Dear UTA - Or Why I Don't Use Mass Transit

Dear UTA,

The other day, the news highlighted a story indicating that - surprise! - UTA ridership is down over last year - particularly among its express train "FrontRunner" service from north of The Frontier down.

Interestingly, the fuel surcharge - implemented when gas was $4.50/gallon last summer, was never dropped and fares hiked beyond that as well this spring.

I read the articles with interest. You should know, I'm a huge public transit fan - huge. I spent my first years in the DC metro area commuting via public transit and, in later years, used it for many non-commuting trips into the city - less hassle, less traffic, no parking issues - and it was convenient. I've seen more of underground New York and Boston due to the Subway and the T than I have seen above ground in those cities. I've even ridden the bus in Las Vegas (not really something I want to replcate, but still - I've been there, done that).

When I first moved to The Frontier, I took the bus (UTA, of course) several times to work. It was wildly inconvenient, the mapping system was wrong and told me my office was in a place that is smack in the middle of a golf course and an interstate, but ... I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

However, I no longer use mass transit here. Why?
*Time
*Money
*Convenience

In my not-terribly-scientific (or important) opinion, public transit must meet at least one of the above criterion in order to be useful - and widely embraced. In a small urban area like The Frontier, it's not likely to be convenience. Parking is generally abundant and inexpensive. Traffic congestion isn't terrible in most places (chronic construction on I-80 and north of The Frontier excepted). And, to be honest, the number of times one has to make transfers to go even a few miles makes the transit here horribly INconvenient.

Never mind that though - what about saving time and/or money? Unfortunately, UTA saves neither. I am participating in this year's Utah Clear The Air Challenge - trying to eliminate 4 car trips or more a week (success last week! I eliminated 4 trips. Thanks to my sitter's vacation this week, I'm telecommuting, thereby reducing a whole lot more trips), because I believe we spend entirely too much time driving solo in our cars. We could walk more. We could run across the valley less. I aim to do both.

But back to public transit ... I've looked into taking the bus to work (at least on the days I don't have to drop Woodstock at the sitter's). Let's compare:
Driving myself

• 19 miles round-trip, door-to-door - 60% of which are interstate, none of which have traffic of any sort.
• 32 mpg commuting, on average - which means a gas cost of $1.56/day (at $2.50/gallon)
• Total time: 15 minutes there, 20 back - total of 35 minutes/day commuting

Taking the Bus

• Same 20 miles round-trip
• Total fare: $4/day
• Total time: 55 minutes to work, if I want to show up to work 1/2 hour early or 1/2 hour late. 80 minutes if I want to show up to work right on time. Return trip would take 48 minutes, meaning a total time of 103 minutes commuting.
• Side note: The bus would take me a total of 48 BLOCKS (roughly 6.5 miles) out of my way v. a direct drive.

Summary: To be fair, I didn't include the cost of owning my car or the per-mile wear-and-tear cost of driving my car - but it roughly equals out in the end to about $4-$5/day - in other words, about the cost of taking the bus. If, however, I were to figure time cost into that commute - I would be spending THREE TIMES as long on the road - and going 6.5 miles out of my way every day to take the bus - and spending the same amount, saving neither time nor money.

We did look into it for Himself's newly-minted 80-mile round-trip daily commute - certainly the new FrontRunner train or express bus would get him there faster or cheaper, correct? Sadly, no. It would take 4 times as long and cost 3 times as much as driving himself - alone - to work every day. I'm big into saving the environment and reducing air pollution (especially on inversion days), but at what cost?

Seems to me there has to be a better solution - I love public transit because it is usually either convenient, cheaper or faster - any one of the three and I'm happy - unfortunately, UTA is neither. It's cheaper, faster and cleaner for me to drive or walk - even on the weekends.

I'll keep hoping.
Signed,
Someone who would really like to use the bus system someday.