Davis County streetcar proposal draws heat
Centerville » During a crowded open house Tuesday night, an overwhelming majority of residents opposed a plan to use a streetcar to connect southeast Davis County with Salt Lake City.
The open house's location, Centerville Junior High School, perfectly highlighted the opposition to a streetcar, said many.
"My concerns are the school zones," said Becky Money, of Centerville, adding her children have to walk across Main Street to get to school.
Although they will likely be done with classes there before the streetcar would even be built, nothing short of a skybridge for students seems safe enough, Money said.
Money also worries about a tax increase to fund
The transit line could cost between $411 million and $472 million, said UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter.
A TRAX line, which was considered previously, would have cost up to $700 million. Carpenter said the next step would be to find funding for the line, which could be a mix of federal and local dollars.
The plan calls for rails to be built in the lanes that are shared with traffic along the narrow Main Street; where the road is wider, there would be a designated center streetcar lane.
Although buses might be cheaper, they don't draw as many riders, and creating a permanent rail line for a streetcar would help encourage economic development because builders can count on the route not changing, Carpenter said.
"The concept is to change the way people think about travel," he said, adding it can be used to go to Salt Lake City, or to move around within the nearby Davis cities.
It also serves a need not filled by FrontRunner, Carpenter added, which has two nearby stops, Farmington and 500 South in West Bountiful.
Folks wanting to move among cities could be more easily served by the 10 initial streetcar stops.
Bountiful resident Eric Fenton thinks streetcars would encourage more people to walk and shop at local businesses on Bountiful's Main Street.
"I think this is great option if you want to build up commerce," he said.
But Centerville resident and business owner Bruce Pitt said the subsequent construction, traffic and lack of street-side parking will hurt stores on his end of Main Street.
He's gathering a petition opposing the streetcars and other residents have formed centervilleagainstrail.blogspot.com/ .
The Utah Transit Authority showed its proposal to install the street-car system along Main Street, beginning at Centerville's 100 North, then through Bountiful and North Salt Lake's Highway 89 route. It would take a small detour off Beck Street near the Staker-Parson's gravel pit, then travel down 400 West in Salt Lake City to connect with the TRAX line. A network of buses would be used to connect eastern and western areas to the streetcar, as well as the Farmington FrontRunner station.
I'm a centerville resident who has to work in Salt Lake City, more specifically West Valley. I'm currently spending an an hour to an hour and a half of my day sitting in traffic, and it is absurd. West Valley is investing trax and transit hubs to help their residents get to work without having to drive.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that is crucial to any public transportation system within Utah. Having to rely on just buses for public transportation makes taking it, even more time consuming and ineffective due to the amount of transfers you have to go to get anywhere.
Most of Davis County residents work in Salt Lake City, and during the summers and winters, the valley fills up with so much smog that you can't see antelope island. As time goes on, this is only going to get worse, and as we become older, air pollution is going to affect us more, and as we have kids with increasing rates of asthma it is imperative that we start investing more into public transportation to get people off the roads. Davis county has too many people in it, for the road systems we have now.
We complain about not hurting businesses along main street, Guess what, we're already killing it. Where are our businesses moving to? In Centerville it's between 4th west, and the freeway? Why? Because that's where the real estate is, and that is where the people are driving past. People aren't coming in from SLC, and driving down main street. They are taking an exit and stopping off at some place right there, and going home.
There have been a lot of businesses come and go along main street, and right now, a lot more are going than coming in. If Main Street can't survive now, then it is pointless screaming about how Trax will destroy it. Main street is already destroyed, and we all better get used it.
Centerville Main Street is not the place we want more traffic on. We want our traffic directed away from our neighborhoods, schools and pushed towards the business section by the Target area. Our Mainstreet businesses shouldn't be South Davis residents responsibility to secure their paychecks. We all work at businesses that have the same problems. Let's not put pressure on citizens to spend a half a billion dollars to buy something on two mainstreets. Most of us know the main object of the light rail is to get people to work back and forth, NOT TO SHOP! We have buses now that are doing the same job and if many don't think so, then let's try to fix them so they will. At least we should try before spending the millions. Can't we try to solve the problem with what we have now instead of assuming everyone has extra cash to budget this large project. Let's be reasonable people! I have had friends use the trax and say the connections are too long and time consuming.Light rail systems don't work for everyone, only some. Maybe those who want it so badly should have to pay for it, not the South Davis citizens who will NEVER use it! If those who work so far away and need it maybe they should move closer to their work! Some of us folks here in Bountiful and Centerville chose to live here to get away from the city. We don't want the city atmosphere or the Portland feeling coming to our town! UTA could look into adding extra front runners and more parking by them . It would not hurt some of us to go a few blocks to park and catch the front runner in our cities and then catch commuter buses in Salt Lake. Most of us understand the problem but think the UTA proposal is just upsurd for the amount of money. Anyway, I want our Centerville elected officials to listen to their residents and stand up for us. We elected you to represent us not yourselves. I like a sentence that I read in the Desert News recently "The Phrase "public servants" is increasingly misleading. They are well on their way to becoming public masters." P.S. Did you know that some of our own Centerville businesses on Main Steet are opposing light rail. Bountiful City shouldn't cry on our sleeves to get this project. Leave us alone please. Let's all make a stand for staying out of debt and take some personal responsibility with our driving habits. Last but not least is the idea of closing businesses if possible on Sundays and staying home and off the roads. The postal Service may try this on Saturdays. It maybe old fashioned but is it worth a try? Our challenge is to solve the problem without spending the bucks. South Davis residents are too smart to let our cities and UTA charm us into this. Don't vote light rail!
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