Almost three weeks after announcing a redesign of its Salt Lake County bus routes, the Utah Transit Authority has received nearly 2,000 comments about the changes.

About 65 percent of the comments have criticized the redesign and about 35 percent have praised it. UTA spokesman Justin Jones said the total number of comments has exceeded the norm for public hearings and were received before any official public hearing on the redesign.

UTA held its first public meeting on the changes Tuesday in West Jordan. About 45 people attended, including Rawlins Young, who serves on a Salt Lake City transit committee.

Young said that he isn't a fan of UTA's proposed redesign because it serves the bus company, not the bus rider.

"It's not a good idea because it doesn't provide any efficiencies to the rider," he said. "It provides efficiencies to the bus company."

UTA's proposed redesign will take effect in August. The plan calls for elimination and consolidation of some routes, so that the system would have 54 routes rather than 117. Instead of serving neighborhoods as it currently does, UTA would move its buses to larger arterial roads.

More frequent service would be added, and routes restructured to cut down on the time to transfer between buses. In addition, all routes would be renumbered, and night routes would have the same number as their daytime counterparts.

UTA currently has no system to number its bus routes. With the redesign, a bus that runs down 300 South, would become Route 3, or Route 300.

"More people will find this system easier to use" Jones said. "There will be more frequent service and greater reliability."

Over the past 10 years, Jones said that UTA's bus ridership in Salt Lake County has declined by 16 percent. UTA is hopeful that the redesign will improve that ridership. Similar redesigns in Weber and Utah counties have yielded ridership increases of 20 percent and 80 percent, respectively.

Some of the comments that UTA received prior to Tuesday's meeting called for more service at different times. Others were pleased that UTA would not run buses through the neighborhoods.

"A bus that doesn't stop every 50 feet would be nice," one person wrote. "Maybe every 0.25 mile at the most. I love that it doesn't lollygag through the neighborhoods and just gets straight to TRAX or connecting buses on the way."

But low-income advocates and disabled people have spoken out against some aspects of the redesign. Bill Tibbitts, with the Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City, said his group plans to give UTA several comments about its redesign.

For more information about the changes, log on to: www.rideuta.com. Public meetings will be held throughout the month.

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com