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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Traffic backup problems on Redwood Road in Saratoga Springs during peak commute times have spilled over into a neighboring community, homeowners said Tuesday.
"Our neighborhood has become more of a freeway for the people at the south end of the city," resident Harmony Seiter said.
Seiter and other residents who live along privately owned roads roughly east of the intersection of Redwood Road and Grandview Boulevard said dozens of drivers each morning are detouring through their neighborhood.
"In an effort to circumvent this light at Grandview — which does tend to stop — they come in here, fly down the main street right there and outside the other entrance," Lauren Cooper, another resident, said.
Cooper said problems have been significantly worse since the start of the school year, when morning northbound traffic "became a parking lot for about 5 miles back."
Homeowners have even placed "road closed" and other cautionary signs to deter extra traffic, but to no avail.
Many drivers, the residents said, have exhibited bad behavior along the way.
Cooper said on a day when a barrier was placed at the entrance of an incoming travel lane, drivers simply turned right into the outgoing travel lane.
"We even have the flashing speed limit signs, you know, but they just totally ignore it," Neil Infanger said.
Patty Brown said neighbors' primary concern was the risk to children who live in the area.
Saratoga Springs assistant city manager Spencer Kyle said the city had heard the complaints from residents and had met with the local homeowners association earlier Tuesday.
"We're all experiencing these problems together and trying to do our best to find some solutions," Kyle said.
One long-term fix is on the horizon, but still two and a half years away, city officials believe.
Utah Department of Transportation spokesman John Gleason said a $30 million project to widen Redwood Road in the area has been slated for 2018.
Kyle said policing has been a challenge because the roads are privately owned.
"We don't typically do traffic enforcement in that neighborhood," he said.
In the short-term, Kyle said the city plans to work with UDOT to improve the flow of traffic along Redwood Road.
A crew was expected to look at the timing of traffic lights Wednesday morning, he said.
For now, homeowners are pleading with drivers.
"It doesn't cut off that much [time], it really doesn't," Cooper said. "It's not worth the life of a child to cut off three minutes of your time to work. It really isn't."
