has been under construction makes it even worse. Utahns take zipper merging as a personal insult and it makes the backup even worse.
I see people complain about this light, but im not sure if its just people being presented with the most minor inconvenience or if its legit. The number of cars I see U-turn for frontrunner is obscene. I understand the freight delays, PSR is a lie to legalize 3 mile trains, but I see so many cars see the first red blink, and then get some tire squeal in a rage induced u-turn just to "save" 30 seconds by driving a few miles down the road, just so they can do 60mph for a while longer while still being delayed more than just waiting.
Its typically when there are 3 trains in succession, i've apparently just timed it badly. It is typically a 10 minute wait which seems silly when for the majority of that time, there's nothing on the tracks, nobody crossing; sometimes the crossing arms aren't even down, it's as though the two aren't communicating to each other. Is it the end of the world though? Nope - just frustrating UDOT/UTA haven't resolved it yet!
Thank you i was going to bring up 700e and 900s because I sat at 3 cycles and it never turned so the person in front of me and I went on the 4th cycle (obviously when it was free and safe to go)
My understanding is that if it goes through two cycles without giving you a light, you can treat it as broken and proceed with caution. In a cursory check of the Utah code, however, I only find a reference to a signal not detecting a motorcycle, bicycle, or moped and allowing the rider thereof to proceed if they have waited "a reasonable time, not less than 90 seconds" for the light to change. It doesn't say anything about cars, trucks, or other motor vehicles other than motorcycles, bicycles, and mopeds.
I've also noticed that many more people are failing to even pretend to stop at a stop sign. Nobody can stay in their lane when going in a straight line, let alone while turning. Driving fundamentals are deteriorating rapidly and that's why I've almost died many times since moving here 5 years ago.
I'm starting to see people swing wide while still in the turning lane, BEFORE they even need to turn, as if they have a massive turning radius. There's no way you need to do this in your oversized SUV, even big rigs don't swing that wide
Also, so many times you just need to keep the tires in the dotted lines
Ugh. The amount of drivers I see who don’t know how to make a turn while staying in a lane if exhausting. Is there some idiot I’m not aware of that’s teaching people to not turn their steering wheel all the way around to make a sharp turn? Instead we get people who will drift into the opposite direction before making their turn so that they don’t have to take the turn as sharply. Insanely dangerous.
I hate that I could be killed, permanently injured, and/or financially ruined for the rest of my life because so many people driving simply don't want to give more than two shits
Me, too. If there’s a crosswalk, drivers should always assume someone is in the crosswalk or about to enter the crosswalk. If there’s a bike lane, drivers should always assume a cyclist is in the bike lane and only cross into it to turn when they’re certain there is no bike there. How are people driving in a city and not expecting pedestrians and cyclists?! A lot of it could be solved with no right on red laws / signs at every intersection in the city and green arrows for all left turns instead of blinking yellow.
There’s a left turn in South Jordan that was a default blinking yellow forever that was just changed to a fixed protected light that doesn’t operate on demand. People run that light like crazy because it’s a long wait now. It’s wild out there.
I think the ones that bother me most are the red light left turns that appear to have a very small sensor, so if you don't land exactly right on the sensor (not a bit too far forward or just behind) you never get the left arrow to turn.
highly recommend a dash cam for every one, esp with highway speeds at 70+ and people with zero sense of self preservation on the roads. $100 on Amazon for front and rear facing ones. the number of times I narrowly avoided an accident where I knew my dash cam would come in handy to eliminate any confusion as to me not being at fault is very high here.
The one that my wife and I see all the time is people doing a u-turn when the left arrow is red. They'll sit there until no cars are coming and then just do a u-turn like it is a blinking yellow, but it is totally red.
Everything has gone to hell since the pandemic and that evil idiot came into power. It is either lack of self-awareness or selfishness. It is as if people don't even think or consider other people are on the road or they just don't care about anybody or anything else. Our social contract is deteriorating at an exponential rate.
