IN THIS ISSUE

Map of the Month:

Expanded Housing Suitability Calculator

Housing continues to be a key issue along the Wasatch Front. As communities work to address housing demand challenges, it’s important to understand the differing levels of access to opportunities (ATO) that various locations provide to their residents.  As promised, we’ve expanded our Housing Suitability tool, originally built this summer for Weber County, to work for cities in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties.

Simply put, the Housing Suitability Calculator tool lets you decide what criteria are most important for siting new housing and then does the calculations and mapping to show you how well locations your areas of interest perform in terms of ATO.

To get started, first use the map to click on a city or group of cities to analyze. Then, adjust the Custom Accessibility Factors and Weights to create a custom housing suitability map. After the map redraws, you can click on any single location and see how well it scores across all of the accessibility factors you’ve chosen. Here’s a more detailed ‘how-to’ walk through.

Happy mapping!

Governor, UDOT Announce Statewide Trail Network Vision

On October 28th, Governor Spencer Cox and UDOT Executive Director Carlos Braceras announced a vision to build a network of trails that would connect Utahns of all ages and abilities to their destinations and communities throughout the state. This vision will be a sustainable contribution to the quality of life for Utahns and visitors for generations to come and will build upon years of work creating a foundational network of trails and paths. 

Utah is home to a wealth of trail and path options that are thoroughly enjoyed by all. One example is the Golden Spoke trail network which consists of over 170 miles of safe and connected multiuse trails, including Provo River Parkway, Jordan River Trail, Legacy Trail, Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Trail, Weber River Parkway Trail, West Haven River Parkway Trail and Ogden River Parkway linking Provo and Ogden.

Moreover, we have been planning for the future of active transportation for decades. The Wasatch Choice Vision, our region's shared vision for the future, contains a variety of plans for interconnected bike and pedestrian paths to provide more options for residents to recreate and get around our region. Bike and pedestrian paths help connect individuals from their homes to public transit, their jobs, shopping, and recreational opportunities. It’s a healthy, environmentally friendly choice of transportation we can all feel good about. 

The statewide trail vision, as outlined by the governor, is expected to be a state-funded program where UDOT will work with local communities to build and maintain trails as part of the state’s transportation system.

State & Local

With just 50 days until the start of the 2023 General Legislative Session which will begin on January 17, the Legislature met last week for the final interim meetings of 2022. Notably heard in the Transportation Interim Committee meeting was a report on the joint WFRC, MAG, UDOT, and UTA Zero Fare Transit Study. The study, commissioned by the transportation agencies, considered impacts and costs associated with zero- and lower-fare transit scenarios. While no formal recommendations were made as to a path to pursue, study findings show that a systemwide zero-fare change could increase ridership up to 35% at an annual cost of roughly $35 million; the cost would be to replace lost fare revenues, netted against savings from not having to replace and maintain fare collection equipment.

The committee also considered a number of bills, and given that a large number of bill files have already been opened, our 2023 Wasatch Front Regional Council Bill Tracker is now up to date for you to follow along with our bill summaries and preliminary positions (note you can find this on the government affairs page of our website).

Federal

Congratulations to our friends at the Utah Transit Authority who will receive $360,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan for Transit Oriented Developments along the proposed seven-mile Midvalley Connector bus rapid transit project. The recently announced funding will allow for transit-oriented development planning through the communities of West Valley, Taylorsville, and Murray cities which the BRT extends through.

2022 Midterm Election

A special congratulations to our new and continuing elected officials for a successful midterm election! We look forward to working with you in the coming weeks, months and years as we all strive to ensure Utah’s quality of life remains strong as we grow.

And to our outgoing elected officials, a sincere thanks for your dedicated service to your constituents, the region, and our state. It has been a pleasure working with you, and we wish you well on your next endeavors!

TLC Program Nationally Recognized by AMPO

Bert, Mikala, and Julie pictured receiving the 2022 Coordination and Partnership Award on behalf of WFRC at the AMPO National Conference

WFRC's Transportation & Land Use Connection (TLC) program is now award-winning! In late October, the program was nationally recognized with the 2022 Coordination and Partnership Award from the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) at their annual conference. This honor extends to our TLC program partners Salt Lake County, Utah Transit Authority, and the Utah Department of Transportation. 

The TLC program provides technical assistance to local communities to help them achieve their goals and plan for growth. The program helps communities implement changes to the built environment that reduce traffic on roads and enable more people to easily walk, bike, and use transit. This approach is consistent with the Wasatch Choice Vision and helps residents living throughout the region enjoy a high quality of life through enhanced mobility, better air quality, and improved economic opportunities. Learn more at www.wfrc.org/tlc.



OGX Timelapse Video

UTA began OGX construction in 2021, a bus rapid transit system connecting the Ogden FrontRunner station with downtown Ogden, Weber State University, and McKay-Dee Hospital, and may destinations in between. The OGX system is expected to be up and running in 2023, and once complete, will provide riders a fast, frequent, clean-air ride in an electric bus along dedicated bus lanes. The project will benefit the community by reducing vehicle trips, supporting the economy, and providing transportation choices.

This past summer the Wildcat Shuttle started running at Weber State University with noteworthy high ridership. 

UTA thanks everyone for their patience during construction. Enjoy this video highlighting the OGX journey thus far.



Kearns On-Street Parking Study