After riding TRAX and watching and listening to many of you in its first week, my train of thought returns to one clear platform.
Memo to the Salt Lake City Council:Drop the chalupa.
To continue to oppose the west-east spur would be to perpetuate an exercise in short-sightedness and obstinacy.
To the council's credit, it will entertain another vote Tuesday.
To its further credit -- and lasting detriment if it doesn't -- it needs simply to say yes.
Just as significant numbers have been saying since TRAX opened with an impressive flurry.
From the throngs jamming stops along the route to the hum of invigorated commerce downtown, to the slug-it-out commutes in the first Monday-to-Friday, TRAX showed it can make a big impact in thousands of Salt Lakers' lives.
Sure, there were some delays and crammed compartments. No way a mass transit system runs to the starting line and takes off without hitches.
TRAX still looks apt to get you places better than other travel modes.
Quicker and nicer, some of you told me. Took the tension out of the trip, one lady said. She pantomimed white-knuckling a steering wheel -- she didn't have that feeling on the train.
When I rode TRAX on its first official day, even a would-be traumatic event showcased some laudable technology.
We were cruising south approaching the 5300 South-Murray Central stop. The train slowed dramatically at 4800 South.
"What-the" dangled over our heads like a cartoon balloon.
We came to a complete stop. Only then did someone notice a car caught in no-man's land between a barrier and the tracks.
The same thought seemed to occur to each of us.
"Man, that was a smooth stop going that fast," said "Coke" Glaittli, riding with daughter, Toni, to see if Toni wanted to take the train daily to the family electrical business.
"We hardly pitched forward," said Fred Petersen, down from Bountiful for a joyride.
Actually, we kind of leaned. The triple-redundant braking system performed before our eyes.
I asked the operator, Mike Shepherd, how fast we were going.
"Fifty-five," he said.
The incident underscored a simple truth about the safety issue. When a barrier comes down, stop. How hard is that?
These crashes you've read about in other systems? So many boil down to the most basic common sense.
Zack van Eyck, the D-News TRAX expert, points out when six people in one car died after being struck by a Los Angeles Blue Line train, the driver tried to go around the barrier.
A guy stoned out of his gourd fell asleep on the rails, for Pete's sake, and a MAX train nailed him in Portland.
Folks, do we need to say it? Don't do these things.
Indicting light rail for these incidents makes as much sense as blaming Henry Ford for cars running red lights.
Lots of people I met are instant TRAX fans.
"My dad (Emil) and I have followed this from day one," said Coke Glaittli. "I'm telling you it's one of the biggest things to ever hit this city."
"You watch. Every community will be lobbying for it," Petersen said.
The one working now has earned enough raves to hold its head high as a light rail pioneer.
"We tripled our business last Saturday," said Michelle Terhaar, set manager for the Santa Claus visit at downtown ZCMI. "There just seems to be a new energy down here."
Of course, every Saturday won't be grand-opening Saturday. TRAX alone isn't going to save downtown. Early indications are it helps.
Meantime, UTA and UDOT have made concessions, rejiggered plans, done the Kabuki dance and bent over backwards better than Mary Lou Retton trying to satisfy even the grouchiest anti-TRAX grump.
The least the council can do Tuesday is raise a hand and say aye.
Send e-mail to gtwyman@desnews.com, fax 801-237-2121. Gib Twyman's column runs Saturdays.