Another sham hearing on the way, involves Route 35.

UTA again is setting up a sham hearing to say, 'oh yes, we took public input', but the facts of the case indicate that they are going to do what they propose, forget what anyone says contrary to it.

The plan is to make Route 35, which runs from Millcreek TRAX on 3300 South to 35th South and then all the way out to Magna, about 9200 West or so, a 'Bus Rapid Transit' route, which would mean there would only be stops about every 2/3 mile or so, about that distance apart.

You can't do much about the I-215 interchange over 3500 South, that's just messy anyway. but it's eveyrthing else I have already noticed.

They have set up these battleship-gray shelters at about every light from 9th West out, these will be the only stops you can pick up a 35 anywhere after April Change Day 2008. That despite any honest input from the riders. That means that the disabled, and many others, will find the route unusable for everyday use, despite the fact that the BRT route will still run every 15 minutes. Also, the 33 is not included in this plan, so the sense of discrimination and inequality will be there as well, a very large number of residents and shoppers and business owners depend on traffic from this route.

Often the buses are so heavily used, that they can often run just late enough that they run early. Observed this yesterday at 56th West. Got off there after observing activity on a run, and went across to see what I could get at the 7-Eleven, and about five minutes later, as I walked out of the 7-Eleven, I saw another westbound bus.

It may well be that the first one was late due to having to pick up a disabled rider, but that only drives home the point that those people rely on this route heavily. If the wheelchair or scooter that some use is battery-powered, they do not have enough juice sometimes to even get to or from the bus stop if it's far enough away, rendering the bus unusable, thus making the BRT line already noncompliant with ADA accessibility rules.

So unless there is a corresponding route that parallels on 35th South the BRT line, it may not be implementable under the ADA and the ISO 9001.2000 standard, because it will be a nonconforming route.

The solution, if they are so intent on putting the BRT limited service route in?

1. Rename the route 'R35'. The 'R' would signify it is a bus rapid transit route. That would separate it from the '35' required as shown below in 2.

2. Create an exactly parallel route, although it might only run every 30 minutes or so apart, and just number that one '35' as it is now.

That is required in order to avoid many problems, some possibly legal, and the dissatisfaction of users will definitely necessitate the above unless both 1 and 2 are implemented together.

The hearing is set for February 7th, I'm not sure where, although that is mentioned on a large announcement posted on some, but not all Route 35 buses.