New school crossing signs are great, but pedestrians need even more protection

UDOT should be commended on installation of prominent overhead signage, and especially the new painted crosswalks with night lighting in Manti and Gunnison. The goal of the upgrades is helping school children cross safely. But the devices don’t go far enough. Two of them are simply glorified school speed-limit signs. What about the rest of us who feel we’re taking our lives in our hands when we try to cross the highway, including at intersections?

We’ve observed a mother pushing a baby carriage with two younger children in tow venturing out from the curb with evident uncertainty as to whether cars will stop. If one of the little kids, a child small enough to be below the visibility level of some vehicles, ran ahead of the mother, an everyday activity could end in tragedy.

We’ve seen older kids on bicycles waiting at corners, obviously uncertain if it’s safe to cross.

Pedestrian flags are helpful but not fail safe. The flags get moved, dropped on sidewalks and sometimes disappear entirely. About a year ago, the Manti Public Works Department put new, upgraded flags along the city’s Main Street Recently, we observed a flag rack in front of the Manti Library at midday.

There were no flags in the rack. In 2025, Bike Utah, a nonprofit group that prepares plans for nonmotorized movement in cities and towns, held a workshop where it asked Ephraim residents for input on how Main Street might be reconfigured. The group also collected responses from an online survey.

The organization reported the most frequent comment was people saying they were afraid to cross Main Street. One mother reported stopping for a child crossing Main Street when another driver swerved around her and “almost hit the kid.”

Bike Utah identified seven “dangerous intersections” along Main Street in Ephraim, including 400 South, 200 South, Center Street, College Avenue, 300 North, 450 North and 700 North. We’re gratified that UDOT plans to put a second stop light on the north end of Main Street. But what about the rest of the street south to 700 South?

Traffic volumes on main streets in our major U.S. 89 towns are reaching a point where we need pedestrian-activated devices that require traffic to STOP when pedestrians need to cross. Such devices are known as high-intensity activated crosswalks (HAWKs). With a HAWK device, when no pedestrians are present, the signal is dark; traffic is not interrupted. When a pedestrian pushes a “walk” button on the HAWK utility pole, lights flash yellow to tell traffic to slow down and prepare to stop. As soon as a steady, red light starts flashing, drivers must stop and pedestrians can cross.

We ask UDOT to look into pedestrian-activated devices at busy intersections on State Street in Mt. Pleasant and on main streets in Ephraim, Manti and Gunnison.