Hoping to avoid saddling up horses to beat the high price of gas, Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs are looking to get radical.

Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain city councils held a joint study meeting on Tuesday to discuss shared issues ranging from city boundaries to transportation, sewer, water and fire service and congressional lobbying, as well as the need for bus service to help residents trim the cost of getting around on the congested roads and highways to the cities.

Demand from Cedar Valley for bus service is rising with gas prices, Parker said.

"I am ready to get a horse," he said.

Parker said he meets once a year with UTA and in his last meeting, "I was told that if we joined, we still would not get a bus route," he said. "That was distressing. ... I'm going to start being radical and propose we start looking at other forms" of mass transit.

To get UTA service, the two cities would have to agree to a quarter-cent sales tax increase by law, with that money going to UTA.

Some small cities provide a sort of shuttle service to UTA buses in which the cities pay for the shuttle drivers and gas and UTA provides the shuttles, he said. Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs could consider doing something similar without the support of UTA. The two cities agreed to work together to study the issue.

Ideally, both cities would like to have UTA provide bus service to Cedar Valley, officials said.

In working together, "I think any sort of political pressure we could bring would only help," said Saratoga Springs city manager Ken Leetham.

"Let's look forward to trying to lobby them (UTA) together and trying to get something out here," said Eagle Mountain Mayor Heather Jackson.

A UTA spokesperson did not immediately return calls from the Daily Herald.