Nasty air and public transit

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A popular idea for alleviating Wasatch Front smog on so-called "red air-alert" days just got the brush-off from the Utah Transit Authority. And the agency's reasoning, we think, is sound.

For many years, various onlookers have suggested that UTA buses and trains should be free of charge on the worst air-quality days. But the transit agency says it would be too expensive and unwieldy to undertake that kind of a program on red air-alert days.

First off, the UTA told Standard-Examiner reporter Mitch Shaw, buses are already full during peak commuter hours. That leaves little extra capacity. Accommodating the extra passengers who want to park their vehicles and reduce the amount of automobile exhaust being pumped into the atmosphere would require adding buses to the routes.

Adding the buses, in turn, would require more advance notice than the typical one-day weather warning. And in any event, it would cost an estimated $6 million per year for UTA to go without collecting fares on those average 50 days per year when Utah experiences a red air-alert warning. UTA says that absent extra funding, it just can't offer that kind of service.

This is all understandable, we suppose, so far as it's gone. But we think everyone's missing the larger point: If UTA routes were more convenient for more people, the agency would need to add more buses because more people would be clamoring for public transit every morning and afternoon.

For example: The Standard-Examiner's offices are at Business Depot Ogden on Second Street just west of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. There are 3,000 people who currently work at various BDO businesses, but precious few buses are routed here each day, and the times are not convenient -- especially for shift workers.

We took an informal poll among workers in our offices, and most said the bus routes they'd have to take to and from work are not direct routes, and add anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours-plus extra commute time each day. They could live with 30 minutes, or even 45 minutes, they say. But not two hours or more.

Our guess is that even if UTA offered free fares on red air-alert days, few commuters would use the service -- not because they don't care about the environment, but because the service is too inconvenient to begin with.

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