Streetcars and dedicated bus rapid transit [BRT] lanes have been part of the mix in the Utah Department of Transportation's environmental studies of Mountain View, an eight-lane freeway that would run along the west side of Salt Lake County to just north of Utah Lake in Utah County.

But Wasatch Front Regional Council staffers, who are updating the agency's long-range transportation plan, only evaluated which mode of transportation - vehicle or transit - would get people to their destinations the quickest, said council executive director Chuck Chappell.

That means streetcars or BRT wouldn't be cost-effective, he said. Instead, the regional council staffers are advocating enhanced bus service on the freeway, which will run along 5800 West in Salt Lake County to one of several possible alignments in Utah County.

Sierra Club regional spokesman Marc Heileson criticized the decision, saying the Wasatch Front Regional Council's 2030 study is as much a plan for air quality as it is for transportation. To keep the freeway but eliminate streetcars or BRT that would connect with new east-west TRAX lines doesn't make sense.

"When these [freeways] come in, they produce new traffic. It's not a guess, it's not an estimation," Heileson said. "Los Angeles very easily could have sent us a blueprint."

The map will be presented Thursday to the officials who make up the regional council, an association of municipalities and county governments within Davis, Morgan, Salt Lake, Tooele and Weber counties.

Chappell emphasized the map is just a preliminary draft. "It has not gone out to public comment, and will not be final until late June. This is just a step in the process," he said.

The streetcar or BRT option could return to the 5600 West plan if UDOT's draft environmental study says it should, Chappell said. Even before then, regional council staffers have to do more technical analyses that could change their minds. Or, the voting members of the council could veto the proposal.

"Our goal is to try to have it ready for [WFRC] to approve it at the May 24 meeting," Chappell said. Before then, the planning agency's Regional Growth Committee will vote on it and then allow public comment for 30 days.

Air quality activist Kathy Van Dame already is objecting to the preliminary map, and offers the recent string of unhealthy air warnings as immediate proof that transit planning should be as important as freeway planning.

"You need to make sure you always, always have your transit planning in there early," said Van Dame, spokeswoman for the Wasatch Clean Air Coalition. "Right now, cities have a significant influence from developers who have a lot of money to make from dispersed development."