Thursday, May 12, 2011

Utah transit among best to connect people and jobs

Utah areas rank unusually high in a study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based nonprofit policy group, about how well transit agencies in the nation’s top 100metro areas connect people and jobs. The Salt Lake metro area ranked No. 3, Provo-Orem ranked No. 9 and Ogden-Clearfield ranked No. 11.

In the top 100 metro areas nationally, the study figured that public transit buses and trains allow residents to reach only 30 percent of their area’s jobs within a 90-minute ride. In the Salt Lake metro area, transit allows reaching 59 percent of jobs — or two times better than average. In Provo-Orem, it reaches 48 percent. In Ogden-Clearfield, it reaches 42 percent. Salt Lake Tribune