Ten years ago today, TRAX opened service for paying customers (it allowed free ridership on its inaugural day, Dec. 4). A decade of light rail along the Wasatch Front has taught much.
The carnage that protesters predicted never came to pass. Yes, some people, including pedestrians, have been killed by TRAX trains. But these instances have been rare. In 10 years, eight people have died through accidents. That's hardly the three to five per year that protesters warned about. No objective observer could describe TRAX as unsafe.
Also, the warnings that people wouldn't ride the system were wrong. TRAX now carries more than 1 million people per month. Many people use it to commute to and from work or school, and many others find it a convenient way to travel downtown for nighttime entertainment or religious services.
On the other hand, some of the claims by TRAX proponents have not come true, either. The predictions that TRAX stations would spur transit-oriented developments and businesses have never quite taken hold, despite attempts. The Utah Transit Authority has changed bus schedules that, for some, have made it harder to commute without driving to a TRAX stop.
But there is no denying that rail transit now is a permanent part of the fabric of the Wasatch Front and is going to grow in importance as the decades unfold. Nor could anyone reasonably dispute that the system has grown in popularity.
The first 10 years are likely to feel like the system's infancy in the not-too-distant future. Already, lines are under construction to South Jordan, West Valley City, the airport and points in between. And TRAX has led to FrontRunner, the heavy rail line that now runs north to Weber County and soon will run south to Provo. Trolley cars will soon operate in parts of Salt Lake City.
And yet today, transit along the Wasatch Front remains inconvenient for many people. They have to drive to a station or walk a considerable distance to a bus stop. But that will change as UTA nears its goal of placing buses or trains within a mile of nearly everyone in the metro area.
A study a few years ago by noted conservative and transit expert Paul Weyrich determined that when transit becomes truly competitive with highways, it does very well. Some people like to cite figures showing that few daily commuters — about 1 or 2 percent — ride transit, but the study showed that, at the time it was written, only slightly less than 30 percent of Americans had a quality transit system available to them. Among those people, ridership was high, similar to the levels seen in the early 20th century, when trolleys were everywhere in urban centers.
Within a few years, the Wasatch Front will be much closer to that ideal. That will reduce traffic on highways as well as air pollution.
Ten years is almost long enough to begin to catch that vision.