According to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report, Utah County was the 30th-fastest-growing county in the U.S. The majority of that growth is happening in the north of the county, in places like Lehi, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. South Salt Lake County is also poised to continue to grow with new developments like Draper’s The Point on the way.
However, what has not kept up with the explosive population growth in the Point of the Mountain area is a proportional increase to available public transit.
If there were as many bus routes and TRAX stops per capita in South Salt Lake County and North Utah County as there are in the northern half of Salt Lake County, there would be five times more public transit in those areas than there currently are.
One example of this is Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. These two relatively new cities have a combined population of over 120,000 people, with Eagle Mountain being the 10th largest city in the state by population. Despite this, there is only one bus route between the two cities. And it only runs eight times a day! Four times in the morning to UVU and four times in the afternoon back to Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. Is it any wonder that traffic has gotten so bad in these areas?
A recent Harvard study showed having even a mediocre public transit system can improve car driving times. They studied a 2022 transit strike in Los Angeles and its effect on traffic in the area. They found that even though only a small percent of Angelenos ride the buses and trains, it has a big impact on traffic. Some areas saw as much as a 200% increase in commuting times during the transit strike.
This is because of a combination of how even just a few too many cars can totally jam up a road and how much more effective public transit is at moving people than personal vehicles.
Cars on roads are a surprisingly inefficient way to move humans. On average, a single lane of vehicle traffic can handle 1,440 people per hour. A dedicated bus lane can move more than 6,000 passengers an hour. Light-rail, like TRAX, can potentially move 9,600 people an hour. Completely grade-separated rail, like a metro system, has the capacity to move 32,000 passengers an hour.
So, in theory, it would take 6.5-plus lanes of traffic in one direction to have the same carrying capacity as one light-rail line. But that doesn’t tell the whole story, because each added lane on a freeway has diminishing returns. The most used lanes on a freeway are the right lanes, closer to the on- and off-ramps. Picture a hundred-lane freeway — would anyone ever bother making it out to the 77th lane?
Having more options for people to get to the places they want to get to would mean fewer cars on the road and improved traffic flow at peak times. Good news, even for people who would never use transit.
Another argument for more public transit options in the Point of the Mountain area is that it would improve the economy. In 2017, when Amazon was looking for a city to build its second headquarters in, one of its stated factors was how good the public transportation networks were in the considered cities. The spot Amazon ultimately chose was Arlington, Virginia, right across the street from a D.C. metro station that has both the blue and yellow lines coming by about every five minutes.
Having more frequent and reliable transit options in the Point of the Mountain would make it even easier to attract out-of-state tech companies to set up offices here, and also attract top talent from across the state and country.
It can be much easier to get people riled up to oppose a proposed change or project, and much harder to get people excited about constructive and needed change. Please consider emailing your elected officials and government agencies like UDOT and let them know about your support for more public transit in South Salt Lake and north Utah County.