Provo's Most Dangerous Intersections for Pedestrians and Cyclists

UDOT’s signalized-intersection safety model lists 63 traffic signals inside Provo. For each one we counted the pedestrian and bicycle crashes in UDOT’s crash records that happened within 250 feet of it between January 1, 2018 and August 4, 2025. The full method is set out at the bottom of this page.

That produces 117 crashes involving a pedestrian and 77 involving a cyclist. In 28 of the pedestrian crashes and 9 of the bicycle crashes, the record lists the severity as “Fatal” or “Suspected Serious Injury,” which this page calls serious or fatal. Forty-seven of the 63 signals had at least one pedestrian crash in that span.

Severity, Not Volume, Is What Sets Provo Apart

No Provo signal logged more than seven pedestrian crashes over the period, while 27 signals elsewhere in Utah logged eight or more. The difference shows up in outcomes. Twenty-eight of Provo’s 117 pedestrian crashes, or 23.9%, were serious or fatal. Across all 1,263 signals in UDOT’s statewide model the share is 16.7%, closer to one in six.

Measured against the state as a whole, Provo holds 5.0% of the modeled signals and 5.6% of the pedestrian crashes counted at them (117 of 2,105), yet 8.0% of the serious or fatal ones (28 of 352). Bicycle crashes lean the same way, less sharply: 11.7% of Provo’s were serious or fatal, against 8.9% statewide. Among the 20 Utah cities we have mapped this way that recorded at least 20 pedestrian crashes, only Midvale (24.3%) has a higher serious-or-fatal share for pedestrians than Provo.

Ten Provo Signals, Ranked by Pedestrian Crashes

Each signal below is ranked by the number of crashes involving a pedestrian within 250 feet. When two signals are level, the one with more bicycle crashes comes first, then the one with more serious or fatal pedestrian crashes. Serious-or-fatal counts are given for both groups.

• 1720 North & State Street (US-89) — 7 crashes involving a pedestrian (1 serious or fatal) and 2 involving a cyclist, both serious or fatal. The busier road here carries about 48,000 vehicles a day, the heaviest volume in this top ten.
• Center Street (SR-114) & 500 West (US-89) — 6 pedestrian crashes (1 serious or fatal) and 2 bicycle crashes. UDOT’s model notes a school nearby and puts foot traffic at about 697 pedestrians a day.
• 300 South (US-89) & University Avenue (US-189) — 5 pedestrian crashes (2 serious or fatal) and 5 bicycle crashes (1 serious or fatal). The two federal routes cross here, and its combined total of 10 is the highest at any Provo signal.
• 920 South & University Avenue (US-189) — 5 pedestrian crashes (1 serious or fatal) and 4 bicycle crashes, at a crossing with an estimated 448 pedestrians a day.
• 550 West / 2230 North & University Parkway (SR-265) — 5 pedestrian crashes (2 serious or fatal) and 3 bicycle crashes (1 serious or fatal). Four bus stops are counted near this signal.
• Center Street & 900 East — 5 pedestrian crashes and 2 bicycle crashes, none of them serious or fatal, which makes it the only signal in this top ten without one. The model flags a school nearby.
• 700 North & 900 East — 4 pedestrian crashes, half of them serious or fatal, and 3 bicycle crashes. Foot traffic is estimated at about 990 a day.
• 800 North & University Avenue (US-189) — 4 pedestrian crashes (2 serious or fatal) and 2 bicycle crashes. With roughly 1,222 pedestrians and 18 cyclists a day, it has the heaviest estimated foot and bicycle traffic of the ten.
• Center Street (SR-114) & 900 West — 4 pedestrian crashes (1 serious or fatal) and 2 bicycle crashes (1 serious or fatal), with the lightest estimated foot traffic on this list, about 198 pedestrians a day.
• 500 North & Freedom Boulevard — 4 pedestrian crashes (1 serious or fatal) and 2 bicycle crashes. Farther north on Freedom Boulevard, the 800 North signal recorded 4 bicycle crashes of its own.

Seven Provo signals had exactly four pedestrian crashes. The four listed above had at least two bicycle crashes each; the three left off had one or none: Center Street at University Avenue, 800 North at 500 West (US-89) and East Bay Boulevard at University Avenue. Every signal in the ten is a four-leg intersection, and at seven of them at least one road carries a state or federal route number.

Where US-89 and US-189 Run Through Provo

Two federal highways shape Provo’s numbers. US-189 follows University Avenue, and US-89 runs along State Street, 500 West and 300 South. Twenty-eight of the 63 modeled signals sit on one or both. Those 28 account for 66 of the city’s 117 pedestrian crashes, 16 of the 28 serious or fatal pedestrian crashes, and 46 of the 77 bicycle crashes. University Avenue weighs heaviest on cyclists: its 16 signals account for 31 of the 77 bicycle crashes, including the city’s highest single count, 6 at 3700 North, which falls outside the top ten because it had 3 pedestrian crashes.

Serious Injuries Reached Well Beyond the Top Ten

The ten signals above account for 13 of Provo’s 28 serious or fatal pedestrian crashes. The other 15 happened lower in the ranking. In all, 23 different signals had at least one, and no signal had more than two. The crossing UDOT’s model credits with the most foot traffic in the city, 1230 North at Canyon Road at about 3,476 pedestrians a day, had 3 pedestrian crashes and none serious or fatal.

