Gondola, really?
The crowded transportation issue in Little Cottonwood is connected to the crowding in Big Cottonwood, which is connected to the crowding in Parleys Canyon and Park City. NEPA requires that all connected impacts be studied together, not just a small segment.
To understand the regional issue of overloaded highways leading into the Wasatch Mountains, reference a giant funnel. The broad, collection end of the funnel is the entire SL county. Everyone headed to the Wasatch starts spiraling down into the more and more crowded funnel, either in their private vehicle or on public transportation. This unusual funnel has multiple necks; individual necks lead to Parley’s, or Big Cottonwood, or Little Cottonwood Canyons. The U-DOT LCC-EIS inappropriately studied the single, small neck portion of the funnel to Little Cottonwood Canyon.
U-DOT proposed bigger parking lots right in the congested necks of Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons, thereby creating more congestion. Just one example: private cars already back onto SR-215 where traffic on the freeway goes from 70 mph to zero in the traffic lane. Don’t build the parking lots -- instead build regional transit and parking hubs throughout the valley. Most people must already be on public transit that takes them past the mouth of the canyon and into the canyon itself, long before they arrive at the neck of the funnel.
Really, the gondola is merely a small hole poked into the side of the funnel to squirt a few people out of the neck of the funnel to ride outside of the roadway, disturbing more watersheds, more wildlife, and the beautiful Little Cottonwood Canyon. The solution to crowding must be addressed farther out in the collection system with transit, $6 HOV-type transponders, reservations, and metered entry – all low cost. Something other than a rational transportation system is behind the gondola.
Kirk Nichols, Salt Lake City
