I am in Love with Provo’s Accordion Bus
I am in love with our city’s wanna-be-train. The Utah Valley Express, also known as UVX, is an accordion-style rapid transit bus that acts more like a light rail than it does a commuter bus. With dedicated lanes, independent traffic lights, and aesthetically-pleasing platform entrances, UVX stands as an exemplar of why people love good public transit.
For public transit to be successful, there are a handful of commandments it has to follow: it must be frequent, it must be reliable, and it must be efficient. UVX follows these principles masterfully. The bus stops at each station over 90 times a day and comes every 10-15 minutes. You don’t have to memorize the bus schedule to take UVX; you can just show up and trust that it’ll be there soon. Additionally, UVX takes people where they want to go—from Provo and Orem’s frontrunner stations to Provo Center Street, BYU stadium, Orem’s University Mall, to Orem Main Street—and it does it quickly. It follows the rules of your average city light-rail, but with a far lower upfront cost. Buses don’t carry the monetary risk of purchasing rails and trains, or the public outrage that would follow from widespread road closures to install them. However, UVX can still complete routes rapidly and make passengers feel safe with well-marked, well-lit platforms (as opposed to a simple bus sign planted on a dark street corner). And, the dedicated lane and platform infrastructure provides Provo with a path to eventually converting the UVX bus system into a city light rail.
All of these factors have played a crucial role in making UVX a public transit success story in a town plagued by insufferable traffic, poor air quality, and way too many cars. With over 250,000 documented passengers since its launch in mid-2018 (for comparison, that’s slightly over half as many passengers as UTA’s Frontrunner commuter rail took in the same time period), UVX shows us how public transit can offer a better urban policy solution for our relatively dense, historic city.
There are many smart, practical arguments for robust public transit, like lower pollution, higher levels of accessibility, or healthier communities with a stronger emphasis on walkable, people-centric urban design. I care about those ideologically, but I feel the joy I get from public transit tangibly.
A study by the University of East Anglia looked at 18 years of data made up of nearly 18,000 commuters. They found that commuters who switched from car traveling to "active transportation" (walking, cycling, or public transit) had a noticeable improvement in reported psychological well-being. It also found that car-commuters become far less happy with every minute that their daily commute increases. Other studies have found that longer car commutes correlate with a higher likelihood of divorce, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.
Granted, beyond the bus that stole my heart, Utah’s public transit system isn’t perfect. Although far superior to most rural states in the US—many of which have truly abysmal transit systems— Utah has a long way to go. The schedules for non-UVX buses can be difficult to figure out and it becomes a ridiculously long journey if you’re trying to take two buses to get to a single destination. Additionally, there aren't dedicated lanes for traditional buses, meaning they have to wait in traffic alongside personal vehicles, eliminating much of the benefit that comes from effective transit.
But, these are all problems that are fixable, and that’s why I’m in love with UVX. It shows us what transit could be, and what robust public infrastructure could mean for our community. The average American spends around $9,000 per year on their cars in the form of maintenance, insurance, damages, and payments on the original purchase. In Provo, we pay more on top of that with seemingly random ticketing practices from the city and the emotionally agonizing time cost of trying to find street parking on game days. What would it be like if you could get anywhere you wanted—while being able to read, text a friend back, or catch up on the news—without driving a personal vehicle that consumes a gallon of fossil fuels for every 15-20 miles you travel?
For the American brain—which is taught from a young age that the personal automobile denotes freedom, independence, and wanderlust—the idea of a public transit-oriented world may feel daunting or unpleasant. But the more time I’ve spent taking the bus whenever possible, the more I’ve come to feel that an effective bus system makes me feel freer than a car ever did. I’d rather not lug a two-ton metal behemoth with me everywhere I go. I’d rather not feel my blood pressure spike when I get cut off by a driver who’s responding to a text at 45mph, or spend an hour trapped in a stadium parking lot, trying to leave a concert along with thousands of other impatient, equally helpless car-prisoners.
I love the UVX and want more investments into our transit infrastructure. Because for the sake of the environment, for community equity, and my own selfish desires, I’d rather take the bus.
Sources:
UTA Ridership data https://data-rideuta.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/rideuta::uta-mode-level-boardings-weekday-averages-1/explore
UVX vs. Frontrunner ridership calculated as cumulative sum of ridership from 08-01-2018 to 10-01-2021; UVX began operation in August 2018.
East Anglia Transit Study https://thehappycity.com/commuting-happiness/