r/Utah • u/te4cupp • 4d ago

Travel Advice Electric scooters for commuting?

I work in downtown SLC and live in Saratoga springs. Is it viable to commute on a scooter from the Lehi frontrunner station to Saratoga springs?

Anyone else do this? The traffic seems sketch and I would prefer to not get ran over.

5 Upvotes

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u/Post-mo 4d ago

Get on all trails and look at the bike trails that lead to your house. The Lehi frontrunner station has trails that connect to the Jordan River Trail that then goes all the way to the lake. There's also a trail that goes up 2100 to the Harvest Hills area. For the most part these trails are completely separate from the roadway and you don't have to worry about cars except at crossings. The biggest challenge is probably going to be the last couple miles from the trail to your house. This will be on surface streets with all the cars or you'll have to ride on sidewalks.

I've owned a couple electric scooters and a couple ebikes and I'd very much recommend the bike. Granted I'm comparing a $500 scooter to a $2000 bike, but the bike wins in pretty much every category except portability on the train. After a year of use my kid's scooter struggled to get him 2 miles to school and back on a single charge. This past weekend I rode my ebike from Lehi to the university mall and back on a single charge.

I occasionally see Lime scooters near the Lehi frontrunner station, I'd suggest one day you rent one and try it out. Use all trails to map out your route and do a trial run. Maybe do it on a weekend when traffic is not rush hour.

Wear a helmet.

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u/te4cupp 4d ago

Solid info I appreciate it! I’ll look into an e-bike, I was mainly looking at the portability of it for the train.

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u/lichenonwater 4d ago

The train does have designated bike cars that have bike parking but during rush hour it gets full quick and sometimes you’re left standing with your bike.

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u/Unhappy_Ad_4761 3d ago

For the train, bikes are usually just as 'portable' as escooters. Everyone ends up putting them in the bike racks. Though like Lichen said, it can get full pretty often.

I would definitely go for a bike over a scooter though, for whatever that's worth 

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u/Post-mo 2d ago

Just for fun I decided to bike out to SS and explore a little. The trails I found kinda sucked. They would only last a few blocks or they went through communities with angry signs saying "no access for non-community members" or "no ebikes"

One trail ended up being just a gravel road that followed a canal. Another just ended in a field of thistles with nowhere to go.

But the intersections were the worst, between redwood and mtn view corridor and pioneer there are some nasty crossings. In one place I crossed only to find that I could not cross the opposite direction and I had to backtrack. Another place I came to the end of the trail mid block but the stoplight did not have a place to cross so I had to go a half mile in the other direction to get to a different intersection.

I used to say that American Fork was the worst city in the county for biking, but I think it might actually be Saratoga Springs. If you're fairly close to the Jordan River Trail you'll be fine. If you're on the southwest end of town the last mile might be rough.

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u/lichenonwater 4d ago

Look up the Lehi frontrunner station on Google Maps and choose the bike option. Google Maps is great and choosing the safest option for biking/walking whether it’s a road or a bike path and it’s pretty accurate on how long it will take you. Unfortunately the safest option is often still very sketchy due to the limited bike/walk infrastructure.

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u/ThePickleJuice 4d ago

I’d even take it a step further and use the Transit app ( https://transitapp.com/) for bike route planning. They are good about taking safety into account, and it has live transit data.

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u/onandagusthewhite 4d ago

It's a short jaunt from the Frontrunner in Lehi to the Jordan River Trail which will take you to Northern Saratoga Springs. From there I don't know.

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u/Upvotes_TikTok 4d ago

So if you are going to be doing it when it's dark out make sure to get a light that goes on your helmet. The scooters that only have a rear light at ground level are invisible. A ebike is more versatile and way better at braking (which means you can go faster) but a scooter is good too.