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Show ' ' l 1 Morning commuter bus from Ogden to Salt Lake is filled to standing as it heads toward Beck Street and tilt oit. - , ; . v. . I - . ! J J . ' ! 1 - I-' i - V , - - h I i ilk Irmmite a ride is one of the least expensive Wmii the couritrv. making the bus a good means drjinirtalin for both young and old. c . - - A sk k ' A. .J sr ' , " l I. M. - ! , . Riders pass tlie time by reading or resting. Wonder how many kids manage to sleep through their stop on a nice spring day. I T. , ' . . ' P .. i...lf hour the bus will lii.alK n.m'. i h.n il s (i.i.-ur ., an. I lu uii-r vou wail a iniiiute or a Hall nour. m I f,r.. I - rrr -1, --:.rj3 ''V ' I:'- , ' a "! ' h ..... ; " " ' . i- '; ..4 . i romSah l.ke dung the day aZ7f" available, h tak,, than a balfhour to go fr"md()wntowll Sal( Lake t(, downtown Bountiful- Davis County Not Solid For The Bus By ROSELYN KIRK Davis County, like the rest of the state, is not geared to mass transit ridership yet, but commuter com-muter and worker service bus routes in the county are busy during peak periods, according accord-ing to a Utah Transit Authority (UTA) spokesman. TERRY TwitcheU, public relations expert for UTA, said the four routes from Salt Lake City to Bountiful and the long-range long-range commuter run from Salt Lake City to Ogden are busy during peak hours from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. But transit authorities must find a way to fill the buses during off-peak hours. During January 80,241 Davis .County residents boarded buses in Davis County to ride to either Salt Lake City or Ogden Og-den or from those cities back to Davis County. "UTAH is not too geared to ecology and there is not a solid market yet for bus services during these hours," Ms. Twitchell said. On Sept. 6 two kinds of routes in Davis County were eliminated due to low ridership. The intra-city routes that carried passengers from one area of the city to another or from one small city to another were discontinued. IN addition, the rural routes in the north end of the county which run through Syracuse, Clinton, West Point and South Weber were cut. Ms. Mitchell said, "It's hard to justify running run-ning buses that people aren't riding." UTA buses carry 50,000 people a day in the Wasatch Front area from Midvale to Ogden. The number of miles per ear that al! buses travel is computed. Once that figure is reached, it is not possible to put on more buses unless they are taken from other routes, Ms. Twitchell said. IT'S HARD to explain why UTA was running buses in the north end of Davis County on rural routes, when other areas in south Salt Lake County were demanding more service, she said. As a result of this change, Davis County now has three kinds of bus service. The trippers run from Salt Lake City to Bountiful during the peak hours. The commuter buses are routed from Salt Lake City to Ogden, averaging about once an hour but can come as often as every 20 minutes during peak periods. The last commuter bus leaves Salt Lake City at 9: 25p.m. and Ogden at 9:58 p.m. THE THIRD type of service is the bus that provides service along Orchard Drive from 30 to 60 minute intervals during the day. UTA has a demand for 400 buses during the peak hours in the area services, but only 300 buses are available during those hours. During the off-peak off-peak hours UTA must determine deter-mine where those buses can transport the most passengers. pas-sengers. MS. TWITCHELL said that since the population center is more spread out in Davis County it is more difficult to provide service. For instance a bus going from the city center along 1-15 to North Salt Lake is not able to pick out passengers for several miles. Even then North Salt Lake does not have a large residential residen-tial area and the ridership statistics sta-tistics show that not as many Photos by Kim Morris passengers can be picked up and deposited as in more compact com-pact areas. ACCORDING to Ms. Twitchell ridership patterns must change in the state since statistics compiled by the Heart and Lung Association show that 95 percent of the pollution is caused by automobiles au-tomobiles which carry an average of 1.4 passengers per car. This means that people are not riding buses and are not car pooling, Ms. Twitchell said. Recently the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC), Ihe Davis County Council of Governments (COG), and the Weber County COG voted against no-fare trial which was being proposed during non-. peak hours with the hope that n might increase ridership. ACCORDING to Ms. Twitchell, the UTA hoard tavors the no-fare concept, but may not receive the money for a federal grant since two of ihe three counties have shown opposition op-position to the plan. She said the tranit authority is not sure how many riders could be picked up during dur-ing low-peak periods. Handicapped Han-dicapped and senior citizens already ride free from 9a. ni. lo 4 p.m. and after fi p.m. SHE predicted that student riders and downtown shoppers would increase. At the present time bus fare is 15 cents for passengers riding rid-ing within one zone or to an adjacent zone. If the rider takes the bus from Salt Lake C ity to beyond Farmington. he passes through two zones and must pay 30 cents. Another 15 cents is required to ride into the third zone where Ogden is located. The Salt Lake City to Ogden trip is thus 45 cents. nn n n 8 I 1 I I - - is . V f yy 'Mp $ )' f v i f r ' i One drawback is wailing for the ride. Kxperieneed riders claim to know when to leae home or work in order lo reach the bus stop at the moment ihe bus arrives. Jf I I . trT" J : ! i X ) r i i . . CoMiniiihT drivrr Jim (!ov rivi lirt'rliinis lo a roiilu'd riiliT wilh tn'.nsfrrs. It's possible to rule to walking iliMunrr unylirrr in the three coiintv area. |
