This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Public transportation is vital to our city. Not only does it create an opportunity for those without a car to be able to function, it should also be a priority to expand the service as we cope with climate change.
I use Utah Transit Authority to commute to work. I was also without a car for two years and wouldn't have been able to find a job without UTA. But there is ample room for improvement.
Scandal after scandal has eroded trust in the board of UTA. I'm all for asking current board members mired in these scandals to step down, but we should be careful whom we replace them with. If the people on the board were limited to only using public transportation to get around, the system would work the way it should. Since there's nothing at stake if services are cut back, choices are made that do not reflect what the public actually needs in the system.
It shouldn't be a stretch to have the people who actually rely on public transit to be an important part of the process of choices about a service they need.
Brinley Froehlich
Salt Lake City