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..... The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers. |
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Giddiup:
Urban Utahns Wild About Riding Iron Horses With a population of about 1.6 million, and more than 30 communities, transportation becomes a major concern. Unlike Indy’s spider-like grid, the valley has the mountains on the east, and the Great Salt Lake and deserts immediately west. Traffic has a narrow squeeze. Most traffic is on a north-south corridor often less than a few miles between mountains and lake. One north-south interstate, and one east-west interstate afford the major auto routes. UTA, has a charter to operate in six counties along the Wasatch Front. But it has to navigate local ordinances and sign agreements with each community. For example, McBride says, the town of Sandy at the south end of the county, wanted bells to sound all the time when arms were down at TRAX crossings. Salt Lake City and most other towns were content for bells only when the arms came down. Numerous other quirky local conflicts had to be overcome. There are 15 incorporated communities in the county, all having to be dealt with by UTA. Salt Lake City is known for its ultra-wide streets. When Mormon leader Brigham Young planned the city, he decreed that streets would be 132-feet wide, allowing a four-ox team and wagon enough room to turn around anywhere. That has been a boon for modern traffic—many major streets have up to six travel lanes as well as left and right turn lanes. And some parking. U-turns are common in mid-blocks and are legal. Now narrow streets don’t pose many problems for middle-of-the-road TRAX lines nor the 12 articulated 60-foot buses in the fleet. The 2002 Transit System of the Year award by the American Public Transit Association was the third earned by UTA since 1986. Probably with good reason. So needed, and so successful has been TRAX that cities all along the valley are clamoring for spurs of TRAX or other rail lines. TRAX runs now only from downtown to suburban Sandy along a 15-mile route. A 2-1/2-mile extension to the University of Utah, opened in 2001, is expanding further east to the University of Utah Medical Center. The TRAX system came in one year early and under budget, McBride says. The next extension for TRAX is West Valley City, the state’s second largest community, 10 miles from downtown. The International Airport, six miles from city center, and five cities east in the valley are still unserved. However, West Valley City and five other communities already have and inter-local agreement and an environmental impact study is being completed. A proposed transit center is planned next to convention, entertainment and government complexes on the west side. There are 67,000 daily students, employees and patrons of the university and the medical center, and about 15 percent of them come from West Valley. There are only 15,000 possible riders to the airport so percentage-wise, that is not the highest priority, says Inglish. send comments to webmaster@mcanaindy.org |
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2003
