If Salt Lake County residents had a choice, transit — not roads — would be funded by a quarter-cent sales-tax hike authorized during the recent election for transportation improvements, according to a new poll for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV.

The survey shows that 66 percent of Salt Lake County residents would "most like" the tax money to go to transit projects such as TRAX or commuter rail. Only 28 percent want the money to go to road widening or improvement projects.

Among those residents who want the money to go to transit, 65 percent said they would prefer it be used to build four new TRAX lines. The lines would go to Draper, South Jordan, West Valley City and the Salt Lake City International Airport.

The survey was conducted Nov. 14-16 by Dan Jones & Associates. It had two questions about the tax increase. The first asked 160 Salt Lake County residents whether they would prefer that the money go to roads or transit. The question's results have a margin of error of plus or minus 7.75 percent.

The second question asked 106 Salt Lake County residents whether they would prefer the money go to build four TRAX lines or to build commuter rail in addition to one or two TRAX extensions. That question's results have a margin of error of plus or minus 9.5 percent.

Pollster Dan Jones said Friday that the error margin is high because of the small pool of respondents, but the results are still significant, given that more than 65 percent said they would prefer transit over roads and TRAX over commuter rail.

"When it's that much of a margin, that really shows direction of opinion," Jones said.

Members of the Salt Lake County Council and some county mayors said Friday that the poll results aren't surprising, given past surveys of the public. But those elected officials also said that the poll results may send a strong message to the Legislature that Salt Lake County residents want transit projects, not roads.

Right now, residents have no idea where exactly the tax money will go. By law, one-quarter of the money must go to purchase property for future road routes. Local mayors and the County Council will determine what transportation projects receive the rest of the money.

However, they must first get approval of a process for selecting those projects from the Legislature. And that's where the rub is. County leaders have tried twice — once before the election and again this week — to get lawmakers to sign off on the process.

But the Legislature has delayed giving its approval. Some county officials said that's because lawmakers want to play with the process so more money can go to roads, not transit.