Park City’s New Transportation Coordinator Appears to be a Good Choice

This morning, KPCW’s Lynn Ware Peak interviewed Park City’s new head of transportation planning, Alfred Knotts. Mr Knotts was previously a Transportation Project Manager with the Tahoe Transportation District. The Tahoe Transportation District oversees transportation in the Tahoe area, which encompasses 5 counties and 2 states.

He is replacing Park City’s Kent Cashel who is retiring after 17 years of employment with Park City Municipal.

During his interview, Mr Knotts spoke about the challenges they faced in Tahoe with huge numbers of visitors coming into the area during the summer months. This is starting to align with what we are seeing in Park City with more visitors in the summer months, as well. Mr Knotts also worked on a complicated ferry project that may link the north and south shores of Lake Tahoe. This project required an environmental impact study as part of the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process. This is similar to what will be required with Mountain Accord.

Both from his interview and limited research on his background, he seems like a solid choice. I view this as a great opportunity for Park City. Kent Cashel, who held the transportation helm at Park City for many years, is highly regarded. However, I haven’t had the chance to interact much with him, so all I can judge his recent performance on is results. Most would say that traffic has become a problem on his watch. Likewise, I personally haven’t heard much out-of-the-box thinking from Park City on transportation in recent years. Whether that is Mr Cashel’s fault, or not, I don’t know (it’s always complicated). However, the buck stops somewhere and that’s probably in the transportation department.

So, fresh blood and new ideas are probably not a bad thing. I hope Park City leadership will give him an opportunity to see what he can come up with and be a little creative.