The short term transit plan looks out five years. Senior Transportation Planner Alex Roy says a new plan is needed since the city split the transit system last year when High Valley Transit launched.
“It's really looking at like, what routes are working well,” Roy said. “What could we do to enhance the existing routes and is there any new technology that would accommodate any sort of trips, transit trips in the city itself? One important thing to note about this project, as you know, it's really located within Park City bounds. So, it's not looking at regional transportation or transportation to Kimball Junction--that's now more in High Valley Transit’s purview.”
The city staff has identified three service alternatives, based on a survey that was conducted last fall.
These are not set in stone,” Roy said. “They're really just kind of working to flesh out some different transit details. The pilot project for the micro transit would be, you know, kind of incorporated into anything we ended up deciding to do. But we're just interested in getting community feedback on whether they think things like, you know, faster service or more coverage is important for their transit system.”
Other considerations are shorter and more direct bus routes, but Roy says, there’s a trade-off.
“If we do more direct route, we get to less areas,” Roy explained. “So that's something we're weighing as well, you know, do we want to hit more locations, or do we want faster service to bigger locations? And it makes sense, when you think about it, we can't really do both effectively. And what's the best way to give some degree of both coverage and frequency?”
An open house will be held next Wednesday, March 16th at the Park City library from 4 to 7 p.m. People can stop by anytime. There will be maps posted with each of the different scenarios being considered and what the transit system could evolve into.
A plan could be sketched out by the end of spring and receive council approval this summer. Changes to the transit system Roy says could roll out after that pretty quickly.