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July 15, 2005

Utah County Transportation

Utah County has been the talk of the state this week - well Utah County transportation that is. On Monday, the Deseret News had articles about our traffic congestion and the future of commuter rail and on Tuesday Doug Wright was talking about UTA in Utah County over the airwaves. It is too bad that the reports haven't told the whole story. My friend and colleague, Rep. John Dougall, did a good job of shedding light on some important
facts but I feel compelled to add my perspective.

One thing about the whole transportation debate that really frustrates me is the way UTA and its General Manager have characterized the issue
- that Utah County and its elected officials have missed the transportation boat. In fact, John Inglish would have you think the reason we've "missed the boat" is because the county wants the rest
of the state to pay for its transit. This is absolutely not true!

What is true is this: John Inglish's objective is to grow transit.
The more Utah citizens tax themselves, the more money he has to work with and the bigger his organization grows.

Those of us in elected office don't have this same objective. We want what is best for you. And voting to put a transit tax in Utah County may not be the best thing.

Let's look at Davis and Weber Counties. They have been paying a sales tax since 2000 and haven't seen any construction on commuter rail.
Some of the elected officials in those counties would like to blame Utah County when maybe they should be questioning UTA. I think Utah County needs to see how UTA reacts to the Weber/Davis issue before we make any commitments. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

Today the biggest need in Utah County is relieving the congestion on our roads. Weber and Davis have a solution in the Legacy Highway. It will be built and resolve much of the road congestion in the North.
Until a similar solution is found for the counties to the south we shouldn't just be focused on commuter rail. Besides, UTA hasn't wanted to talk of any other solutions. Some reports are saying that even if there were roads with 10 or 12 lanes commuter rail wouldn't make a significant difference. If that is true, is it worth the expense of building the infrastructure for commuter rail? Should we be looking at more express bus type solutions where there isn't much infrastructure?

All of us know the solutions won't be easy. But instead of trying to tie the hands of Utah County residence by not providing more express buses in hopes of forcing commuter rail, maybe UTA should provide the solution for today and start working with people instead of bullying them.

Posted by Jeff at 02:10 PM | Comments (4)