The bus served as a prop to kick off a two-year study on how to bring relief to Provo-to-Salt Lake City commuters weary of Interstate 15 hassles. The Utah Department of Transportation and Utah Transit Authority chose the five alternatives after studying 21 options.
The five proposals will be subject to a detailed environmental-impact study that will be ready by fall 2007. Three include widening I-15 - one includes commuter rail with the freeway overhaul and another would provide bus rapid transit with the reconstruction. Also included are the "no-build" option that would leave things as they are, and a "transportation-management system" that would make small fixes such as more park-and-ride lots.
With traffic through the county expected to double in the coming decade, UDOT and UTA are willing to consider a hybrid that would incorporate the small fixes with freeway expansion, commuter rail and bus rapid transit, or BRT. The result would be an integrated transportation system running from Utah County to Ogden, where commuter rail construction already is under way.
Light rail, however, is off the table for Utah County at least until 2030 in favor of BRT.
"To build both would be to cannibalize the system," G.J. LaBonty, a UTA strategic planner, said during a streetside presentation. Besides, he added, building everything at once would be too expensive.
But eventually all systems will be necessary, Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn said later during an interview.
"I know that light rail has always been a long-term [alternative] that would follow commuter rail. BRT is a more immediate solution, that could go into the system now with just the acquisition of buses and managed lanes," he said.
Bus rapid transit would run buses on fixed routes - in this case, alongside I-15 or in the freeway median - and have TRAX-like stations and ticketing, quick boarding and limited stops. It would run from the Sandy TRAX station to the Prove-Springville area. But it can't replace light rail, which could swing east of Pleasant Grove and American Fork and "provide a whole different service," Washburn said.
Taking lessons from the Legacy Highway debacle, UTA and UDOT already have spent a year looking at the technical and environmental issues surrounding 21 different combinations of road building and mass transit, said UDOT Project Manager Merrell Jolley.
That was welcome news to Roger Borgenicht, chairman of Utahns for Better Transportation. The organization was one of six that sued in 2001 over Legacy construction through Davis County, arguing environmental studies were flawed. A federal appeals court agreed with some of their points, which have become the basis of ongoing legal settlement negotiations.
But the mere inclusion of mass transit in the alternatives isn't enough, Borgenicht said.
"The real important aspects are integration and sequencing," he said. "What do we pay for first? What are we trying to accomplish?"
In the past, transportation planning has assumed a 92 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled but just a 60 percent increase in population. That kind of thinking becomes self-fulfilling if freeways are built or expanded before mass transit is in place, which leads to unsustainable development, more pollution and even more congestion, Borgenicht said.
"You can never do away with congestion just by building freeways. It's really about having choices," he said.
UDOT agrees.
"We realize we can't build ourselves out of congestion," said agency spokesman Brent Wilhite.
If the state tries that, but doesn't think ahead and buy rights-of-way for rail corridors, unchecked development along I-15 could make the whole system terribly costly, because then "you're not just buying real estate, you're buying homes and businesses," Washburn added.
Utah County transportation
UDOT and UTA are urging Wasatch Front residents to comment on five alternatives to relieving traffic congestion along the I-15 corridor through Utah County.
28,000 corridor property owners will receive a brochure in the mail explaining the alternatives that will be considered in an Environmental Impact Study. The EIS will be finished in fall 2007. On the Web: http://www.udot.utah.gov/i15utahcounty.
Para recibir informacion en Espanol sobre este proyecto, llamanos al 1-888-415-8826.
