KICKING OFF 2025:A YEAR OF MOVING TOGETHER!
Happy New Year! Welcome to the Move Utah newsletter, your quarterly guide to the latest updates, highlights, and stories driving our communities forward.
We serve as a resource to local communities offering helpful insights, tools, and links to funding opportunities to help communities thrive. We’re thrilled to share exciting progress on impactful projects, inspiring community stories, and initiatives making a real difference across Utah.
This quarter, we’re spotlighting the installation of Accessible Pedestrian Signals around the state and highlights from the Connected Communities Summit. Move Utah is dedicated to fostering active, healthy, and connected communities through thoughtful planning and implementation of biking and walking initiatives.
Let’s kick off the year by celebrating these milestones and gearing up for even more achievements ahead!
Safe Crossings for All: The Impact of Accessible Pedestrian Signals
The colors were vivid, the sound was clear, and it gave me specific directions.
That’s how Amanda King, an academic advisor at Salt Lake City Community College and wheelchair user, described her experience using the new APS systems installed throughout Utah.
For those who may not know, APS or Accessible Pedestrian Signals are devices that provide auditory, visual, and vibrotactile information to safely assist individuals with disabilities when crossing intersections independently.
Amanda’s hobbies and interests involve maneuvering around Salt Lake City to certain events where she uses the APS system. She said, “This is such a great addition to pedestrian signals. The directions in the app help navigate intersections and know which direction to go. It also helps when certain pedestrian signal buttons are not easily reachable for individuals with disabilities.”
Amanda is passionate about staying active. She enjoys sports, reading, and participating in performing arts, whether attending or being part of the action. That means that being able to get around safely and independently is top priority. Amanda says, “I have had experience using APS at a pedestrian crossing. It worked well. The colors were vivid, the sound was clear, and it gave me specific directions. There was also an image on my phone to aid the process.” What did she think was the most helpful? “I found the combination of color, a large visual icon, and the sound to be the most helpful,” Amanda told us.
When we consider all users, the experience is better for everyone. “Always ask and seek multiple users’ points of view. Inclusivity is best when you can ask different types of individuals to know what is truly helpful,” says Amanda. See what Amanda is talking about and experience APS systems for yourself.
Locate APS systems here and download the interactive app for iphone or android. If there’s a location in Utah where you think you could use an APS system, click here to fill out the form.
Connected Communities Recap
We’re super excited about what the future holds
Jared Bowling – program manager for Move Utah It’s safe to say we had an incredible time at the 2024 Connected Communities Summit, where we joined forces with Get Healthy Utah and Bike Utah to bring together a wealth of information to build active, healthy, and connected communities across Utah.
The summit featured insightful presentations on topics like LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), creating multi-use lanes, and ensuring accessibility for all users. We also hosted workshops on outdoor recreation access, and tips for successful grant applications. Our walking tours allowed participants to experience how we’re improving sidewalks and crosswalks. Jared Bowling shared his excitement about the event: “This is a collaborative effort with us all. We’re collaborating at a unique level, and are excited to see all our amazing partners, advocates, and nonprofit agencies here today to support resources and open conversations for all users. We are leading the way on this front across the nation.”We’re here to provide information on any of these topics. If your community needs support for people who walk, bike, or roll, feel free to reach out to our team. Follow us on our Facebook, X, and Instagram, and contact Jared Bowling at jbowling@utah.gov.
Zero Fatalities Safety Summit
You’re invited to join traffic safety officials and advocates for the 2025 Zero Fatalities Safety Summit, April 28—29, at the Mountain America Exposition Center in Sandy, Utah. The summit will include presentations and sessions on topics that are related to traffic safety, pedestrian and bike safety, enforcement, engineering, driver education, child passenger safety, occupant protection, trucking, DEI, and other topics related to reaching a goal of Zero Fatalities. The 2025 Safety Summit is an opportunity for traffic safety officials and advocates to share experiences, opportunities, and successes to improve safety in our communities.
Register before March 7 for early bird pricing. Visit ZeroFatalities.com/summit for registration and conference details.
Community Highlight
Shields Lane is one of three major east/west routes in South Jordan City. Currently, Shields Lane is a popular active transportation (walking/biking/rolling) facility for east/west travel within the city, and provides access to two elementary schools and one middle school. The Shields Lane Solutions Development Study seeks to identify future solutions for the facility with this critical function in mind.
Do you have a project you would like to appear in the next newsletter? Please send nominations to moveutah@utah.gov
