I get out of bed in the morning, walk out to the street and catch my bus. Five minutes later, it drops me off at the commuter rail hub.

The air is filled with the smell of fresh brewed coffee and pastries the vendor shops sell to commuters before they catch their trains. I buy a newspaper from the hub's magazine stand and hop on my train bound for Salt Lake City. To my delight, there's a seat for everyone.

I happily settle in to my morning ritual of sipping coffee and browsing through the paper. Twenty minutes later, I reach the downtown hub, exit the train and catch one of the many shuttle buses waiting to take commuters down the main corridors of the city. Five minutes later, I get off the bus and walk the block to my office.

I've just spent less than one minute per mile to get from my house to my work. Plus, I've had my morning coffee and caught the day's headlines. What could be better?

My actual car/bus commute to Salt Lake City is somewhat less sublime. But I think my dream could become reality if we change our transportation priorities so that more commuters experience great mass transit. Even if you don't want to consider environmental benefits, getting where you want to go when you want to go, without having to drive, is very liberating.

Most major cities with geographical constraints are forced to turn to mass transit once they reach critical capacity. They realize that maximizing development dollars means mass transit is inevitable. Along the Wasatch Front, geography and population growth are going to demand the same change in us.

Look at the cascade nature of the Legacy Parkway project. Once phase I is built, most likely a phase II, III or more will be built. And as development logically follows the highways, I can visualize the north Wasatch Front being completely built out sooner rather than later. When the area from the foothills to the lake is full, residential/commercial development and its corresponding infrastructure will keep pushing northward.

Can we all see the pattern? At some point, we are going to run out of room and we will be forced to turn to mass transit.

The question is, why don't we recognize that inevitability and make the choice now? Let's make mass transit a top priority for funding, not secondary, not "shared." Let's choose to make a state-of-the-art transit system that is so efficient, so intuitive and so environmentally clean that the Wasatch Front will be the model for the rest of the nation. We don't have to wait until every possible freeway, highway, roadway is either built or expanded to its fullest capacity before we make a commitment to mass transit.

There are good reasons to commit now instead of later. The EPA still has unresolved environmental concerns with UDOT's Legacy Parkway supplemental environmental impact study, according to the Dec. 30, 2004, issue of Inside EPA's Clean Air Report.

Choosing mass transit now would buy us more time to study development or non-development options for the sensitive, unique western portion of Davis County. Choosing mass transit now gives community councils time to work together in revising their planning and zoning maps not only to take advantage of expanded transit opportunities, but also to preserve critical wetland habitat and natural open spaces.

Choosing mass transit now, before we hit critical mass, means we can design and build the best possible system instead of having to do the best with what we've got later on. And if we commit now to full funding of mass transit, maybe we won't need every possible road expanded, because mass transit will be so convenient that people will prefer it to personal car travel.

I have actually experienced that in other cities, so I know it is possible.

I hope I am not the only commuter from Davis County who dreams of the perfect mass transit system instead of an endless supply of freeways.

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Brandy Cannon lives in West Point.