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I don't see commute times increasing nearly enough that a 10 minute train ride would take 40 minutes to drive; nor people selling their homes to move near train stations; nor enough land near train stations to support the type of suburban environments many seem to prefer to move into dense apartments and/or condominiums.
I don't see commute times increasing nearly enough that a 10 minute train ride would take 40 minutes to drive;
I'm sure nobody in Los Angeles or Atlanta predicted commute times like they presently endure, either. If the triangle continues to grow, the traffic is going to get worse, especially as the desirable towns near RTP fill up.
Light rail is a terrible idea here IMO. I relocated from a place that had a well established light rail transit system and although it had its use it was never solvent and only slightly a more attractive option than taking the bus. I didn't realize how big this area was until I moved down here a few years ago. It isn't even worth a thought. I see people on other threads about this debate about should it go to the airport or not and stare at the screen in disbelief that such an obvious target could be dismissed and think this area is far from ready for this both in the density of the population and the density of some people's heads...
Driverless vehicles are coming faster than you'd think. A small metro like ours that currently lacks light rail could instead have self-driving taxis that better utilize the existing infrastructure. Instead of all those large SUVs with just one driver, you could have a vehicle only as large as needed on the road. You can have several single rider vehicles drive to a larger vehicle (or bus) that would then take you along a thoroughfare (some or all could then have single vehicles continue them to their final destination). You could still add light rail into that system, and it would solve the getting to and from the rail issue. In such cases, you could have more development density because you no longer need all the parking.
It's true that there's no need for it presently, but this is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. MyGhost and MrBojangles make excellent points about how it could work here to make the area much more livable in 10-20 years than it would be without some kind of major mass transit improvement (due to the level of traffic we are likely to endure by that time). The problem is that such an approach would require commitment, vision, and the ability to plan for the future which are sorely lacking in public officials almost everywhere in the country. It would require building the infrastructure when there is little need for it, and supporting and expanding it while the ridership was still very small. That's a tough sell. We can't even get people to ride the Johnston County Express bus to avoid the "Crawleigh" project at the eastern juncture of 40 and 440, so it seems unlikely that people will leave their cars at home in favor of public transit until their commutes break the 60-90 minute mark. Even then, it will probably be like boiling a frog, where the temperature (congestion) increases so slowly that nobody really notices or does anything to abate it. In 10-20 years, people could easily be enduring 2-hour commutes from Holly Springs or Wake Forest and saying "Boy, I wish there were some alternative."
Driverless vehicles are coming faster than you'd think. A small metro like ours that currently lacks light rail could instead have self-driving taxis that better utilize the existing infrastructure. Instead of all those large SUVs with just one driver, you could have a vehicle only as large as needed on the road.
Really? And people say light rail is an impractical pipe dream?
I believe that self-driving cars are coming at some point in the future. That they'll be here soon on a mass scale, and they'll be as small and efficient as you describe, not so much. What makes you think that the people who are buying Escalades and Hummers today would willingly buy a self-driving car the size of a Mini Cooper?
I'm sure nobody in Los Angeles or Atlanta predicted commute times like they presently endure, either. If the triangle continues to grow, the traffic is going to get worse, especially as the desirable towns near RTP fill up.
Exactly, and then all the nay-sayers on this thread will be the same ones who are whining about lacking leadership and how Gov't can't get anything right...
I don't want to be on the road with a driverless taxi
I DO want to take light rail to the airport.
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