Mass Transit Issues in Utah

Britain is in the planning stages of confronting its massive traffic problem – more on that below. But first:

I have been fuming over the fact that my bus route has been discontinued on the road right in front of my house. The bus route covered about 6 miles, traveling from the Sandy TRAX (light rail) station to the Murray Central TRAX station. I live about halfway between the two and had become accustomed to taking it to the Murray station, taking the train to another bus stop and then taking that bus to within walking distance of my workplace. There are many older folks still working who used this bus route to travel to work as well.

I have been talking to lots of folks about this and other mass transit issues and folks are in general agreement that Greens need to take the lead in advocating more bus routes, more rail lines, more shuttles to the train stations, etc. One of the problems I see currently is that UTA (Utah Transit Authority) defacto encourages people to use their cars by virtue of the fact that there are **huge** parking lots at the train stations – for FREE! If folks had to pay for parking lot use, they’d use the bus more and bus routes would not be cut.

In today’s Utah Policy, LaVarr Web has written in his Tuesday Buzz an article entitled Transportation Watch- British Look at ‘Road Pricing’. It looks like Britain is examining the concept of charging motorists to use its highways. Utah is looking very closely at this and will likely be charging tolls on new highways. This is a baby step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go. I personally feel that mass transit should be totally subsidized and that the concept of having it be profitable should be thrown out the window. Profit is not the bottom line here.

In the same column there is an article entitled, Commuter Rail Groundbreaking, which will occur today in Weber County, for a 44 mile light rail system to be completed in 2008.

I will be following the British system progress and Utah’s examination of it and advocating that our local Green Party assume a high profile in this issue.