SANDY, Utah — Impacts of this week's winter storm were still seen Saturday at the bus stops in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Skiers and snowboarders eager to ski the fresh snow waited hours to get on delayed Utah Transit Authority shuttles.
“I was waiting at Sandy Station at about 9:40 and a bus did not come by 11:20. We had not seen a single bus," said Gary Coursey, "That’s like missing three buses at that point.”
He eventually ended up calling a friend to drive him to Snowbird.
Beck Burstedt had a similar experience, with several buses passing by her stop, making her try a different station.
“It was pretty full even from that one. Like, there was a huge line even in Sandy just to get on the bus too," she said.
All this to get to the mountain, only for people to wait at least an hour to get on a shuttle home.
Utah's 2023-2050 Regional Transportation Plan outlines several ideas to help mitigate traffic congestion, including a Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola.
The estimated cost ranges anywhere from $391 million to more than $1 billion.
The public comment period for the transportation plan ends Sunday.
Some shuttle-takers were in support of the idea, while others were not so much.
Coursey preferred the proposed concept of larger buses.
“The enhanced bus service seems like the best. It was the least expensive. Get up here faster than a gondola, and you can just get more people up faster," he said.
Others like Brad Cook just embraced the wait times and delays.
"It’s just there’s no good solution to it, and I’ll be honest about it," said Cook. "You could try to build trains out here, you could try to build gondolas… is it gonna work?"
