Utah County Commissioners will decide on the wording for a transportation tax ballot question in this November's election, Tuesday.

The county may want to consider Mountainland Association of Government's suggestion to use the money raised from the proposed quarter-percent sales tax for both commuter rail and local road construction.

In the past, the commission has favored using all the money for road repairs. Utah County Commissioner Jerry D. Grover said recently that the immediate need in the county is to fix problem stretches of road, such as 4800 West in Highland and 400 South in Springville.

But road repair alone won't relieve the area's transportation troubles. Utah County's population is growing and is expected to hit 800,000 by 2030. Most of those people are going to have cars. Simply upgrading the local roads is not enough, especially if Interstate 15 is going to be under construction for years to come. A comprehensive transportation plan needs to include a means of reducing the number of cars on local roads and highways. Commuter rail is one way to do that. Train service would be particularly popular with people traveling to and from Salt Lake City.

When the light rail system TRAX was first proposed in Salt Lake County, there were plenty of skeptics who said that car-addicted commuters would never use it, that the trains would run empty. Years later, TRAX has proven successful, giving people a way to get from Sandy to the Delta Center or Rice-Eccles Stadium without having to battle traffic or hunt for parking spaces.

Commuter rail, combined with TRAX and the Utah Transit Authority's bus system, would provide an effective way to ease the strain on I-15, as well as mitigate air pollution. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that when the commuter rail system is fully operational it will take 6,000 cars off the road daily, the equivalent of eliminating every car that uses the Lehi Main Street exit.

Appropriating a portion of the quarter-percent sales tax to commuter rail could be one step toward fixing the transportation system. While the money from that proposed sales tax won't come anywhere close to reaching the $100 million the Utah Transit Authority estimates it will take to build a commuter rail along the Wasatch Front, putting a portion of it aside for the project will show that Utah County is serious about wanting it. Also, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, announced in June that the federal government will pay for as much as 80 percent of the project, taking a great deal of the financial burden off state and county governments.

In addition to considering commuter rail, commissioners may want to use the money from a proposed sales tax increase for things like improving major corridors around the county that feed the freeway. The sooner we begin crafting a comprehensive transportation plan for the area, the sooner we may begin to see some relief for our traffic woes.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A6.