Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City is on track to implement America's first protected intersection for bicycling this summer.

Restaurants in Salt Lake City are winning their battle to keep people without cars from ordering at drive-thru windows.

Atlanta’s BeltLine of bike and pedestrian trails is raising property values in every place it touches. Denver’s new rail line will create a much-needed link between Union Station downtown and the airport, 23 miles away. Miami is building 500 miles of bike paths and trails. Los Angeles is breaking new ground with everything from rail expansion to traffic light synchronization. And Salt Lake City’s mayor bikes to work and, by increasing investment in bike infrastructure, is encouraging a lot of others to join him.

Forgive us for the unacceptable two-week gap between podcast episodes but this one is totally worth the wait. Feast on our in-depth exploration of three transit lines (in order of fantasy to reality): Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City.

The final spot in the "Elite Eight" of parking craters is riding on this match. Either Grand Rapids, Michigan, or Salt Lake City, Utah, will move on to the second round of Parking Madness, Streetsblog's annual contest for eternal parking infamy.

Since 1999, Salt Lake City, Utah, has added 140 miles of light rail and commuter rail -- each line completed early and under budget.

According to Congress for New Urbanism President John Norquist, the Salt Lake City area has the fastest growing rail system in America. And as Streetsblog's Angie Schmitt pointed out last month, "It's the only city in the country building light rail, bus rapid transit, streetcars and commuter rail at the same time."

It's number one in the nation in per-capita transit spending. The only city in the country building light rail, bus rapid transit, streetcars and commuter rail at the same time. And that city -- Salt Lake City -- is a town of just over 180,000 in a remote setting in a red state.

Yesterday, we started our year-end 2011 round-up. We lamented transit cuts in places where transit is more important than ever, cheered the successful ballot initiatives that will fund transportation lifelines, took a moment to explore the nuances of some difficult issues, and called out Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin for some hare-brained ideas about the best way to spend money.