The Problem - Mobility and Reliability
Weather is not reliable, especially in a season that inherently creates dangerous conditions and in a canyon that is one of the most avalanche-prone in the world.
Creating a solution such as the gondola which is not convenient or timely will not attract riders. Ignoring the mobility goal in the gondola preferred alternative is a fatal flaw.
Mobility and Reliability
The two current UDOT proposals were identified as the best to meet the mobility and reliability goals. The enhanced bus service with road widening meets the mobility goal because it is easy to get onto the bus and quickly be at the resorts; however, the busses are subject to delay if accidents occur, making them a less reliable option. The gondola meets the reliability goal because it can run if the roads are blocked, but this transit option is does not meet the mobility goal because the time to the resorts is greater than the bus and more transfers (car to bus to gondola) may be necessary to reach your destination.
A misconception about the gondola is that it will run during avalanches - which it will not. Avalanches will still occur in LCC regardless of how hard humans try to control weather to benefit the ski resorts. Weather is not reliable and the gondola will still be subject to Nature’s unreliability. The only reason the gondola will be more reliable than the bus is if an accident blocks the road but this can be greatly minimized by enforcing the traction laws.
A transit solution that is easy to use is one that will be used. Mobility really needs to be emphasized as an essential component of the future transit solution. There are plenty of Salt Lake Valley-proximal resorts that do not require multiple transportation transfers. Choosing between taking your car and transferring multiple times to take the gondola will be a big deterrent for taking the 1/2 a billion dollar eyesore. Of course tolling will be implemented to get people onto the gondola or busses but this is greatly disadvantageous to backcountry users or others using our most beautiful canyon.*
