Even if you don't use the transit system, the compact neighborhood it creates is beneficial. I live near downtown and work a few miles away at the university. Within a very short walk or drive, I can find all the goods and services I need, partly because these places grew up next to a convenient transit system. As a result, though I drive to work every day, it's a short distance to everywhere, and I only put 8,000 miles on my car last year.

That's an important factor. The more spread out our community becomes, the longer and more frequent are our daily trips. In the past 10 years, our population has increased 27 percent in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties. But the number of miles we drive has increased 50 percent in these same four counties. More people driving even more miles equals more traffic congestion on the highways and more air pollution. If living closer to more compact neighborhoods could reduce the number of miles we drive, we might not need to expand highways at all. And we'd all have cleaner air as a bonus.

Though it may not be possible to avoid building more highways forever, the expansion of public transit into more areas should be given a high priority since it supports and encourages development patterns that benefit us all.

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Brenda Case Scheer is dean of the University of Utah College of Architecture and Planning and a member of the Envision Utah steering committee.