03.31.2025
An open letter to Vineyard City Council,
I’d like to provide a recommendation on how to make Mill Road better for all users, as someone who has lived here in Vineyard for several years and paid attention to Mill Road’s use during that time.
I’ve observed that Mill Road really functions as two different roads. I think the city would do well to play to the advantages of each area and make them excellent at their distinct functions, as opposed to trying to split the difference between two goals and falling short at both.
The Blue Section: I’ve observed that the area in blue above is used almost exclusively as an access road, not a thru road. The wide majority of people are utilizing this blue segment to get to or from a business along Mill Road, to their homes along Mill Road, or to the UVU dome, but they rarely drive through the entire section from Center to 800 N or from 800 N to Center. This is likely because Geneva is faster and more convenient in just about every way.
As a result, I’d recommend you leave Geneva as the thru road and let the blue section be excellent for access. Have lots of traffic calming, lower speeds (perhaps slow enough that bikers could use the same lanes as cars), a center median potentially with some nice trees, lots of places for people to cross and access things, etc. No one should have to put their life in danger when crossing the road mid-block or turning left into the Megaplex development, but right now the design speed is high enough that crossing the road, biking on the roadside, or turning left could easily be deadly. It’s no wonder so few people cross on foot and bike in this section!
I want you to really focus on making the blue section pleasant and to focus on building the access and desirability of the nearby destinations, as opposed to focusing on getting people through north to south as quick as possible. That is an important function, but let parallel Geneva serve that function.
The Green Section:
I’ve observed the green section above is used for essentially the opposite function as the blue section. With some relatively few exceptions (mostly people going to the gas station) the vast majority of people use the green section as a thru road, not an access road. They’re trying to get to Geneva from Center street or the blue section, or vice versa, most people’s destination is not along the green section. As a result, in all my years of living along Mill Road I’ve never experienced traffic jam in the blue section, they all happen in the green section.
My recommendation for this green section is to focus on throughput, with access only as absolutely necessary. The tricky part here is that, unlike Geneva and 800 N, the section is so short that top speed of vehicles won’t really matter. You could set the speed limit at 100mph and we’d still have traffic jams there because it’s such a short section. The issue is how efficient the intersections are at getting as many people through as possible in a given timeframe. As a result, I’d like you to focus on the intersection efficiency of the green section.
I’m not as familiar with intersection design as with traffic calming, so I’ll just throw out some ideas to look into. The core thing is that I want you to focus on getting the max number of people through an intersection as fast as possible.
Some ideas, just brainstorming here:
- Using a roundabout at center street-mill intersection (continuous flow is often more effecient than stop-and-go traffic lights)
- Physically separate paths for cars and public transit from those for biking/walking
- Make more competitive public transit (a bus with 15 people on it can move through the intersection faster than 15 cars with 1 person each)
- Physically eliminate the remaining left turn onto Mill Road in this section (extend the concrete barrier) to have fewer turns breaking up the traffic flow
Geneva and 800 N: These have the same purpose as the green section at the end of the day, getting thru traffic through as quick as possible. In short, I’d recommend you keep them fast moving, low access roads, and have the blue segment of Mill Road serve the access function instead.
You may have noticed you drive north-south along Geneva much faster than along State Street despite a similar speed limit in most sections. This is because state street tries to be both a thru street and access street. It has fairly high speeds (thru road) but also tons of lights and driveways to turn into (access) This makes State Street stressful and unpleasant to be on from the noise, cars turning on and off constantly, etc but also means that you can’t get anywhere quickly because there’s so much traffic built up at all the lights and so many people turning and forcing you to slow down suddenly.
As a result, I recommend you make the number of Vineyard-side driveways and traffic lights on Geneva between Mill & 800 N be 0 (zero) and instead use Mill Road as the access street. Same thing for 800 N, don’t allow driveways or lights between Mill Road and Geneva as it’s eventually built out. In this scenario you’d essentially access all the businesses along Geneva the same way you access the movie theater now from Geneva or 800 N, you go around to Mill Road and then use Mill Road as the access street, leaving Geneva and 800 N to mostly handle thru traffic.
Note on car lane counts: I have heard people debating about potentially reducing lanes on Mill Road, so here’s my short input.
In the green section the multiple lanes each are very useful and you should keep them, because the greater road capacity means more capacity to go through the intersection at one time, and wait at the intersection without extending the queue line. Having quality and efficient alternatives to driving would also help in reducing the traffic in this area though, so the car lanes should not undermine a separated use path for biking/walking, and it may be smart to work on better public transit in the area.
In the blue section, as noted previously, there aren’t really traffic jams because it’s utilized only as an access street. The absolute most enormous ”traffic jam” I’ve ever been in on the blue section was 5 cars queued up to turn right onto 800 N, which was cleared quickly when the light turned green 10 seconds after I got to this little queue. Two lanes each way aren’t really needed in the blue section, but you could have them if you wanted, the real need is for traffic calming and better multi-modal access. You can have that with two lanes or one lane each way. Personally I would reduce the lane count because one lane costs less taxpayer money than two and I have heard single lane entries make good roundabout design easier, but if that’s not politically viable then the street can still be a rockstar, postcard-worthy access street with two lanes each way. The key in the blue section is to focus on access and making it a pleasant destination, whether with 1 or 2 lanes each way.
Ending note:
This plan allows Geneva and 800 N to be rockstars at getting people through quickly, and allows the blue section of Mill Road to be a rockstar access street that could be beautified to the point of being postcard worthy, all while allowing safety and convenience for multiple modes of access. I highly recommend you take this course of action. Thanks for reading!
Your Constituent in Vineyard
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