Salt Lake to unveil transit plan

City, business and transportation leaders are calling for a Salt Lake City downtown that is more easily traversed, whether by foot, car, bicycle or transit.

A draft of the city's Downtown Transportation Master Plan, which will be unveiled today, calls for pedestrian travel to be "the primary mode of travel" in the heart of the city. But the plan also includes light-rail extensions along 400 South, 400 West and 700 South; several new TRAX stations; consolidated bus routes; and a shuttle system connecting downtown attractions.

The document is the result of a study commissioned by the city and its Redevelopment Agency, the Utah Transit Authority, the Utah Department of Transportation, the Salt Lake Chamber and the Downtown Alliance. It comes as the city faces a number of major development projects and is working on a revamping of its land-use master plan.

Among the transportation plan's suggestions is more light-rail routes. With lines added to 400 West and 700 South and a westward expansion of the 400 South line, the plan calls for a TRAX system that loops through downtown and serves more areas. The plan also includes adding TRAX stations so that all of downtown is no more than two blocks from a station.

"That would provide UTA quite a bit of flexibility in how they route their trains through town, and it provides incredibly good coverage through downtown," city transportation director Tim Harpst said.

In addressing bus travel, the plan would cement State Street and 200 South as the city's main bus corridors, and would include a new Bus Passenger Center with information and amenities at the intersection of those streets.

The plan would consolidate some downtown routes, allowing for more frequent pickups among the major lines, and it would institute "branded routes" — a sort of "red-line" system that would run the length of certain roads, with the goal of easing the confusion of visitors and those unfamiliar with the bus system.

Shuttles downtown would connect similar types of attractions — running, for example, from the hotels along 500 South and 600 South to the Salt Palace Convention Center, Temple Square, City Creek Center and other tourist and convention attractions. That system would likely be funded by the businesses that make use of it.

Chamber spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour said that idea is one to which the business community is paying special attention, and she pointed to a need to boost the ability of hotel guests to get easily to shopping and tourism sites. She also said businesses hope the final version of the plan will accommodate car traffic as well as transit users, pedestrians and bicyclists.