It was pretty disappointing to see yesterday that UTA will only be offering limited ski bus service again this season.
To make more room for skiers and snowboarders on this year’s limited ski buses, UTA plans to provide alternative transportation for ski resort employees — “vanpools,” in vans loaned out to resorts and driven by resort workers.https://t.co/OibOhoFC6o
— The Salt Lake Tribune (@sltrib) September 26, 2023
Last year, even with the frequent closures of Little Cottonwood, Utah reported a record of 7.1 million skier visits. On many days, parking lots were full. Parking at trailheads was also tough to find. What few buses were run were packed.
We are still two years away from the so-called "phase 1" enhanced bus service for the Cottonwoods planned for fall 2025. At that point, we are told that the roads will be tolled and there will be a mobility hub at the gravel pit, winter roadside parking restrictions, etc. That will provide some much needed infrastructure upgrades, but one has to wonder if there is real commitment to providing serious bus service.
In the interim, maybe it is time for slugging, or ad hoc casual car pooling, as is done in Washington DC, where drivers can pick up passengers (in this case skiers or snowboarders) at specified locations. Call it ski slugging if you want. I've always been surprised that we haven't seen more of it here.
The entire Wasatch front and back anywhere in sniffing distance of a ski resort is a traffic disaster. Due to the massive buildout of summit county Parleys canyon is 3 lanes of start and stop traffic starting at 7am-10am and 3p-7p already everyday Monday thru Sunday. Add ski traffic into that in a couple months as I don't think Waholi et all plan on stopping building for winter. There are not many real solutions with state leadership counting the money and letting the problems compound.
ReplyDeleteWith driving being practically free and reasonably doable before 7 or after 12, it's essentially charity work to take a bus that's jam packed / standing only for most and 30+ minutes late each way. It sucks. Every 15 minutes was much better and I hope they can do that again soon.
ReplyDeleteI would still stand for 30+ minutes if I didn't have to wait to get on a bus for over an hour. That's what killed it for me last year.
DeleteI have some friends/acquaintances who work at UTA. They do rider forecasting, operations management, asset allocation. What I appreciate about this post is that it's not calling out UTA or alleging there's some pro-gondola conspiracy afoot. It's not. It is unfortunate that there's not more legislature funding for transit, but it's more than just funding; it's also that there's a nation wide operator shortage. On top of that, you can't just throw money at it to incentivize drivers. Drivers are unionized, and contracts are negotiated uniformly, precisely so management can't pick and choose who gets paid based on route--that would open up all sorts of corrupt behavior without proper oversight. The operators bid on routes by seniority. As you can imagine, a route that only runs seasonally is not as lucrative, so it's less desirable. Could the rules be changed? Yeah, but that would take a lot of negotiating, laws changed, very complicated, yearslong process---not going to happen for a few ski busses...
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, it may surprise skiers, who tend to be wealthy, that they're not the most important group of people that UTA serves. The utility function it operates under must weight marginalized groups, and people that depend daily on UTA for their jobs, people with disabilities, as MUCH higher priorities than recreation. This weighting is required by federal law. Of course, skiers, who generally don't rely on UTA as an essential service, are shocked to find out that UTA can't easily turn on a dime and change all its rules just to serve them for a dozen weekends of the year.
Hopefully the operator shortage will abate in the next few years and funding will increase. Contact the legislature, don't just complain or allege that x, y, z are somehow on the take.
Thoughtful comments, thank you for the insight
DeleteAs taxpayers, we'll be paying for a gondola (that won't work very well to actually get people up the canyon), so we'll all be a bit more marginalized. That won't make up for the lost capital marginalized groups were excluded from when they were banned from owning homes in the posh eastern half of town for generations; but at least we can have busses take them to work...
Deleteim pretty sure the state can throw money at a worker shortage and you will get workers. we have to pay ALL the bus drivers? so what? cost of labor is going up just like everything else. drivers deserve to make a living.
DeleteThey renegotiated their contract earlier this year, got a significant raise. Still not enough to recruit enough drivers. Again, as far as legislature and UTA are concerned, if people get to work on time then it's a job well done. If local skiers don't get up the hill in time????? Just replace them with richer out of state folks who go up in private limos... That's where the ski resorts are heading anyway...
DeleteThe misconception here is that UTA is here to serve people. It is not. UTA exists to serve employers. Who pay so little that a government subsidy is required to deliver labor to them. Naturally, said subsidy is not made available to serve public convenience. That is built into the institution. Welfare is acceptable if it is corporate welfare. The benefit is not provided to the sales-tax burdened middle class. UTA hustles people to work at enormous cost per rider, and people shrug and live with that fact. It is absurd that a workable solution is wholly defeated by the institutional inertia of this system. As is evidenced by the ski industry resorting to work-arounds. Our state government is a one party system dominated by the local gang. For whom money is the the goal. As long as that is the case, the people of Utah get the government they deserve.
DeleteI agree. When natural areas get crowded, the strategy to reduce crowdedness is to upscale, so fewer can afford to go. That's happening as we speak. The gondola isn't a transportation solution but a large spectacle to attract more wealthy out of state visitation. I don't know if the gondola will get built but that's clearly the plan. UTA does serve peoples' essential needs however. Getting to work is vital--they are even providing van pools for resort workers... The skier patrons--not so much right now. It's not an essential service, and we should remind ourselves of that.
DeleteI quit skiing up the LCC 8 years ago due to traffic! Can't even imagine what kind of ss it is now.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of mass transit in general is going to bring the Wasatch Front (and back) to a grinding halt- in fact, it already is. What we really need is a mass transit SYSTEM that gets people out of cars for their daily mobility needs. As the population grows (and grows and grows and grows), it doesn't matter whether your car runs on gasoline or electrons, they still take up the same amount of space on the roads when there is on average less than 1-2 occupants per vehicle. So if/when electric vehicles do take over, maybe our air will be cleaner but we'll be spending more time stuck in traffic contemplating that. I'm making active plans to GTH out of this state for precisely this reason. Good luck Salt Lake!
ReplyDeleteNo sympathy for Uta. Their service throughout the valley, not exclusive to lcc is a joke.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good places for outdoor hiking and winter backcountry skiing near the Wasatch Front where you need not spend time waiting in car traffic jams or crowded buses. For example City Creek Canyon very close to downtown SLC or Provo Canyon within walkable distance to downtown Provo. Much better areas for recreation and not as crowded as the Cottonwoods. And in Provo canyon it is skiable on many days in winter and climbing up Provo Peak or Cascade mountain feels very remote even though it is close to a densely populated city.
ReplyDeleteEven for those who prefer resort skiing there is the smaller resort of Sundance and mount Timpanogos.