Help make our streets safe in practice, not just on paper.
ProvoStreets.watch is a community reporting and data collection project that documents what people are actually experiencing on our streets, sidewalks, crossings, trails, and bikeways, and brings individual reports together to build a clearer picture of actual street safety across the city.
Provo has invested heavily in better ways for people to walk, bike, roll, and take transit in the city:
But this infrastructure only works when it’s actually safe and accessible for the people who use it.
Our streets connect our communities and carry us through daily life: to school, jobs, church, food, parks, and natural spaces, and at the end of the day, they bring us home to our loved ones.
When streets and paths are blocked, poorly maintained, misused, or otherwise unsafe, people can’t get where they need to go calmly or efficiently, or get there at all.
When hazards are documented and summarized clearly, they are more useful to the people who can fix them.
Specifically, we:
- Receive your reports about hazards, close calls, blocked paths, unsafe behavior, and incidents in Provo. We also provide simple materials to prompt better driver behavior.
- Collect reports in a durable, queryable database with time, place, photos, hazard type, and safety impact, so patterns can be tracked, analyzed, and updated over time.
- Periodically review reports and connect repeated issues by location, behavior, route, or responsible party. View known concerns.
- Share clear patterns with the people who can act: city staff, schools, property owners, employers, delivery partners, or enforcement when appropriate. We also keep a dated record of notifications. More on notices.
- Support practical fixes, safer behavior, targeted enforcement, and better public understanding of where Provo’s streets and paths are working and where they are not.
- Keep a public, transparent dated record when hazards recur and when we notify the people who can act.
What to report:
- Blocked access you keep encountering: bike lanes, sidewalks, or crossings blocked by vehicles, bins, or deliveries.
- Drivers not yielding at marked crossings or near schools; unsafe turning through people walking.
- Persistent or reckless speeding on a street where people live, walk, bike, or near schools and parks.
- Abrupt gap in safe access, like a missing or suddenly ending sidewalk or bike lane that forces a risky merge or detour.
- Motorcycles or e‑motos riding at high speed on multi‑use trails or sidewalks.
- Near misses or unsafe passes, even if no crash happened.
- Anything that keeps you from using the intended path or route safely, whether you're walking, rolling, biking, or using a mobility device.
- Places that "work on paper" but don't feel safe in practice (confusing crossings, poor sightlines, awkward merges).
Other things we (want to) do (soon):
- Build a citywide danger zone map that combines street and path use with crash history, traffic stress, vehicle volumes, and the known concerns documented here.
- Conduct speed studies on corridors with repeated concerns.
- Support walk and bike audits to observe real conditions on the ground.
- Create and sell (nearly at cost) materials to prompt safer driver behavior.
Have an idea we should consider? Email admin@provostreets.watch.
Frequently asked questions
Isn’t this just the same thing as Provo’s 311 reporting program?
No. You should still use Provo 311 to report hazards, maintenance problems, or things the city needs to fix, such as potholes, broken signals, damaged signs, debris, or blocked infrastructure.
ProvoStreets.watch has a different purpose. We are not primarily trying to identify isolated maintenance issues. We are trying to document places where the system may technically be working “on paper,” but where people are still consistently experiencing unsafe, blocked, stressful, or inaccessible conditions in practice.
A 311 report helps the city respond to a specific issue. A ProvoStreets.watch report helps show recurring patterns across time, place, behavior, and responsible parties.
Is this just glorified tattling?
We will leave that up to you, but for what it’s worth, the author regularly reminds his kids that “snitches get stitches” and is firmly anti‑tattling.
Our goal is not to report individual people to police or parking enforcement. The point is to find hotspots where problems keep showing up and to contact the people who can fix the pattern: city staff, schools, property owners, employers, or delivery partners.
That may lead to more targeted enforcement in that area, but the aim is also better options and design: clearer signage, safer street layouts, loading or drop‑off space, or other practical changes that reduce the problem in the first place.
Why can’t we just contact the city directly about problems we have?
Sometimes you should. But street safety problems are not always simple city maintenance issues, and it is not always obvious who is responsible or who is best positioned to act.
A blocked bike lane might involve parking enforcement, police, a delivery company, an employer, or a recurring driver behavior. Some roads are controlled by the city, while others may involve the county, UDOT, private property, or another responsible party. A public comment at City Council may raise awareness, but it may not create a clear action item for the people who can fix the problem.
Individual reports can also be easy to miss, especially when city staff are busy or when the issue is intermittent. A clear dataset with locations, photos, dates, hazard types, and multiple reports from different people makes the problem harder to ignore and easier to act on.
The goal is not to replace direct contact with the city. The goal is to make reports more useful, better documented, and easier to route to the people who can actually do something.
How can I get more involved with this project?
The most useful thing you can do is simple: get outside, use Provo’s streets, sidewalks, trails, crossings, and bikeways, and make reports when you see temporary or persistent conditions that feel unsafe.
Reports from people using the system in daily life are the core of this project. They help show where infrastructure is working, where it is failing, and where repeated unsafe behavior is creating real barriers for people.
You can also use our simple materials to prompt safer driver behavior. The more they are used in the community, the more awareness they build for this project.
If you want to do more, send us a note. Tell us what you are interested in, what you are good at, or what kinds of street safety problems you care most about. There may be ways to help with reporting, outreach, speed studies, walk and bike audits, school‑area safety, materials, data review, communications, or other practical projects. Email admin@provostreets.watch.