Utah uses Data to Support Exciting Plan for Statewide Bike Infrastructure and Minimize Disruption to Travelers

As Utah DOT moves to institutionalize complete streets policy and standardize the consideration of active transportation in its project scoping, Strava Metro is proving essential.

The agency uses Strava data to see “where people are riding so we can prioritize our infrastructure investment,” says Utah DOT Active Transportation Manager Heidi Goedhart.

Utah DOT is in the midst of calibrating Strava data with bike counts from fixed locations to develop a statewide map of bicycle volumes. The goal is to generate a reference for active transportation that’s useful within Utah DOT as well as for city governments and other partners, like universities, that the agency works with.

In the meantime, Utah DOT has already integrated our data into scoping and project development, so active transportation needs are routinely considered.

“When we do a maintenance or expansion project, we’d reference Strava data like we would AADT, so we reference it a lot,” says Goedhart. “It has helped identify cases where bike facilities could be added to accommodate existing bike traffic. When you pull up some actual data it resonates well with engineers.”

In Park City, for instance, our heatmap showed the need for bike infrastructure on a five-lane arterial that otherwise might not have been designated for a bike lane. “We looked at the Strava data to show that there are a lot of users on the roadway even though there’s a parallel bike trail,” says Goedhart.

Strava data also showed a significant speed differential between northbound and southbound bike traffic, which helped Utah DOT make design decisions within the constraints of the project. Northbound cyclists, going downhill, mostly traveled 21–27 mph, while southbound cyclists going uphill averaged 13–15 mph. With limited right-of-way to work with, Utah DOT opted to provide more separation from traffic for the slower uphill cyclists, adding a buffered bike lane on the southbound side and shared lane markings on the faster northbound side.

On maintenance projects, Strava data has helped Utah DOT minimize disruptions for cyclists. The department is doing a full rebuild of Little Cottonwood Road, which provides access through a canyon to the mountain resorts east of the Salt Lake Valley. Bicycling is prohibited during construction work, when sections of the road are reduced to one lane of alternating traffic with flaggers. Because our data showed significant bike usage, however, Utah DOT decided to tailor construction hours to maintain access during peak periods for bicycling, with roadwork limited to Monday through Thursday.

Looking ahead, Utah DOT is relying on our data to inform major initiatives like the creation of a 700-mile north-south bike route through the entire state. All told, every region of Utah DOT now incorporates Strava data into its project development, and our data is helping the agency standardize the incorporation of active transportation into its practice.