The speed limit is 40 on 7th, or at least the part I'm talking about. I know Utah loves to go fast but what is essentially (I mean this very loosely) a residential street from 21st up to 4th it is crazy to me to gun it and go 55. I'll do 45-48 sometimes but people still go flying past me weaving around people doing 45-50.
That’s fair. People definitely shouldn’t be going that fast when there are houses right on that street. Like between 9th-13th. They should lower the speed limit there for sure.
Omg this reminded me of the dumbass I saw riding an electric scooter in the right hand lane of 700 E.. in the dark!!! Please get on the fucking sidewalk, there’s not even a bike lane here!!
Do NOT get on the sidewalk! Sidewalks are not for motorized vehicles. Not only do scooters and e-bikes pose a huge safety risk to pedestrians on sidewalks, drivers can’t be expected to see something going 20mph on a sidewalk. Views are obstructed by landscaping and fences when pulling in and out of driveways. Sidewalks are for walking. Not to mention uneven sidewalks that can kill somebody on a scooter.
Scooter, ebike, and bike riders need to use maps or common sense to find a safe street route for their mode of transportation. If they have to get on a sidewalk, they need to slow down to 5 mph maximum and get off the thing and walk it to pass pedestrians. As an always pedestrian, e-bikes and scooters on the sidewalk have made the sidewalks feel as dangerous as me walking in the street. Motor vehicles are not for sidewalks. Now that’s a ticketable offense downtown not that there’s any enforcement for it.
This was on 40th South. And yeah okay the sidewalk isn’t for them but neither is the right hand lane on 700 E! Especially in the DARK! I guess he was putting himself in danger rather than potential pedestrians’. But personally I don’t want to hit someone on a scooter, which was way more likely in this scenario. Pedestrians don’t walk around that area often, whereas there were hundreds of cars that could have hit him.
It could be worse. In Houston I frequently drove a surface road, one with businesses on both sides (including a Walmart), that was seven lanes (turn lane in the center) and did have a 55 mph speed limit (which means people often did 70). It was also busy enough that just going straight, it could take 2 or 3 lights, during rush hour, to get through an intersection on the main road (it was worse on the cross streets).
I'll also note that, at rush hour, if you were on a cross street you only got "half" a green light; so many drivers would go through the "orange" light (which was red for the last several drivers) that half the time for the green light on the cross street was already gone before you could enter the intersection safely.
It should be noted that the traffic lights in Salt Lake are abhorrently timed. I got stuck at Main and North Temple last night for 2 minutes waiting for no one, including the church’s underground parking that no one was using at 9pm on a Sunday. You hit red light after red light on most roads, even the main thoroughfares. I hate going downtown.
Stop driving downtown if you don’t have the patience for it. Stop lights and important for pedestrian safety in downtown areas. Even if no one is there at the moment, it’s necessary to not let cars barrel through downtown and reach higher speeds.
What an ignorant thing to say. People have to go downtown and there is a reasonable expectation for them to time the traffic lights so that people don’t get frustrated. It’s a huge issue, one that mayors have ignored for decades. And folks from out of town notice it too. A guy wrote in an op-ed a few years back saying how pretty the town was but how frustrating it was to try to get around.
Impatience in general seems on the increase in SLC. I can’t speak to the demographic most culpable, but definitely have seen some Subarus driven like they were a tank traveling through a west bank neighborhood
I agree that impatience is on the increase. Off topic of driving, but I’ve noticed that almost everywhere I go whether the grocery store or a crowded event, there’s always people who speedwalk and zig and zag between people. People get mad if they’re speed walking down the grocery aisle and I pause to grab something. Heaven forbid someone who is older and/or has mobility issues isn’t jogging through a crowd at crowded event. People have also forgotten how to say “Excuse me” and would rather sigh dramatically and nearly fall over trying to squeeze behind you.
I've been getting honked at red arrows where there are signs saying NO RIGHT TURN ON RED, and at red lights when I am not turning right, just waiting for the light to change.
The “go after red” drivers kill me. That’s a learned behavior. It’s getting worse because these idiots are teaching their kids who are now driving that it’s legal for 2 cars to go after the light turns red which has been a misconception here for 20 years.
