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RIVERTON — The southwest quadrant of Salt Lake County is growing faster than anywhere else in the county, which figures to aggravate current traffic issues and create new commuting headaches as the region continues to attract more people and businesses.
And as this trend continues, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs has a question he wants answered: Where is the transit?
Staggs, who was appointed this year to represent the southwest quadrant of Salt Lake County as a part of the Utah Transit Authority Local Advisory Council, has a gripe about the number of bus and light rail stops in the region, specifically the cities of Bluffdale, Herriman, Riverton and South Jordan.
"We have such an issue in the southwest with respect to transit and transit access," he told KSL.com Tuesday. "It's what we've all viewed here for some time. When I was able to get in and dive into the numbers, it was even worse than I thought."
Southwest Salt Lake County's transit gap
The mayor recently compiled a report of UTA's 2021 data, comparing the four cities to Salt Lake City. Both have a little over 200,000 people, and account for about 17% of the county's total population, according to 2021 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
The report found that the four southwest Salt Lake County cities have 64 combined active bus stops and three rail stations, all of which are located in South Jordan. Salt Lake City alone has a little over 1,000 bus stops and 30 rail stations despite having roughly the same population.
That's not to say there is no transit service in southwest Salt Lake County outside of South Jordan. UTA on Demand, a microtransit system that serves as a hybrid between traditional bus service and rideshare in the region was first tested in 2019 and was made a permanent service last year. It offers service to the southwest corner of the county as well as Draper and parts of Sandy.
However, the service is only starting to catch on where it is available. UTA has since expanded that service to other parts of its underutilized service areas, such as the west side of Salt Lake City, and parts of Davis and Tooele counties.
The expansion of the program has helped the service grow from 328 average weekday boardings in August 2021 to 1,106 average weekday boardings last month, more than triple the ridership in a little over a year, according to UTA's public ridership data. But it's still only a blip of the total ridership through all of UTA's systems, accounting for nearly 0.1% of the 124,206 weekday boardings this past September.
This could help explain another figure from Staggs' report. He found that Salt Lake City accounted for about half of all of UTA's Salt Lake County boardings last year while the four southwest Salt Lake County cities accounted for just 2%.
"To me, it demonstrates there's a high correlation between ridership and people using UTA service with fixed bus or TRAX stops or stations," he said, adding that there have been some complications about arranging UTA on Demand rides through its provider Via.
The report adds that UTA spent $103 million in annual operating costs in Salt Lake City compared to $6.5 million in the southwest portion of the county. This gap also helped UTA generate $75.6 million in sales in Salt Lake City, while just $27.6 million in the four cities. A portion of this large tax revenue in Salt Lake City has gone into creating programs that help provide Salt Lake City residents access to transit services or reduce fare costs.
Staggs believes this gap is already "blatantly unfair" but the situation could be getting worse in the future, which is why he's calling on UTA to think of southwest Salt Lake County with its next projects.
A growing need for transit in southwest Salt Lake County
A major reason for the disparity between Salt Lake City and the four southwest Salt Lake County is the additional attractions in Utah's capital city, including the Utah Capitol, Salt Lake City International Airport, the University of Utah and various downtown businesses, hotels and major event or gathering hubs like Vivint Arena, the Salt Palace and Temple Square. Many major festivals are also held in the city.
When Staggs issued his report earlier this month, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall responded in an email days later to point these additional factors out. In the email, obtained by KSL.com, she noted that an estimated 210,000 workers regularly commute through the city, based on Wasatch Front Regional Council data.
That said, the four cities that Staggs analyzed are on the rise. The region added a little more than 75,000 people over the past decade, meaning that the four cities accounted for nearly half of the county's population growth over the same span of time, according to the 2020 census. It's also near the growing tech hub that is just past the Point of the Mountain.
This could be just the beginning, too, as Staggs believes the total population of the region could double in the next few decades based on current projections.
This growth will likely create all sorts of logistical challenges, from water to density but it will certainly cause transportation issues along the way. That's because the growth of the past decade has already caused problems, especially along the Mountain View Corridor.
The Utah Department of Transportation recently completed a bridge in Bluffdale that is expected to offer some relief but remains one of the few east-west connections in the southern part of the county. The agency also has enhanced the Mountain View Corridor and Bangerter Highway, as both turn more into freeways. But it may not be enough given the sheer number of people moving into the region.
If we don't get ahead of this now, then the traffic situation that is already congested is only going to be exacerbated.
–Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs
It's why Staggs is thinking about alternative forms of travel to improve congestion and air quality associated with more traffic. While commuter and light rail trains are viewed more favorably, he favors buses because most riders are still using buses that cover the most ground. Fixed bus service accounted for a little more than half of UTA's September ridership, drawing over 65,000 average weekday boardings.
Bus rapid transit projects could also cover some of the convenience of light rail at a cheaper cost than expanding TRAX. It could take some time for that to happen, though, because UTA's future projects don't really address Salt Lake County's southwest corner.
UTA officials declined an interview with KSL.com regarding Staggs' comments but provided a statement that explains how transit projects are completed.
"UTA examines data such as ridership trends, residential housing density, daytime population, operational capacity and customer feedback to determine a strategic and holistic approach to delivering transit choices systemwide," the statement reads, in part. "Other factors that determine modes of transit include job density, mix of land uses, student population, number of persons with disabilities, zero-car households, income levels and tourism."
Mendenhall wrote that a figure known as the transit propensity index is widely used in transit planning, taking into consideration factors like density, low-income populations and street connectivity. UTA's index map shows the northern portion of the county near Salt Lake City still has a higher demand taking into all of these factors with a lesser demand in the county's southwest corner.
However, she ended her email by welcoming further discussions about Staggs' goal of getting more transit to the southwest quadrant of the county.
"I firmly believe that all cities in the county can work together toward this important, shared goal without undermining one another in the process," she wrote.
UTA officials, meanwhile, pointed out that Staggs and other members of the UTA Local Advisory Council will receive updates "related to current and planned systemwide service delivery and recommended transit modes" during the council's next meeting on Nov. 2.
As the agency plans out its future, Staggs said it's time to focus more on projects in southwest Salt Lake County, given what's available now and the challenges expected in the not-so-distant future.
"If we don't get ahead of this now, then the traffic situation that is already congested is only going to be exacerbated," he says. "If people think that traffic is rough on Mountain View Corridor and trying to travel east-west right now, just imagine doubling the population along the west bench and along the west side here in the southwest quadrant ... if we don't take some action."
