Proposal to Save Utah’s Air

It is commonly understood that Utah has notoriously unhealthy air, especially during the

colder seasons due to inversions and vehicle car emissions. This is a problem that has been a

struggle for citizens and government officials to find a solution for. If you have driven on any

big highways in Utah during rush hour you probably won’t be surprised that vehicle car

emissions create around 60% of the particulate matter/pollution in the air. Logically, this means

reducing personal vehicle usage would be one of the easiest and quickest ways to improve

Utah’s air quality. However, the convenience of personal cars is something many Utahns find

difficult giving up to help the environment. This means a solution is to make public

transportation more convenient and/or incentivized compared to personal vehicles.

A study by the Salt Lake Tribune in 2015 found that only 3.4% of Salt Lake City-metro

workers used public transportation compared to the nation’s average of 5%. On average, only

40% of the seats are taken on public transportation vehicles, so availability isn’t the reason why

Utahns don’t use public transportation. Studies have proven that public transportation is better

for the environment and reduces traffic, yet local residents continue to opt for personal vehicle

transportation. So why aren’t Utahns using public transportation? I believe the biggest reasons

are money, convenience, and location.

A solution that would increase the amount of

Utahns that use public transportation and help reduce

vehicle emissions would be to implement more free-fare

days. I propose that during “Unhealthy for Sensitive

Groups” and worse days, that the fare for TRAX and bus
transportation would free or discounted so that more residents start using public transportation.

In 2018, over one third of Utah days were classified as “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” and

worse. While the investment for free transportation fare would be high at first, the air quality

would improve, leading to fewer bad air quality days and simultaneously reducing free fare days.

Implementing this plan would not only reduce pollution, but also introduce more people to the

public transportation system.

The other main reason people choose to drive personal vehicles is because of

convenience. Free fare days during bad air quality warnings would increase the convenience of

public transportation. Sometimes even simple tasks like buying a ticket can feel inconvenient

and decrease the opinion of the system. Without having to buy a ticket, commuters would be

able to familiarize themselves with the station locations and quickly gain access to transportation

without any hassle. It would essentially act as free trial that people could use to change their

opinion on the convenience or any opinions they might have of public transportation.

Finally, the last reason I believe Utahns aren’t using public transportation is because

stations aren’t always next to where you are planning to travel. While the UTA has been

increasing station locations and optimizing routes in the recent years, unless you’re traveling

downtown you may end up walking miles to your destination and if the air quality is bad, you

risk damaging your health. Unfortunately, this part of the problem will only be resolved through

future investments into the infrastructure of public transportation and time.

Public transportation does have upkeep costs, employees, construction costs for

expansion, so money does need to be made to fund a program that provides its service for free.

Around 69% of the Utah Transportation Authority is funded by state taxes—mostly sales tax—

and federal tax grants. Federal funds are allocated to help states decrease pollution, but the
federal government also withholds funds from states that aren’t meeting air quality guidelines.

In 2018, Utah received $12.7 million dollars to fund air quality projects. Then, from 2018-2019

air pollution in Utah increased and in 2019, the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

gave the state of Utah $9.7 million dollars for air quality projects, a loss of 26.7% of funding

from the EPA. If free fare during bad air quality days proved to be effective, the state of Utah

would be rewarded with more federal grant money to continue improving the environment.