HERRIMAN — For as much as Herriman has grown, it is not even close to being done.
“We are pushing 63,000 residents now, and coming from a thousand 25 years ago, there are challenges with it,” said Herriman Mayor Lorin Palmer.
One of the biggest challenges, according to Palmer, is transportation.
He said he hears about it from residents all the time.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “Because part of the infrastructure, or toolbox, if you will, is we can only build so many roads.”
Starting in less than two weeks, though, a new bus route will help.
The Utah Transit Authority is already putting up signs where Bus No. 126 will make stops.
It is something city leaders have been working on for years.
“Even a bus line makes you feel like you have arrived, that you are a bigger city now, not that any of us ever wanted that dream, right? A lot of our residents still want that old town, but it is here, so we are dealing with what we have,” said Palmer.
There is no denying Herriman has grown, and east-west travel continues to be a challenge.
But, with ongoing construction projects and more planned for the future, especially on the south end of the city with high-density housing, Palmer said the need is there for public transportation.
This new bus route will connect to TRAX stations in South Jordan and Draper, as well as to the FrontRunner train in Draper, with stops at city hall, the Riverton Hospital, and other points along 12600 and 13400 South.
The education campus the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College share will also get a stop.
“With SLCC out here, SLCC will be one of the main focuses; a lot of students have been asking for a route out there, so it is good,” said Palmer.
Herriman isn’t alone in getting a new bus route.
UTA is adding several new bus routes in Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah counties, which will include about 350 new stops.
It is called Change Day, when all the new routes begin on April 13.
For Herriman, the mayor said the sooner, the better.
“This is setting the groundwork for maybe future options as well. A lot of people would like to see TRAX extended out towards the point, but studies we have done show about half of our residents who travel outside the city for work go South into Utah County,” said Mayor Palmer. “So, TRAX wouldn’t be a great option because it goes north. So, we’ll need some options to get people to the south end of the city and valley as well.”
As Herriman grows, more public transportation options could become a reality.
Bus #126 might also be scheduled to make more stops in the future, instead of the once-an-hour schedule right now.
Until then, Mayor Palmer said the city is excited for this new option.
“Even if it takes a hundred cars off the road a day, it is a big change. It is a big help,” said Mayor Palmer.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
