Description

I am a West Valley City resident with a child who attends Hunter Junior High School. We live in a new subdivision near the Frito Lay plant. Due to state budgets, children in the neighborhood are left to walk 1.9 miles to school. That alone is beyond belief, but the bigger issue is the lack of safety precautions the state has in place to protect our children.

Most neighbor kids walk North down 6000 West and cross 4100 South. Here lies the problem. 4100 South is now a highway exit for the Mountain View Corridor. With this highway access, traffic on this road has more than tripled in the last year, as vehicles from Magna are attempting to gain access to the highway. This will only escalate once the final phase for the corridor reaches highway 201. Vehicle speed at times reaches 60mph as vehicles attempt to beat the lights. Even without kids crossing, this is a dangerous intersection.

One of two things MUST happen:
1- A bus be put in place to safely transfer kids to school.
OR
2- A school zone be implemented WITH crossing guards to ensure kids get to school safely.

I recognize that a pedestrian bridge was built for the walking path next to the corridor. This however adds another half mile to the kids already 40 minute walk. Kids are like a river...they will follow the path of least resistance. So the bridge is not a feasible solution.

We can’t keep playing the game of waiting until a child gets hit or killed before we do something. We can all see a problem, so let’s fix it.