Main Street (Greater Salt Lake City)

Its commercial importance is almost totally derived from the few blocks of the street which are immediately south of Temple Square that have attracted banks, major retailers, and heavy foot traffic throughout Salt Lake City's history; the long southern extension of Main Street south of about 500 and 600 South, in contrast, is always in the shadow of State Street (one block to the east), which (due to width, speed limit, and restraint of cross traffic) is more designed for the long-distance automobile traffic that is common away from downtown.

[1] North of its current terminus, Main Street leads through a former industrial area that is being redeveloped as transit oriented development associated with the Murray North TRAX station before leaving Murray on a bridge over Big Cottonwood Creek just a few blocks from the terminus.

North of 3300 South, the mixture of frontage becomes more varied, with retail, office and residential buildings mixed in with industrial and wholesale ones.

The Street continues north through areas with a similar mix of land uses, but also passes the South Salt Lake Police Department headquarters at Sunset Avenue and a Granite School District elementary school plus administrative building housed in a former hospital at 2500 South before passing under Interstate 80, crossing the S Line (formerly known as Sugar House Streetcar) right-of-way, and entering Salt Lake City at 2100 South.

TRAX light rail tracks enter the median of Main Street from 700 South and continue downtown.

In downtown, Main Street consists of wide sidewalks on both sides, TRAX light rail tracks (and electrification poles) in the middle, one narrow lane in each direction with Shared lane markings (sharrows) on continuous green painted strips to encourage use by bicycles, and intermittent on-street parking and delivery-only areas.

The wide sidewalks are broken up in some places by outdoor restaurant seating and landscaping elements, including many mature trees.

South of 700 South, the modern TRAX system instead uses the former Salt Lake and Utah and Union Pacific lines running two blocks west of Main Street, so the trains can attain high speeds in their dedicated corridor while never being far from Main Street.