A Good Idea from Vegas....

Image via Wikipedia While I do not see a good transit ideas coming out of Vegas, there is one project they are doing that UTA should look at and implement.

The service is called Silver Star service. The concept behind Silver Star is that it runs from Senior Citizen housing and other senior citizen buildings to major shopping destinations in the area. The routes only run a couple of times per week, they run primarily from 9:00am or so to about 4:00pm so they are not out at rush hour, and they use small cutaway vans since they go into the parking lots of major stores and small apartment complexes.

While these services primarily target senior citizens, anyone can ride the buses and they are equipped with wheelchair lifts.

The service has been successful and has grown from one route to 11 in only a few years.

This service is an excellent idea and should be tried here in Utah. There are many seniors in housing that are fearful of riding regular transit especially with walking to it. Both Las Vegas and Utah have many bad drivers and being a pedestrian in either area is dangerous. This will allow seniors to ride the bus and not have to worry about crossing dangerous streets.

Like in Vegas, the buses could run a couple of days per week on each route, and serve and many locations as possible within an hour time frame before being back at the origination point. Most of Salt Lake city could be covered in a couple of routes then find the best places to put a couple of routes in the suburbs.

UTA needs to be looking at innovative transit ideas like Silver Star. It serves the population that needs transit the most and is very useful for others. It serves a market that is waiting for good transit service.