On April 20, The Salt Lake Tribune published a “Voices” piece by Ski Utah President and CEO Nathan Rafferty on the subject of the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola proposal. Unfortunately, I believe the claims and evidence included were incomplete and/or misleading.
Claim #1: “Up to three times as many respondents support the gondola than oppose it.”
The author linked survey results of Utahns asked, “In general, do you support or oppose UDOT’s decision selecting gondola as the proposed means of public transportation to address traffic congestion in Little Cottonwood Canyon?,” which included two sets of results. The inclusion of “up to” is doing the heavy lifting here, as both results indicate the most common response was, “I don’t know enough about the project to make a decision” (35.0% and 40.3%).
Claim #2: “UDOT estimates cost of gondola, base station parking and road improvements at $521 million.”
This claim was helpfully accompanied by a UDOT proposal fact sheet. Confusingly, this indicated an estimated cost of $729 million. Based on a timeline provided by The Salt Lake Tribune, it appears the $521 million estimate may be referring to Phase 3 of the project specifically. Notably, that is not scheduled to begin for nearly two decades, planned for 2043 – 2050.
Claim #3: “The funding model is a collaborative effort involving both public and private funds.”
No evidence was provided for this claim, and I have been unable to identify any specific estimates of private funding or assistance to the project.
The issue of traffic congestion and accessibility for our canyons systems is complex. Presenting misleading arguments is not the solution.
Kevin Bryant, Salt Lake City
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