Instead of a 25-minute car ride, Elizabeth Merrell makes a 50-minute trek on the bus each week to Weber State University in Ogden for classes, her 3-year-old in tow.

Just after Merrell leaves, her husband, Kent, will head to work in Salt Lake City from their home in Bountiful. He stops to drop off four children at a school bus stop before he catches his own ride on Route 460.

The couple's 16-year-old son, Josh, makes his own way to a Utah Transit Authority bus stop for a ride to school in Layton.

After getting involved in a campaign last year urging residents and elected leaders to clean up Utah's air quality, the entire Merrell family now takes the bus. But it hasn't been easy, because buses haven't pervaded Davis County like the large number of buses that run on Salt Lake County streets, Elizabeth Merrell said.

The Davis County bus system is commuter-oriented and places little emphasis on people who want to go to a neighborhood shop or the gym, she said.

"The bus system in Bountiful for local things is not practical at all," she said.

UTA openly admits as much. Mick Crandall, deputy chief for planning and programming, said the agency has tried in the past to provide bus routes that service local destinations, but ridership was low, and the routes "did not perform well."

A total of 15 routes run in Davis County. Most of those routes are inter-county buses that link Davis County commuters with Ogden or Salt Lake City. Only two routes offer Sunday service, including a shuttle from downtown Farmington to Lagoon, only a few minutes away.

When UTA's new commuter-rail line through Davis County is opened, Crandall said, UTA is counting on riders to take their cars to a park-and-ride lot and then hop on the train. A few buses will be rerouted to serve Davis County commuter-rail stations, which are planned for Woods Cross, Farmington, Layton and Clearfield, he said.

The FrontRunner commuter-rail system is expected to begin service in April 2008 and will stretch 44 miles from Salt Lake City to Pleasant View in Weber County.

"The truth of the matter is we expect a lot of people to get to commuter rail through a park-and-ride lot," Crandall said. "There may not be as much service as people want, simply because there is not as much demand for that service."

Mayors of south Davis County say they aren't too worried about the county's bus service — or how buses will be routed to commuter rail. Bountiful Mayor Joe Johnson said he believes residents of his city won't take the train, and he has heard few complaints about bus service.

"If there were some concerns, I think we would have had discussions about them," Johnson said.