What Can We Do? Although the Court hearing is over there are still things we can do to ensure that our community and its transportation needs are best served: Read the update below and help us find an engineer Read This Letter and Contact the FTA Representative: Ryan Hammon Federal Transit Administration Region VIII 1230 W Dakota Ave. Lakewood, Co 80228-2583 [NEW*] Read the Draper Trax Alternatives Study and give input to the FTA Representatives stay tuned for more news Sign up on the CRT Contact List

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Hello Draper Neighbors,

 

Here is an update on the UTA TRAX Alternatives meeting held Thursday night at the Skaggs Center.

 UTA picked three alternatives to study. (You can access them, including maps, on our website at www.drapertrax.com) Here is our concern.  It looks as though the three alternatives were not treated equally in their design.  Alternatives A and B show  TEN  multi-million dollar bridges being built over intersections.      Bridges are extremely expensive to build and, thus,add a tremendous amount more to capital costs  and  per annual new rider.

From the Delta Center down to 100th south where TRAX presently terminates, UTA did not build multi-million dollar bridges to go over the streets. There are streets with four-way intersections, stop lights, streets with extremely heavy traffic and some with less traffic, for example, West Temple and South Temple, 21st south, 33rd south, etc., yet no bridges.   Why the inconsistent treatment of the Sandy-Draper extension line? .

It appears that these bridges unnecessarily trump up the cost to build Alternatives A and B and thus make the cost per new rider higher.  Understandably,  UTA and the Wasatch Front Regional Council, WFRC, picked alternative C (old Union Pacific Route, ROW) which came in much lower in cost to build and cost per rider.  The  Feds will not fund alternatives that do meet a certain cost criteria, so that took out Alternatives A and B.  

 Here is our request of you.  We need an objective engineer to evaluate these alternatives, one who is not being paid by UTA and can evaluate the alternatives with on open mind.  Please let us know if you can refer us to someone.   

 The next and final public hearing on the ROW alternative will be held the first part of 2009 either January or February.  Keep an eye open for that date.

Sincerely,

Your CRT Team

Also, here is the final EIS and an Executive Summary of the EIS, for the Mid-Jordan line here in SLC that was completed in July.

WHAT IS OUR GOAL?

• To support the study of other, more advanced options to extend TRAX through Draper. For example:
  • along the I-15 business corridor where it will better serve the economic community OR
  • a connection to Front Runner - fast rail west of I-15
  • Other options?
• to bring the best public transportation option to Draper, including less costly alternatives. (Did you know UTA was building an 80 MPH commuter rail from Provo to Ogden west of I-15, completion 2012?)
  

Other options have not been thoroughly studied in relation to TRAX! Shouldn't we have all the facts in order to make the best decision for the Draper Community? Click here to read the facts about the current UTA Draper TRAX study.

GENERAL FACTS ABOUT TRAX

• Transit Use Has DROPPED from 3% in 2000 to 2.3% in 2005! (click here to read a great editorial by a BYU professor on TRAX benefits (1/19/2007) - or lack there of... and here to read the 2005 census information)
• From Goldwater institute report Jan 2004 by John Semmens re: Phoenix transportation studies (click to read the whole article)
  • "Use of urban public transportation systems has been in decline since the end of World War II, when public transit provided 50 percent of urban travel. Last year, only three percent of urban travel in America was provided by public transit. This decline has occurred despite prodigious government efforts to prevent it. Governments now spend 30 to 40 times as much on public transit as for roadways. But evidence suggests that transit is not the most effective use of public transportation dollars."
  • "in no city in America does light rail transit account for much more than one percent of urban person-miles of travel."
  • "The average cost of light rail per passenger-mile is ... almost double the cost of bus transit, and five times the cost of automobile transportation per vehicle-mile. On average, taxpayers pay nearly 90 percent of the cost of light rail passenger travel, considerably more than for all other transit modes. Worst of all, light rail would do almost nothing to relieve traffic congestion. Because 80 percent of new light rail passengers in Maricopa County would be former bus passengers, light rail would remove less than one car in 1,000 from traffic."
• The Right Of Way route selection is not the "Locally Preferred Alternative" as presented by Draper City and UTA - it is the "UTA Preferred Alternative"
• The Porter Rockwell Trail will no longer be viable for equestrian use.
• Create increased traffic, congestion, and danger to pedestrians along 11400 south, 12300 South, Pioneer Rd, and 1300 East at Draper Park
• Disturb the environment, wildlife, and residential areas with noise from trains and traffic controls, fences and high walls, and unsightly electrical wires.
• travel at 50 to 60 miles per hour through our neighborhoods
• Diminish adjacent property values within 1/4 mile. (click here)
• increase the theft and crime rates in our neighborhoods. (click here)
• There was a recent Armed Robbery in Broad Daylight! But UTA says it's not a problem. (click here)
• UTA inflates the figures and statistics regarding TRAX successes (click here)
• From Salt Lake Trib Article 12/2/2006 (click here)
  • Despite transit (light rail) funding increasing seven-fold since the 1960s, the percentage of people using it has fallen nationwide by 63 percent
  Americans use transit for only 1.5 percent of their trips
  • light-rail transit, does not relieve congestion.