The Mountainland Association of Governments announced Monday the launch of a regional grid study and mapping tool designed to show how increased roadway connectivity can improve travel times, safety, and economic access throughout Utah County.
Improved Mobility and Connectivity
The study emphasizes that a functional regional transportation system requires enough roadways to alleviate congestion and improve travel times. According to the Mountainland Association of Governments, a well-connected network redistributes traffic, providing more options and better accessibility for all modes of travel, particularly for motorists.
By establishing more direct routes, a grid system can generate fewer vehicle miles traveled than conventional suburban networks. This occurs because travelers gain the ability to choose alternate, often more direct, routes to their destinations. This reduction in travel delay provides a layer of convenience by allowing users to avoid potential hazards such as construction or congestion, while increasing the overall reliability of the transportation network.
Optimizing Roadway Usage
The Mountainland Association of Governments noted that current networks often lack sufficient arterials and continuous collectors. These overburdened roads currently face excessive demand due to the existing infrastructure.
By implementing the correct combination of arterials and collectors, regional roads can be reserved for vehicles with higher travel speeds. This separation allows local traffic to remain on smaller local roadways intended for that purpose, reducing the congestion and collision risks that occur when different types of travel are mixed on the same roads.
Enhancing Public Safety
Increased network redundancy is expected to improve public safety by reducing response times for emergency medical services (EMS) vehicles through shorter physical travel distances. The study highlights a case study from Saratoga Springs, which suggests that connectivity improvements alone can sometimes save cities from the cost of building new fire stations by increasing the service area of an existing station.
In addition to emergency services, the study states that a well-connected network enhances the community's overall health compared to systems with less connectivity.
Driving Economic Vitality
The study also examines the impact of roadway connectivity on economic vitality. Greater connectivity increases access to the local and regional economy by creating connections that allow regional visitors to reach local businesses more easily.
On a regional level, improved connectivity reduces travel times, which increases what economists call market accessibility. This metric estimates how accessible jobs, services, and education are to households. Improved market accessibility creates a stronger draw for both employers and employees, ultimately supporting job growth and increasing property values.
Interactive Mapping Capabilities
To help communities visualize these impacts, the Mountainland Association of Governments created a Grid Network Mapping Tool. This tool allows users to compare the existing roadway system identified in local transportation plans against MAG's TransPlan50 and proposed grid network connections in real time.
The tool includes several interactive features to explore specific benefits:
- An overview showing existing collectors and arterial roadways in Utah County, including a blue buffer to indicate where connections are currently lacking.
- A projects tab that identifies recommendations beyond the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), such as roadway widening projects—indicated by dashed lines—and new roadway connections, indicated by solid lines.
- An economic feature that allows users to click on a city to see how many people can access a business via the RTP roadways versus the recommended grid system.
- Employment and safety metrics that demonstrate how connectivity affects job access and EMS response times.
Implementation and Results
The mapping tool demonstrates that many recommendations for the region involve roadway widening projects rather than the construction of entirely new facilities, which can still result in shorter drive times and improved access.
Data-Driven Planning
By using the mapping tool, users can see specifically how many homes or jobs can access a business or location under the recommended grid system compared to the existing RTP roadways.
