UDOT Identifies Two Preferred Options In Little Cottonwood Canyon EIS
Utah’s SR-210, the road connecting Salt Lake City to Alta and Snowbird, during a decidedly non-peak hour. Photo by Greg Rakozy.
Last year, the Utah Department of Transportation released an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for traffic flow improvements through Little Cottonwood Canyon. This study comes in the wake of increasing traffic to the area—especially during the peak winter season—and aims to provide sufficient capacity for the year 2050.
After narrowing the proposals down to five finalists in December, the organization has identified two preferred options:
According to UDOT, the Enhanced Bus Service option was identified as the best option for mobility improvement, while the La Caille Gondola option was deemed to provide the best reliability enhancements.
These proposals were selected for further study over the three other finalists:
Compared to the LCC Park-and-Ride gondola, the La Caille gondola would start lower down in the canyon. Notably, the La Caille option would provide some parking at the base of the gondola, allowing thousands of visitors a day to avoid taking the mobility-hub bus mandated in the Park-and-Ride proposal. Both gondolas would run cars on 2-minute headways.
Total La Caille travel time would be 45-49 minutes to Snowbird—the gondola/cog ride itself would take 27 minutes, the drive time up to La Caille would take 18 minutes, and the bus from the mobility hub would take 22 minutes. The ride from Snowbird to Alta would take an additional 10 minutes, for a total of 55-59 minutes. This would be faster than the original gondola proposal, which would take 53 minutes to Snowbird and 63 minutes to Alta, and about comparable to bus service with no roadway widening, which would take 50 minutes to Snowbird but just 54 minutes to Alta. However, bus service with roadway widening, estimated to take just 32 minutes to Snowbird and 36 minutes to Alta, would still provide the fastest service.
The goal of each option is to get 30% of crowds into public transportation options during peak hours. More information on these alternatives can be found here.
Our Take
Given the expected outcomes from each proposal, it’s clear to see why the La Caille gondola and enhanced bus service with roadway widening became the preferred options for this project. Of all five initial finalists, only the enhanced bus service with roadway widening looks to provide a travel time comparable to driving. While the La Caille gondola might be slower, it looks to provide much-welcome weather transportation resiliency during storms as well as some decently convenient parking at the base of the cable car.
To us, it seems that the final selection will come down to resiliency vs. cost and speed. The bus option would theoretically be significantly cheaper with faster travel times, but the gondola would not be subject to traffic slowdowns or road closures, with the potential to finally offer a way out of the canyon during especially heavy snowfall.
While this plan is designed to address traffic concerns expected in 2050, we think UDOT should just consider implementing additional bus service now. Most of these projects would take years or decades to materialize, and if nothing is addressed in the short term, we may well see the canyon’s traffic situation continue to deteriorate. It’s clear that residents and visitors would value at least some sort of relief now, and more public transportation in the near-term could provide that.
