Editor:
It is challenging to criticize a politically correct icon of contemporary society. Light rail, seemingly popular and accepted by the public, has become such an icon in the first two years of operation.
Does the university community know that next month, rail tracks will occupy half the traffic space on South Campus Drive, reducing traffic to one lane each direction?
The U has been rather selfish on this matter. This campus has refused for years to solve its own parking problem with construction of multi-level parking terraces. Now, without ever building a multi-terrace parking facility, we insist on light rail to help solve our parking problem.
There are significant tradeoffs with the university light rail extension. The driving and voting public was not made aware that these tradeoffs would be necessary. These annoyances may seem insignificant but they are a festering problem. For this and other reasons proponents of light rail are doing the future of the system a disservice with this alignment past the stadium.
Light rail is essentially the subway brought to the surface and given a new name. In most cities this has been a hard sell as drivers sense correctly that rail transit systems should not compete with automobile traffic on city streets.
Salt Lake City light rail has been the beneficiary of one of the most intense public relations campaigns in Utah history. But only a small minority will ever ride light rail to campus and many who do are transferring from the bus, not from their cars. When the public comes to realize that more people are annoyed by the trains than take the trains, it will turn against this system.
Stephen M. Snow, Staff Assistant, Music Department