Pollution in the Salt Lake Valley is as heavy as ever. Adding to the air pollution problem, not to mention the additional vehicular congestion, are the increasing numbers of automobiles as the many new residents arrive.

TRAX and UTA buses move throughout the area with empty seats. I recently spent a few days in Park City. I discovered the city bus system there is free to all passengers. You can be a tourist, a student or just a local resident, and you ride the bus at no charge. Cache Valley Transit in Logan operates the same program — public transportation at no charge.

If we are serious about getting people out of their cars and into public transportation, let’s make our public transportation free to ride. There are all kinds of benefits to this program: cleaner air, fewer cars on the streets and freeways and better utilization of public transportation.

Reasonable people would think twice about using their cars if they knew that public transportation was free and available.

Stuart Young, Sandy