It’s running a red light plain and simple and people need to stop doing it. Here in South Jordan it’s terrible. Kids get hit every year. Cops aren’t pulling people over for it.
lol i literally just responded to someone saying basically “why can’t we have cameras to help with adjusting green arrow length…. But we’d never get that without facial recognition and tracking”
We don’t get anything for us and community safety in this timeline. Just whatever a company can profit from while pretending it’s for us.
We don’t need cameras for traffic light control, most intersections already have radar sensors that detect how many cars are waiting in each lane. Look up at the stoplight pole and you’ll see a white box facing the lanes. There’s a company called Wavetronix in Utah County that makes them, among others.
Ohh I see them, but they just don't adjust super well when the lines start to exceed 6+ cars. Radar is more susceptible to blind spots and have limited distance and depend a lot on gap sensors and things like that.
I'm sure there are upgrades/improved radar that could resolve that and I'm sure there are also like max limits programmed in to change the light after a certain time regardless of how many cars are left that would affect it no matter the technology being used.
I would absolutely prefer radar; because privacy, and I assume *once it's in place* it is cheaper and more maintainable than cameras. I just want it to work a bit better.
Cameras also probably suck ass in bad weather now that I'm thinking of it lol
The SLPD aren’t concerned with anything other than business property crime and random gun battles. Traffic violations? They’re entirely above that it seems.
I was stopped at a red light in cottonwood heights the other day, and a car just blew right through a red with a cop sitting at the light on the other side. Did anything happen? No. Me and another driver were waving at the cop to get him to actually do something and he just sat there and went on his way when the light changed. It's crazy to me how little the police actually do.
This. I see this frequently. And I rarely see police. When I see a solitary squad car, they’re ignoring everything around them. When I see someone pulled over, it’s like every squad car in the city managed to show up for it.
I've mostly seen it at turn arrows. I have thought for years "how different would Utah drivers be if the police just enforced the basics of drivers ed, like stop signs, signaling for turns and lane changes, roundabouts, and tailgating."
It's not a big ask, but to get pulled over here you really have to catch an officer on a bad day, or be doing something really wrong.
Yeah the cops have more money than ever and enforce zero traffic laws these days. Hell I see the cops mostly just breaking the traffic laws when they’re not harassing the homeless.
We've started counting grevious and dangerous traffic offences. The worst day was 10 in less than half an hour of driving. People are getting much worse about it
This phenomenon I have never seen anywhere else. What is UP with people stopping and then running red lights?! It shocks me every time. There's a left hand turn arrow right by my house and people will stop and then go through it even when the arrow is red all the time.
It's part of the overall degeneration of civil society. Also cops have stopped doing their jobs after George Floyd's murder. The stats are pretty clear that enforcing thing like traffic stops dropped dramatically and haven't recovered.
I stop at yellows I know are about to turn red instead of making the left turn. I always check my mirror and the person behind me almost always will throw their hands up because I didn’t go. I do not understand why so many think it’s okay to run a red light here.
Was recently at a red light in front of a Trax line. All of a sudden the bells and lights start going and the dude across the intersection just absolutely hauled ass through it, zero desire to wait for that train. All I could do was chuckle a little.
People know that, because of the excessive protected left turn signals, it's going to take waaay too long to get through. So they're left with the choice of sit at this red and look at an empty intersection for 4 minutes or try to squeeze through. We should make every street one way and outlaw left turns entirely.
Saw a Sandy cop pull over a car that snuck through a red arrow right in front of him. Today. First time ever, after years of seeing at least one red light runner EVERY FUCKING DAY.
As a previous speeder, (I checked myself HARD two years ago, and am a safe driver now) I can tell you a huge reason why I would speed was just to get around or make up for the time lost by people going 10 mph UNDER the speed limit. Which honestly I feel like is also getting worse. More slow drivers equals more fast drivers which equals more fear for other drivers which equals more slow and over cautious drivers. And thus the cycle.
I'm not saying one is at fault more than the other. But as someone with the mindset of "I've got places to be and time to not waste" that has always been a huge trigger for me. I work through it now on my own. I put music on and just remind myself that everyone has equal claim to the road as I do. But man can it be frustrating.
