This morning I, a lowly commuter student planning my morning route, hopped on the UTA website and was greeted by the words, “New Year’s Resolution: Improve air quality by riding UTA.” This amused me, as I have come to believe UTA is one of the most unreliable public transportation systems in the United States.

Being a commuter student without a car has very few perks. In fact, I have yet to discover any. And while I admire UTA’s adorable efforts to encourage more riders, it has been for naught.

I have been subjected to every form of transportation UTA has to offer. I have depended on the FrontRunner to get me home to visit family in Utah County, I rely on the bus to get me to school every morning and I ride TRAX home from work every night.

Each time, I meet with certain faults that outweigh any promises UTA has made. UTA’s vision, found on its website, clearly outlines its purpose: “Provide an integrated system of innovative, accessible and efficient public transportation services that contribute to increased access to opportunities and a healthy environment for all people of the Wasatch region.”

However, one of the most difficult things about making the switch from a car to public transportation is the lack of efficiency and timeliness. While UTA desperately wants to have “services that contribute to increased access to opportunities,” they can’t do that until the services run on time.

TRAX and buses seem to never make it on time or they never follow the schedules that are posted online. Ever. I have either waited in the cold for an extra 24 minutes, been there 5 minutes early and found that the train is running late or the bus has already come and gone, and I will have to wait for another 15-30 minutes until the next one.

Every time I board I’ve wanted to ask the driver, “What time was this bus/train/FrontRunner/streetcar supposed to arrive?” and when they answer, I’ve always wanted to yell, “YOU. ARE. PUBLIC. TRANSPORTATION. PEOPLE (AKA ME) UNWILLINGLY DEPEND ON YOU!”

In other cities around the country and especially the world, this does not happen. Public transit can be depended upon and is often the preferred method of travel for many commuters. If UTA wants to be taken seriously as a public transportation system, then effectiveness and timeliness is key.
Take FrontRunner’s schedule, for instance. At the Salt Lake Central stop, going southbound on a weekday, it runs every half hour until around 11 a.m., then every hour until about three p.m., when it switches back to every half hour, then only runs every hour at 7:11 p.m. and 8:11 p.m., then every half hour, and then finally every hour and a half, while skipping some stops along the way.

If you kept up, now you might be able to see that it is incredibly difficult for someone to depend on what seems to be a random schedule. How can we be expected to rely on a schedule that doesn’t have a consistent arrival time? Furthermore, there are very limited routes. There is only one bus stop by my apartment complex. Luckily it goes straight to campus, but it takes an hour. If I had a car and drove, the trip would take about 25 minutes.

So for me, a car-less commuter, that puts me out two hours in just travel time there and back. It’s admirable that Salt Lake wants to grow up and be a big city now, but until public transportation provides better and more effective options, there is no way it will thrive. People will continue to drive their cars and stare at me as I freeze on the side of the road at my stop willing the damn bus to arrive on time for once.

It gets so bad that often, when I look down the road, the toxic haze of our city makes me think the bus is finally here when in reality, it’s just another truck and a little car melted together by our smog. If UTA wants us to clean up our act, it first needs to work its own.

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