The council’s most recent discussion with High Valley Transit was intended to target how leaders want to spend new public transportation tax dollars.
But after more than an hour and a half of conversation Oct. 2, councilmembers only managed to form a transit subcommittee for future talks.
High Valley Transit executive director Caroline Rodriguez told the council public transportation usage continues to grow in the Heber Valley, nearly two years after the service debuted in November 2022.
She said top destinations include Walmart, McDonald’s, Smith’s, the county aquatic center and Wasatch High School. But she said contrary to popular belief, micro-transit isn’t replacing school buses among local teenagers.
“Now, I know there has been quite a bit of discussion about whether these trips to and from the high school are supplanting school bus service,” she said. “I will tell you that I did an analysis of the data on this particular week, and out of over 300 requests to or from the high school, less than 10 of them were for hours in which a school bus would run.”
Everyone agreed the county’s priority is to make paratransit available for people with disabilities in Wasatch County. Unlike micro rides, paratransit users will be able to schedule up to two weeks in advance. They must meet federal eligibility requirements for the service.
But beyond that, the councilmembers reiterated many of the questions they’d brought up before.
Councilmembers Kendall Crittenden and Erik Rowland asked about prioritizing rides for people over 65 or limiting young riders, ideas county manager Dustin Grabau described as a “value judgment quagmire.”
And Rowland wondered if High Valley Transit could implement fares so fewer people would ride.
“If we’re trying to get people to get a sense of buy-in to the service, and if they have to pause and think, ‘Ah, I don’t know if I really need to go there,’ then that would by nature decrease the number of people using it, right?” he said.
Rodriguez pushed back against that idea. She said transit is meant to help everyone engage with the community.
“That, for a public transit agency, is the antithesis of why we exist,” she said. “We exist to serve the community and give access to anywhere in the community for any reason that people want. We, as a public transit entity, don't make the policy or the judgments based on why or when you're traveling.”
In addition to funding paratransit, the council discussed ideas including making the 106 fixed bus route more frequent, building permanent bus stops, creating a park-and-ride, and more.
Right now, additional fixed bus routes aren’t on the table because the valley isn’t dense enough, but Rodriguez said more data about micro-transit could help determine where potential future bus stops could go.
“That’s the power of the data that we’re collecting with micro, because we see those travel patterns over and over,” she said. “And then we can say, actually, for this one trip – neighborhood to Walmart, or Midway to wherever – now we have crossed a line where it’s more affordable and efficient to put in a fixed route.”
County manager Dustin Grabau suggested the county hold more community conversations to address residents’ questions and concerns about public transportation.
And Councilmember Spencer Park said the county should form a new subcommittee to talk more about priorities for the new tax.
Next year, the 0.3% sales tax will bring in an estimated $3.6 million in revenue. Of that, $2.7 million is earmarked for transportation needs. The rest will go to the sheriff’s office for public safety.
The tax will add a cost of three cents for every $10 in purchases. It will go into effect in January 2025.