920 South at 500 West shows how little a raw count can say. Only three crashes were counted there, two involving pedestrians and one involving a cyclist, and all three were serious or fatal. The busier road at that signal carries about 7,900 vehicles a day, less than at any signal in the top ten.

Provo’s Crash Hours Run Late

Most of Provo’s pedestrian crashes happen in the second half of the day. Of the 117 counted at its signals, 40 came between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 34 more between 7 p.m. and midnight, so 74 fell after 3 p.m., along with 18 of the 28 that were serious or fatal. Forty-four of the 117 happened after dark, 37 of them on streets the crash report describes as lighted. Darkness is not the whole story here, though. In daylight, 14 of Provo’s 66 pedestrian crashes were serious or fatal, a 21.2% share, while daylight pedestrian crashes at signals across the state ran 12.7%.

Cyclists are hit on a different clock. Thirty-eight of the 77 bicycle crashes happened between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., about half, where the statewide share for those hours is closer to one in three. By weekday, Wednesday logged the most pedestrian crashes (27) and Sunday the fewest (9).

Distraction Shows Up Twice as Often in Provo

Officers mark contributing behavior on every crash report, and in Provo one flag stands out. Twelve of the 117 pedestrian crashes were marked for a distracted driver, 10.3%, roughly double the 5.1% across all modeled signals in Utah, and 4 of those 12 ended in serious injury or death. Another 12 involved a teenage driver, again with 4 serious or fatal. Eighteen were hit-and-runs. None of Provo’s pedestrian crashes at these signals was flagged for DUI or for speeding.

Each flag points somewhere useful in a claim. A distraction flag makes phone records and nearby video worth preserving early. A hit-and-run does not end the case: Utah treats an unidentified vehicle that left the scene of a crash it caused as an uninsured motor vehicle (Utah Code § 31A-22-305(2)(b)), so the injured person’s own uninsured-motorist coverage can respond. And Utah’s PIP statute covers a policyholder hurt in a crash involving any motor vehicle, as well as a pedestrian injured in Utah by an insured vehicle (§ 31A-22-308).

Low Speed Limits, Serious Outcomes

Speed limits at Provo’s ten listed signals are modest. Taking the higher of the two posted limits at each crossing, three sit on 25 mph streets (Center Street and 700 North at 900 East, and 500 North at Freedom Boulevard), five top out at 35 mph, 1720 North at State Street reaches 40, and only University Parkway at 550 West/2230 North reaches 45. Citywide, 97 of the 117 pedestrian crashes and 24 of the 28 serious or fatal ones happened at signals where neither street is posted above 35 mph. That is 82.9%, the highest share of any Utah city with at least 20 pedestrian crashes counted this way; statewide it is 36.1%.

A lower limit is not a safe one for someone on foot. Research by Brian Tefft for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (2011) found that the average risk of severe injury to a struck pedestrian reaches 50% at an impact speed of 31 mph. The limits here are UDOT’s current state-route limits and the city-street limits in UGRC’s Utah Roads data, so a few may differ from what was posted when a given crash occurred. UDOT’s sidewalk inventory, which covers state routes only, flags missing or broken sidewalk within about 500 feet of the University Parkway signal.

Limits of These Counts

Only signalized intersections are covered. A crash at an unsignalized crosswalk, in the middle of a block, in a parking lot or more than 250 feet from a signal is not in these totals. Each crash is assigned to the nearest signal, so none is counted twice. Severity is the category written into the crash record; “suspected serious injury” reflects the reporting officer’s assessment, not a later medical finding. And a crash count says where collisions happened, not who caused them.

When a Crossing’s Record Becomes Evidence

A signal’s crash history can matter in a claim. Repeated collisions at one crossing speak to whether the danger was foreseeable, whether its layout or timing played a part, and how an insurer should weigh the injury. The crash data is public, and records on signal timing, crosswalk markings and street lighting can be requested from the city and from UDOT. How these claims proceed is covered on our Provo pedestrian accident and Provo bicycle accident pages, with statewide guides to how fault is proven, filing a PIP claim and the deadline to file. All crash types, street by street, are on our Provo’s most dangerous roads page.

What a Provo Claim Can Include

• Economic losses: the ambulance and emergency treatment, imaging, surgery and rehabilitation, wages missed while recovering, and reduced earning capacity where an injury changes what work is possible.
• Non-economic losses: the pain itself, and the loss of a routine that depended on getting across the city on foot or by bicycle without being hurt.
• Lasting injury: revision surgery, therapy that continues past the settlement, and support at home when recovery levels off below where it began.

Sources and Method

Crash counts on this page come from UDOT’s crash records: every pedestrian- or bicycle-involved crash within 250 feet of a signal, the Highway Safety Manual’s intersection distance, from January 1, 2018 through August 4, 2025. A crash is treated as serious or fatal when its UDOT severity is “Fatal” or “Suspected Serious Injury.” The list of signals and the figures for pedestrian and bicycle volumes, vehicle traffic, nearby schools and bus stops come from UDOT’s signalized-intersection pedestrian and bicycle safety model. Statewide comparisons apply the same count to all 1,263 signals in that model. Crash times, light conditions and the driver flags come from the same UDOT records, and posted limits from UDOT’s 2026 state-route speed layer and UGRC’s Utah Roads. Every city we have counted this way is listed on our statewide page, Utah’s most dangerous intersections.