This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Saturday's headline that UTA Board Chairman H. David Burton has closed UTA meetings to The Tribune prompts me to write.
As a commuter who relies on public transportation, I can say firsthand that bus-train coordination exists at very few stops. I could give at least four pages of examples from my own commuting experience of buses leaving just as the train arrives, and vice versa. This wastes 15 to 30 minutes of a commuter's time.
UTA inconveniences students and disrupt classes. It should be routine for planners to make schools reachable through public transportation and to coordinate with the schools for pickup and drop-off times.
The "Flextrans" buses can be 30 minutes later than the time they give you on the phone. This service also needs the Tribune's scrutiny.
The planners, who probably drive to work, waste hundreds of hours of people's time every day.
Whit Wirsing
Salt Lake City