Comments about ‘Southern Davis County residents voice opposition to streetcars’

I am really mad that I missed this opportunity to speak to my neighbors about this opportunity. This is a great idea. I have no idea why people don't want this. We have to spend on the infrastructure for public transport and make it cheap, so people will use it. You don't wait until the population is conjested to the point that no one gets around. Why would you be opposed to this (other than the price tag)? Utah residence need to get out of the state and country and see how this works in other places. Everyone in South Davis seems determined to drive there huge vehicles around with two people in them.

UTA already killed Main Street in SLC with Trax over a decade ago. And with public transit fees so far above the cost of driving door to door, and parking in many cases, to add yet more cost to a system hardly utilized now seems utterly asinine. Utah needs to spend some serious time back east studying public transit that not only is far more affordable, but really works in moving people from A to B.

As a Centerville resident I would be all for this...IF it was actually practical. I love mass transit back east and the BART in California, but it seems like UTA just hasn't figured out how to make mass transit here practical. I would love to ride Front Runner or the bus to my workplace in SLC but the problem is I would have to take multiple transfers, and quadruple my commute time that I really can't justify it! Where would this tranx line connect to? Also, we have so many school crossings along our main street, how are they going to maintain safety at those areas? I don't think SLC has that same issue.

The Salt Lake Metropolitan area and The Wasatch Front seem to lack the urban density and population to make public transportation and mass transit practical and sucessful.

Compartively speaking, the San Francisco Bay area is so much more dense and populated than Salt Lake, with 5,000,000 more people, and they had the good enough sense to run Bart underground downtown.

Who wants to have to take a transfer on TRAX from a Frontrunner train for somebody trying to get to work in downtown Salt Lake? It doesn't seem to make any sense.

I went to this meeting and their main focus was telling us how it would make it easier for us to go shopping in Bountiful/Centerville with the new system. The street cars will only go about 25 MPH in the cities. I really question how this particular system will work for either senierio. It will be too slow for commuters and it doesn't go to the main shopping districts for either city. I would still have to use my car for running errands or going shopping.

The bus system for Centerville to Salt Lake is terrible. For me to replace my 20 min car ride to my work it would be a 2 1/2 hr commute with 3 transfers and I would still need to walk 1/2 a mile to get to work. That's one way and if the last bus actually ran at the times I need. My son volunteers at the Hogle Zoo and most of the time we have to drive him there because the bus doesn't go up there any time close to when he needs to be there.

Buses can do everything a streetcar can do, only better and cheaper.

"In the next 20 to 50 years, congestion on Davis County's roads is expected to grow, so solutions are needed before congestion becomes gridlock."

The solution should not involve having people live in one area (i.e. Centerville)and commute to work in another (Salt Lake City). That model of urban planning is a failure. What planners should be focusing on is bringing jobs to the people (i.e. Centerville)and eliminate (or vastly reduce) the need to commute in the first place.

To Centerville Resident - I might like it better if it didn't put a train station 1 1/2 blocks from my house and didn't block main street access except for a right hand turn. I also took a very close look at the UTA information. Centerville is only expected to grow 5%. I really don't see how that kind of growth can justify the expense and the construstion, not to mention the people who will loose their houses because the road needs to be widened. It's only proposed to got 10 blocks (about 1 mile) into Centerville. How about just letting the busses go that one more mile into Bountiful where there is a bit more room to put a train station.

Cat, I would be overjoyed at learning that a station might be built only 1.5 blocks from my house. It would be within easy walking distance. That might mean that my wife and I would be able to get by with just one vehicle, thus saving us thousands of dollars.

Zadruga Guy - There's already a bus stop there, but the 2 1/2 hour, 3 transfer and 1/2 mile walk to my place of employment (one way) vs 20 min drive doesn't really encourage me to ride the bus. I'm sure the people who are losing their businesses, jobs and homes wouldn't agree with you either. It's not going to save them thousands of dollars.

I was born and raised in Centerville. I ice-skated down Main Street in the winter at night rarely seeing a car; I would put a 22 rifle over my shoulder and walk to the mountains for a few days without being rounded up by police asking for a gun permit. Except for a few blocks, the streets had no sidewalks. We could sled from the mouth of Centerville canyon to “The Bungalow Inn” at night and not see a car. I could hunt pheasants where Wal-Mart now sits. Now thousands of outsiders have populated Centerville and many are saying they do not want streetcars to destroy the serenity of their “old Centerville”? That Centerville is gone, and now they stand in the way of allowing people to go to work on the streetcar that will also reduce traffic. There are some old Centerville citizens that would like to go to SLC or Bountiful that cannot drive but could walk to a Streetcar.
Those who have become the New Centerville do not want to change what they now call “old Centerville”. We had a Streetcar in my old Centerville called “The Bamberger”.