EDITOR NOTE–My frustration lies with accepting growth as inevitable. Not unlike building a house in the forest and then demanding someone protect it. Increase the number of fishermen and then try to produce more fish in the same water with the same food.

Growth is “inevitable” because our politicos encourage and accommodate it. We can have progress and improvement without growth and expansion.

If you feel the population estimate numbers are conservative then maybe you need to visit with your fellow planners at Compass and the demographic folks at Idaho Power. The Compass prediction for Ada and Canyon counties for 2030 is reported to be about 825,000. The Idaho Power forecast is reported to be about 874,000. I’d still trust the Idaho Power numbers over the Compass numbers. Then there’s the “chicken little” forecast of 1.5 million that Hizz Honor has used on at least one occasion.

Yes, growth is inevitable here in the Valley. And yes, we do need to plan for the future in both terms of infrastructure and finances. The problem is the local politicos keep ignoring the plans each time a developer walks in with a grand “new” idea for making things “better” for all of us. Look at the mess that has been created around the mall. It started out as a “mixed use” area.

You say that “public transportation via bus service is fine, but it will also need to be supplemented by some sort of rail service as well.” Why would an area of a million people or less need to supplement bus service with rail services? Why would a busway, which offers more flexibility, not be sufficient? What type of rail service do you envision? Where would it operate? How many people would use it? What is your capital cost estimate? What is your operating cost estimate? Please use this forum to elaborate on your assertion and to answer those questions. Give us some examples.

Cyclops – You’re right. The local politicos do need to make it so bloody expensive to drive a vehicle downtown that some form of public transportation will become an alternative. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen though.

EDITOR NOTE–River City, are you not concerned that the likes of Micron, Albertson, Cabela, etc. Do not pay their fair share of taxes? Are you not concerned that Boise gets NOTHING from all the CCDC improvements?

Are you not concerned, that faced with rampant growth, Boise, Ada County, State of Idaho are all spending our taxes to increase the population under the guise of “creating high paying jobs?”

We human citizens are more than just a “source of revenue!”

Our local planners project about 800,000 people in the Treasure Valley by 2030 and a million in the six county (Ada, Canyon, Boise, Gem, Elmore, and Payette) area in that same time frame. Idaho Power seems to be projecting similar numbers. If I were a betting person, I’d place more trust in the Idaho Power numbers.

When it comes to transit, comparing Salt Lake City to Boise is like comparing apples to oranges. We don’t have (and won’t have) the population density to support a light rail system. Look at the urbanized area population density difference between Salt Lake and Boise. Salt Lake is about 3,800. Boise is about 2,500. If you add the Nampa urbanized area to the Boise one, the local numbers get even smaller (and the gap larger when compared to SLC). That’s a big difference when it comes to transit. And Treasure Valley transit planners don’t see much change in density even 20 years down the track.

The Salt Lake bus system doesn’t do a lot better than the Boise bus system when it comes to passengers per hour comparisons.

Yes, SLC light rail does haul about 30,000 people a day in a fairly narrow corridor. That’s good ridership for an area the size of SLC. However, UTA’s own comparison numbers against 10 other light rail operations show their light rail service ridership ranked fourth from the bottom – just ahead of Cleveland, Denver and San Jose – in the passengers per hour catagory. Tri-Met in Portland has the highest light rail ridership per hour according to the UTA comparison.

The Treasure Valley doesn’t have the abundance of excess railroad tracks (and railroad maintenance facilities) that SLC has. We don’t have a narrow transportation corridor like SLC. Or a professional sports team.

Let’s preserve our existing rail corridor but also invest in a better bus system which has better management than the current one. The Guardian had it right with his “surface subway” proposal of March 22nd.

I also agree with the previous comments proposing to start planning ahead now. We may not have as long as we think (and hope, for all us growthophobes). This spring, brown guck hangs over Boise Valley daily, returning in less than 24 hours after precipitation. State Street between Highway 16 and the Eagle Bypass has been slowed daily to stop-and-go between 8 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. during the last two weeks. This previously happened occasionally at that time but not daily has it has recently.

Developers are either happily tearing up dirt along the route or panting to begin. What will happen when the area is totally built out between Eagle Road and Highway 16? This could be reality within less than five year. Even sooner, the land in Boise across from the State Street Maverick station (that of the infamous lottery ticket) is being developed with commercial and residential buildings. But there are no immediate plans for a signal there.

Whatever near-term solution we come up with for transportation in the Treasure Valley should be accompanied with long-term thinking that includes some type of rail lines.

I agree: light rail and/or subway is a ways off for Boise, and we certainly wouldn’t need a system as extensive as those elsewhere. But think of what a single line runnning roughly parallel to I-84 would mean for traffic on the freeway.

Meanwhile, let’s beef up the bus system with longer hours, first and foremost.