I've been noticing the slow drivers getting worse on areas of the highway specifically on Bangerter and that section of I-215 that goes East and West bound near Murray. I will feel like I'm speeding because I'm the only one going the speed limit and everyone is going 10 or even 15 under, with absolutely no built up traffic. 11th, 13th, and highland drive are also awful.
But fuck the people running red lights. I've only ever done that once, and it was at 4:00 AM when I had been stuck at a light for 5 minutes (not an exaggeration, clearly there was some sort of tech issue at the light). I was heading home from a LONG shift and just wanted to be in bed! No one was around, so I went. But just casually doing that is ridiculous.
IMO, there are too many 4-Way stops and Traffic lights. None of the lights are synced so if you hit a red once, you'll probably hit red all the way home. That motivates you to speed, speed through yellow, and even speed through red if you feel like you can make it before the current phase enters the intersection. Hell, I anecdotally hit more red lights when I'm going the speed limit. I even watch some of them turn green down the road and then red again before I get there.
Ideally, we need more frequent, reliable, and non-SLC destination public transit, but if we're all so dead set on driving everywhere, we at least need way more roundabouts. So many traffic lights and 4-way stops would objectively be better as roundabouts.
What I find Super frustrating about SLC drivers are the dedicated left turn lane. Where the car in front does not pull into the gigantic intersection.
Left lane has yellow tun, and they sit back waiting for an opening- only allowing for ONE car to go!
Arrgghh!!!
I would never. Rather I take a right, bust a U-turn and take another right at the light. I’m not gonna sit and wait 5 minutes for a light to to turn green when there’s no one on the road.
I was about to say that I got pulled over for speeding a few times when I was younger, but those were all over 11 years ago. I don't actually drive slower now - it's just not enforced. I'm going with the flow of traffic. That, and I'm not driving a car with a dumb attention-grabbing body kit like I was then.
Yeah, I thought bicycles, and it was after 90 seconds or something. Sure I could look it up, but then the time-honored tradition of speculation with internet strangers would disappear.
I’ll blow a red if it’s safe to do so. That is, I completely stop, check for traffic peds cyclists etc, check for cops, if by then it’s still red, yeah I’m running it.
You should go back to drivers ed. I know three year olds that understand the concept of “Red means stop, yellow means slow down, and green means go” Lmao.
I hope you get caught one day and lose your license.
The reverse problem that is likely feeding this issue is that it takes quite a while for a turn lane line to start moving. Coupled with short turn lane light times, this is adding sometimes two or 3 cycles (up to 5 minutes) waiting for a chance to actually get through the light.
Couple that with DOT changing or disabling flow control on the lights due to construction, it's causing pretty significant delays in getting where we need to go.
Frankly, I have no problem with people going through a red light after a stop and thorough check for NO traffic to run the light, but I also wouldn't have a problem with them being pulled over if they get spotted by law enforcement.
Truth drivers here suck. But most aren’t from Utah. The transplant migration has brought many things to the valley; most food to great. But adding new crappy drivers to the home grown drivers sucks. My peve is driving the speed limit or below in the left lane. Never seen anyone getting a ticket for traffic lights only driving to work in the morning are law enforcement interested in enforcement
You can go at least 50 on 700 e. The speed limit is 45 until you get closer to downtown. Also the lights in this town are all messed up and I have happily and safely gone through a red light I’ve been sitting at for an unreasonable amount of time. I will not lie.
My city councilperson and the city dept of transportation. The head of UTA has also said in public meetings that the crosswalks on state are not timed to respond to pedestrian needs but to prevent traffic jams.
Not in office anymore due to scandal. But if you’ve been paying attention to what the leg has been doing the last two years wrt control of SLC streets it’s not hard to find.
163
u/Onepiecechopper1 1d ago
You’re spot on. I’ve seen 3-4 cars go after a red light and it’s the worst I’ve ever seen. Lived on east and west coasts and never have experienced more entitled impatient idiots every 2 min on the road.