The Utah Department of Transportation has received your request and we will be looking into the issue. Thank you for taking the time to let us know.

Issue 6387084 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Alicia - UDOT Region 2 Traffic Operations assigned this issue to Marge - UDOT Region 2 Traffic Engineer

Hello,

We appreciate your comments on this new configuration. We are keeping this one on our radar. Please note that the NB Foothill Thru/Right causes the free right to have to yield. We expect with the free right being able to proceed at all times this will offset having 2 right turn lanes. Also, by removing the thru/right movement, it will make the pedestrian crossing more safe. Unfortunately the signal pole at this stop makes it so you might not be able to see a pedestrian standing on the island waiting to cross.

We have also requested some additional enforcement by police, if they have the resources, while drivers are getting used to the new configuration, and finally, the University of Utah also has indicated this will be a safer situation.

All that being said, we plan to keep a close eye on this one to make sure we do not cause more congestion, especially when school starts.

Thank you.

Issue 6446479 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

This new configuration is not working! The right hand turn lane is now backing up before Sunnyside in the morning. It is ridiculous.

The "new configuration" is not working for motorist. It is certainly working for state revenue though.
The right hand lane now backs up to before the light at Sunnyside. There is no additional (or relief) traffic going straight thru at Foothill and Mario Capecchi. No matter the time of morning, it is ridiculous trying to get to work!

Yep. The line for the turn now goes so far back that blocks people trying to get over to make the turn onto Wasatch. Saw 4 bike cops there giving tickets today though. Maybe have them also ticket people trying to late merge?

Marge, I agree that pedestrian safety is important, and most drivers have
probably assumed that was the motivation. However, this part of the
intersection previously had no crosswalks to and across the
NE corner "island," and was presumably not really designed to support
pedestrians. By removing the Thru Right, and adding striping
for pedestrians across the permitted right turn lane, UDOT has added two
new delays to northbound traffic. Moreover, because pedestrians cannot
cross when south/east-bound Foothill left turners turn onto Mario
Capecchi (all protected/guaranteed by traffic/pedestrian lights), you've
effectively forced them to cross against all the northbound
traffic. This obviously affects traffic flow; significant congestion seems to
have added 5-10 total minutes, with backups to Sunnyside... and
slowdowns are surely felt further back than previously.

Marge, you said that the Free Right can proceed at all times and so
would compensate for the delay. This seems incorrect in two cases. It
cannot proceed when southeast-bound left turners have the right of way
through the light, and both lanes are always filled during peak times;
thus, the Free Right traffic has to wait until the left-turn light turns
red. Also, there are more pedestrians crossing over the Free Right from
the island, presumably due to the enhanced pedestrian safety, and this
causes more slowdowns. I agree with you that sometimes the Thru Right
turners would cause a slowdown by not immediately merging into the
left-most lane on Capecchi, but just based on my experience, most
drivers had figured out the common flow case, and the Thru Right
typically know to and want to merge quickly into the left-most Capecchi
lane; there is room to do that safely and legally prior to the Free Right joining.

I am obviously a traffic engineering layperson, but it seems clear
that UDOT needs to add a corresponding design feature to support
northbound right turners, to counterbalance the newly-added delay.

Thank you David!

Hello All,

We are keeping this location on our radar, and watching how it is functioning (including creating a traffic model back to Wakara) so we can determine what overall timing improvements and lane configurations will help with this congestion, but keep the pedestrians safe. Prior to constructing the pedestrian crossing we would see folks crossing at this location anyway and just darting across as gaps would allow.

You are all correct that this is not the ideal situation with traffic volumes continuing to grow, the 1300 E project going on this summer (possibly causing some detour traffic to Foothill) and pedestrians crossing at one of the few ingress/egress routes to the University of Utah. This is a change to traffic patterns that have been in place for a long time. Safety for students, residents and all stakeholders is important, as well as getting people where they need to go. Your suggestions and comments are helpful and will be taken under consideration as we continue to monitor and gather additional data at this location.

Thank you.

Hello Marge. When was the no right turn sign installed and is there a grace period for violators? There were 3 motorcycle cops waiting on Mario Capecchi to give tickets to anyone making the turn. I think if safety was the main concern, they would have been stationed at the corner to PREVENT people from making the turn.

Thanks.

Marge, continuing to monitor is not fixing the problem. This is insane.

This right hand turn lane and Foothill itself will be a beast when it snows. So please, continue to monitor.

We will be modeling this intersection and looking at several scenarios with signal timing and getting pedestrians across safely, and possible additional lanes. Gathering this data from the model outcomes is what I meant by monitoring. Bigger improvements require additional funding that has not currently been allocated but may be once we do have the bigger picture. I will keep this page posted as we complete our analysis (monitoring). We will also keep an eye out during the winter season, and thank you for that reminder. Marge

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With traffic backed up further and tighter by this change it seems more dangerous to pedestrians attempting to cross this island. I have seen more pedestrians having close calls in this area. You have greatly increased work commute time for thousands of taxpayers and the pedestrians don’t appear to be safer. By now I would think your traffic engineers have verified this on a daily basis and it’s only getting worse.
The jam packed merge zone has become dangerous with this change. Thank you for your consideration.

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This is an update on the modeling and review of Mario Capecchi at Foothill Drive.

We have completed our modeling and found that with this project (and other projects going on in the area as well) the travel time northbound on Foothill from I-215 to Mario Capecchi increased from 4 minutes to 5.5 minutes, between May 2019 and February 2020. Our model also showed that if we constructed dual free right turns from Foothill to Mario Capecchi, travel times during peak hours could be reduced by up to 15% or less than a minute.

Because the 15% decrease in travel time is minimal (due to the volumes) we do not gain much in this area with this improvement. Also additional development will likely be taking place on Campus and hospital areas. We are at a point in time where other options such as busing, carpooling, possibly modifying work shifts etc. could provide the best benefit. The cost for the benefit becomes disproportionate; adding capacity for the right turn movement only helps very minimally.

Also, for the safety of the pedestrians allowing the through/right as it was previously is not a good idea. The thing we can do is look at pedestrian crossing timing with respect to signal timing and make modifications that optimize these conflicting movements. We will be working with our signals group to review this and make adjustments.

We appreciate your patience for our modeling results, and we understand that the results are not great news for some. With our unprecedented growth transportation will need to have all options on the table.

Thanks,

Marge

We have completed our study and responded results. I am closing this at this time.

I have timed the wait in the right hand turn lane. Some days it is up to 5 minutes. Then you have the drivers who swerve into the right lane at the last possible second, cutting people off.
Consider this a success!