The public comment period for the envioronmental impact study (EIS) on the Mountain View Corridor ends in two days, January 24th. If you have not taken any time to review the document you can view it here. The document itself is huge (over 1/2 GB) so if you would prefer a hard copy, the link mentioned has addresses to locations where hard copies are provided. My opinion is really pretty straight forward:

Is enhanced freeway transportation needed on the west side of the valley? Absolutely. My drive time in West Jordan to any freeway is at least fifteen minutes (15 minutes to both I-215 and I-15, and 25 minutes to I-80). The advantages of reducing drive time to freeways: less drive time wasted on roadways, lower emissions, fuel savings (except those rare cases of hybrid vehicles where braking action actually increases fuel economy).

Will the Mountain View Corridor fix all traffic problems on the west side of Salt Lake County? No. There is still an important need for an east/west corridor, somewhere between 7000 South and 9000 South. UDOT thinks putting light rail transit (LRT) on these routes will be enough. I say it won’t. Mountain View Corridor will help those on the west side get to either downtown, Tooele, or Provo, but will do nothing to help them get to the east side. We still need an east-west corridor!!

Should we make the Mountain View Corridor a toll road? Absolutely not. That is unless we make I-80, I-15, and I-215 all toll roads as well. Taxes from west-siders have financed the freeways on the east side of Salt Lake County, in addition to I-15 in Davis, Utah, and Weber Counties. Why should west-siders be expected to flip the bill themselves? It is only in fairness that the entire taxpayer base help offset the costs of this particular west-side project. To emphasize my opinion, either tax all the freeways or none at all.

So what do you think? Visit UDOT’s website and let them know. Only two days left to accept your comments.