LightRail Needed in The Triangle (Raleigh, Durham: condo, buy, university)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Doing some quick searching online, my guess is that's where Atlanta was in the 1950s. MARTA was established in 1965 and trains started rolling in 1979.
And look at the traffic today in Atlanta, which I have been saying since I moved here 30 years ago, is always worse every time I go back. Atlanta has many similarities to Raleigh, in that things are so spread out. If you happen to work near a MARTA station (eg BellSouth/AT&T downtown), it is a good option. Otherwise, you have to deal with taking a bus, walking etc from the MARTA station. They never even had a stop at the Braves stadium.
For example, next time you see a CAT bus observe how many people are in it. Often they are empty or near empty.
Most cars I see are near empty too. Saw a Prius on the way home that was only 20% full, behind it was a Caravan that was only 12% full. Same story up and down I-40....
And look at the traffic today in Atlanta, which I have been saying since I moved here 30 years ago, is always worse every time I go back. Atlanta has many similarities to Raleigh, in that things are so spread out. If you happen to work near a MARTA station (eg BellSouth/AT&T downtown), it is a good option. Otherwise, you have to deal with taking a bus, walking etc from the MARTA station. They never even had a stop at the Braves stadium.
We took Marta to braves. It takes you to the Georgia Dome, and then they run a constant shuttle to the front door of Turner Field. Much more convenient than the next time I went, when we drove, had to walk a mile+, and then wait in traffic for a long time to get in and out. (Would have used Marta again, but we came from Cartersville, which is almost an hour away and not served by Marta)
...and, the fact that it didn't magically make traffic disappear is not an argument against it. The system is used, and growing. Things are bad, would be worse if it did not exist.
DC and NYC (Granted, very differerent cities than Atlanta) would come to a halt if their subway systems suddenly ceased to exist.
Most cars I see are near empty too. Saw a Prius on the way home that was only 20% full, behind it was a Caravan that was only 12% full. Same story up and down I-40....
Barely a week into 2015 and we already have a strong contender for Post of the Year. Well done!
"However, if you're looking at the buses on Capial Boulevard, New Bern Avenue, South Saunders Street, Hillsborough Street, Avent Ferry Road, and Falls of Neuse Road, you will find your statement to be false. Those routes happen to be frequent, straight, run through dense areas, along major corridors and connect lots of important destinations together. These routes especially are designed, whether accidentally or intentionally, to maximize ridership."
I see buses on Captial and Falls of Neuse on a very regular basis-several times a week. In my experience, they are not full-not anywhere near capacity! I can't speak to New Bern or South Saunders routes as I am not there often enough to draw an accurate assessment. However, I have seen many an empty bus downtown. Understand that I am NOT against mass transit, I've seen it work effectively in Europe where the buses and trains can take you anywhere you want to go at just about anytime! However, just because it is effective someplace else doesn't necessarily translate to being beneficial and cost effective for us. Without question the CAT system benefits a segment of the population but I would submit that it is a relatively small number. It has little to no benefit on the overall traffic situation. I suspect that light rail would be exactly the same. Unless you can serve a large segment of the popluation and can be made to be easily accessible and convenient, it would turn out to be a giant boondogle.
We (the triangle in large) do not want light rail. It's that simple.
There is the Triangle Transit Authority with the 1-2 riders that get dropped off in my neck of the RTP woods and out of the tens of thousands of employees working right off TW Alexander the "easily counted on a hand or two" riders that actually work in the area and that's even after allowing the BOSS to happen.
We (the triangle in large) do not want light rail. It's that simple.
There is the Triangle Transit Authority with the 1-2 riders that get dropped off in my neck of the RTP woods and out of the tens of thousands of employees working right off TW Alexander the "easily counted on a hand or two" riders that actually work in the area and that's even after allowing the BOSS to happen.
I missed the place where the triangle at large elected you to speak for them.
RTP is basically unservable by good transit. Density too low, destinations too diffuse, etc. I rode the bus to a job in RTP for years and frankly it was an extremely inconvenient trip and there's no readily apparent way to improve it.
Corridors like Capital Blvd and Hillsborough Street have much more potential.
The BOSS benefits the Raleigh<->Durham express services as well, and they are more popular than the RTP services anyway.
What matters is what the electorate among the 900,000+ Wake County residents will think when a sales tax referendum finally comes up. Some number of ITB Raleigh residents, perhaps an overwhelming majority, will be all for it -- but ITB is only about 13% of the Wake County population. The farther out in the county one lives, the less support for it there will be. My personal belief is that if the projects are all focused on downtown Raleigh and the NCRR corridor, the referendum will die a decisive death. If the project design scratches an itch for OTB, it might stand a chance. I believe the newly elected Wake County Commissioners are smart enough to figure that out.
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