How "cycle-friendly" is Salt Lake City

[foidulus]

I'm taking the leap and attending grad school at the University of Utah and am now looking for apartments. What a rat race, anyway, I have a question for anyone from SLC on this board(there seem to be a few)

How easy/safe is it to get around on bicycle in the city? Are there separate bike paths? Are drivers respectful of cylces? Does the weather even make biking to the University everyday feasible?

 

[paleck]

I'm taking the leap and attending grad school at the University of Utah and am now looking for apartments. What a rat race, anyway, I have a question for anyone from SLC on this board(there seem to be a few)

How easy/safe is it to get around on bicycle in the city? Are there separate bike paths? Are drivers respectful of cylces? Does the weather even make biking to the University everyday feasible?

I have attended the U of U and live a few blocks from the University. One thing to remember is that the U is built on a slope so I hope you enjoy biking up and down hills. The sidewalks going through the U are fairly wide so biking with the pedestrians isn't bad. The city has bike lanes on a fair amount of the streets just stay away from the main thoroughfares like 400/500 s, 700 e and State St to name a few.

As for Utah drivers.... let me refer you to my rants on the subject. On the whole most are probably good drivers and respectful of bikes/pedestrians, but there are enough to make you want to pull your hair out.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

EDIT: I forgot to answer the weather question. Except for the winter when we have been known to have bad enough storms to close down the university, it is still possible but very cold for biking.