Utah Transit Authority buses and trains usually prevent more pollution than they create by reducing single-rider car trips. But a new study says that is not always the case.
At times and places with low ridership — such as weekends, evenings and outside the crowded urban core — the emission-cutting benefits of UTA dwindle and even disappear, according to the study by University of Utah researchers Daniel Mendoza, Martin Buchert and John Lin.
Still, it says UTA eliminates about 1.5% of all pollution created by vehicles along the Wasatch Front. While it may sound small, roughly “half of the total pollution here comes from vehicles” so cutting that by 1.