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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah transit officials regularly adjust service routes and times every few months in an effort to meet the needs of its riders.
But drastic changes are on the horizon with proposed alterations set to take effect in August. Struggling to find the labor it needs, the Utah Transit Authority is planning to discontinue 22 routes across its entire system while completely reconfiguring some of its largest routes to address the issue.
The changes have caused a stir in recent weeks from some residents in Salt Lake City's Avenues neighborhood, who argue that the adjustments will increase traffic on streets and make them unsafe.
Despite the recent pushback, UTA board of trustees Chairman Carlton Christensen says the agency is still planning to move forward with its plans.
"We're very along in our process and if we were to change our mind at this point, which is unlikely, we would just start all over again," he said, during a meeting with Avenues residents last week.
The proposed changes
UTA first proposed large-scale changes in March, then held a series of public meetings on the matter in mid-March during a 30-day comment period.
Some of the 22 routes headed for the chopping block are routes that had already been on hold when UTA reduced its service amid ridership drops during the COVID-19 pandemic, Eric Callison, UTA's manager of service planning, said during an informational meeting hosted by Salt Lake City last month.
Though ridership hasn't completely recovered, public transit demand is steadily increasing. An average 99,290-weekday riders in April is roughly a 35% decrease from April 2019 figures, but up 43% from last year and 117% compared to April 2020, according to UTA ridership data.
At the same time ridership demand is steadily increasing, UTA has struggled to find drivers. UTA's proposed solution to these dueling issues is to shift current routes in an effort to maximize ridership even as it cuts routes.
"We have found ourselves needing to make some pretty significant changes to our system in order to preserve the connections (and) the frequencies of service that people need," Callison said.
Concerns in Salt Lake's Avenues
The 30-day comment period continued without much of an issue and the agency received a little over 300 public comments. But a few weeks ago, residents in Salt Lake City's Avenues neighborhood caught wind of the proposed changes near them, resulting in new concerns with the plan.
Routes 3 and 6, which service the Avenues, are among the proposed cuts. Some parts of Route F11 in the Avenues would also be discontinued. Route 223 will consume Route 3; Route 209 will take over Route 6, using primarily E, L and M streets instead of South Temple. Route 209's northern terminus will also be shifted from North Temple Station to Salt Lake Central Station.
The proposed change means there would be at least one bus going through the neighborhood every 15 minutes on weekdays, double the frequency of Route 6. This could help get ridership back to where the demand was before the pandemic, agency officials said. It also goes toward goals outlined in the city's transit master plan.
Carol Fudyma, a neighborhood resident opposed to the plan, says she and other residents have concerns about safety related to the frequency and duration of bus service under the plan. The shift in frequency means there will be dozens more buses traveling through the neighborhood.
"(The) Avenues is a quiet community. With the bus proposals of 15 minutes (from) 30 minutes, we're talking about 66 buses running along the streets, and we're talking about 132 buses per day running east and west in the Avenues," she said, noting that some of the services are by the busy Lindsey Gardens Park.
While she believes the change in frequency will be good "for our valley as a whole," she also argues that the changes also won't be as glamorous as UTA advertises.
For starters, she said riders will have to transfer to other buses to get to many desired destinations, like the new Route 1, to reach the University of Utah Hospital. People would also have to get to L, M and E streets, or 3rd and 9th avenues to get to a stop, which can be burdensome given the neighborhood's steep streets. Buses would also travel through the neighborhood from 4 a.m. to midnight every weekday.
UTA and city officials don't believe there's anything to worry about when it comes to safety, though. Bus drivers will abide by Salt Lake City's new 20 mph speed limit in residential neighborhoods, Callison said. He says UTA hasn't found anything "unusual" about the proposed areas of operation that raises safety concerns.
He adds that buses already go through places that are similarly designed streets in regard to how close the road is to homes and haven't had any major issues, asserting that Salt Lake City's Glendale and Poplar Grove neighborhoods, while flatter than the Avenues, have tougher turns that drivers successfully navigate than anywhere on L and M streets.
"We feel confident that we have a safe operation by respecting the speed limit," he said. "We do put our bus drivers through quite a bit of training to make sure that they can be alert and attentive. … We feel this is at least as safe as any of the other operating environments we have in the city."
Salt Lake City traffic engineers work with UTA on the routes, too. If any major needs emerge, such as a new crosswalk on a certain street, they will be able to add one, city officials said. Christensen added that the increased frequency is expected to help boost ridership, which has historically been the case in other areas it operates in.
The Avenues were among the top-performing bus ridership areas before the pandemic but it has struggled since, UTA officials note.
"That's one of the reasons we're going through these redesigns," he said. "Many of the historic routes took you through neighborhoods and around corners, and frankly slowed your process down. That deterred a lot of ridership."
UTA and Salt Lake traffic officials also don't believe that the increase in service will result in any additional noise or traffic congestion based on results in other services along the Wasatch Front.
Some residents in last week's meeting against the plan said they also believed that UTA's public outreach for the plan was "dismal." However, Callison said there were announcements online and in print, as well as at bus stops that promoted the 30-day comment period earlier this year. Christensen contends that it would be difficult to knock on everyone's door every change day because the agency works with about 80 different municipalities.
What's next
UTA is still in the process of finalizing the August changes, and its board of trustees will discuss the issue during its meeting on Wednesday. All signs seem to point to the changes going through as planned, though.
Transit officials said that they plan to track ridership data and other trends to see if the change is effective. If not, it's always possible that they alter Route 209 service in the Avenues or anywhere else it travels.
"We don't want to be so closed that if there are obvious modifications down the road after we've had some real-world experience with it that wouldn't tweak something," Christensen said. "But I think a lot of thoughtfulness has gone into it that, as a whole, it should work well."
If approved, the agency's routes will shift on Aug. 7.
