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because every time it's proposed or studied, it doesn't show enough ridership to come anywhere close to justifying the cost. Personally, when I see that the federal government won't give you funds, knowing the propensity to fund and spend a lot of inimagnable things, it says it all.
Durham and Chapel Hill are working together on a rail line that is moving forward with numerous ups and downs, chief among them financing and federal dollars.
because every time it's proposed or studied, it doesn't show enough ridership to come anywhere close to justifying the cost. Personally, when I see that the federal government won't give you funds, knowing the propensity to fund and spend a lot of inimagnable things, it says it all.
Durham and Chapel Hill are working together on a rail line that is moving forward with numerous ups and downs, chief among them financing and federal dollars.
The current Republican controlled White House/Congress would like to see all funding for transit projects stripped from the federal budget so that's certainly a problem. Though I did speak to someone who worked for GoTriangle recently and they seemed confident that while it's not in the proposed budget, once everything's all said and done, transit projects will get funded in some way or not and that will trickle down to the Durham-Chapel Hill line.
Are the roads that bad?
I generally feel like there is a lot of capacity for the amount of people on them. It's generally the way people drive here on the highwayt that clogs it up without much traffic. And it's all avoidable IMO. That's the only thing I find frustrating, it's generally not too many cars like a lot of other places I've been, but the way that traffic doesn't flow.
There are a few spots that are either poorly designed or over capacity. E.g. notorious 1 and 40 intersection. One such spot can spill over traffic and cause delays within 5 mile radius. If there is an accident at 1/40 then the lanes get blocked quickly.
But overall I agree, it could've been improved with more reasonable driving style (going with the flow, using signals and common courtesy). Also if NCDOT would stop posting those alerts about tomorrows traffic that clog up todays traffic that would be great!
Mostly because the area is spread-out, having grown like most new cities, from sprawl, as opposed to an older "central city" type, where there was a huge concentration of jobs in a downtown, compact area that rail or subway made sense going to.
People in the Triangle live everywhere and work everywhere, and the suburban, "cul-de-sac" culture is rampant. So first, someone would have to drive to a train station--not unusual for any city--but then, there aren't enough concentrated jobs in any "one" area that could justify a train. Lots of folks work in RTP, but RTP is huge, with most businesses having very large campuses where nobody even wants to walk to the front of their own campus, never mind hike to some "train stop" in a centralized location. The "campus" vibe of course means that the companies and institutes are all gated and don't want something like a train coming onto their campus.
It would come closer to working if there were plans for a shuttle pool from the theoretical RTP train stop to the individual companies, but they are still very far apart compared to people's comfort level of a daily walk--and that's just RTP. It's not like commuting into DC where there are underground stops just blocks from your office or buses galore taking you door-to-door in a bustling urban environment--it's lots of open land between businesses in a time when people are willing to endure less and less inconvenience in their commute than they used to. The downtowns of Raleigh and Durham are certainly becoming more concentrated, but with more residential than commercial, and again, with the Triangle as a whole so large and people living all over, the number of combinations of work+live lines aren't big enough to justify massive public expenditures to suit the number people it would need to, to be worth it. Most of the area still live in the suburbs and don't want to have their taxes go up to fund rail unless they would see benefits right away on their OWN commute. It seems like cities that already have rail mass transportation in place can expand them, add more stops, etc, but making the step to put in a new system from scratch, meaning massive expense before any benefit whatsoever...I wonder if any city has done that in the last 20 years or so?
It seems like cities that already have rail mass transportation in place can expand them, add more stops, etc, but making the step to put in a new system from scratch, meaning massive expense before any benefit whatsoever...I wonder if any city has done that in the last 20 years or so?
It would come closer to working if there were plans for a shuttle pool from the theoretical RTP train stop to the individual companies, but they are still very far apart compared to people's comfort level of a daily walk--and that's just RTP.
GoTriangle is actually working on a solution to this that will launch early next year. Right now they have shuttles that run from the Regional Transit Center (where the local/express regional bus routes all terminate) out to the different parts of RTP that run on a fixed schedule. Pretty soon, you'll be able to download an app and request a shuttle to come pick you up and take you to wherever you need to go within RTP on-demand (there will be shuttles running all day and an algorithm will figure out the best route for the shuttle to take to meet all the calls it receives). http://gotriangle.org/ondemand
Denver's light rail system started in 1994 and they've added new lines in 2000, 2002, and 2006. They also are working on a commuter rail system with the first line opening in 2016
since the Triangle doesn't have light rail/transit, but people continue to move here....
could part of the reason be that light rail/transit is not a factor in their consideration?
or, maybe, no rail/subway is an actual attraction.
since the Triangle doesn't have light rail/transit, but people continue to move here....
could part of the reason be that light rail/transit is not a factor in their consideration?
or, maybe, no rail/subway is an actual attraction.
only to the extent that they think "there's a place where I don't have to pay higher taxes to subsidize mass transit".
which I still believe would be a very small % of the folks (who made a correlation between taxes and mass transit)
If anybody won't move here in the near term because we don't have light rail, then that's not hurting our transit/traffic
But for the Triangle, I should add that the area encompasses a minimum of 3 different counties and several municipalities, so unless STATE funds were used, getting the separate counties to coordinate would be a lot more difficult than something all within one city/county. And we all know how the current state legislature views new funding, especially for urban ("Blue") areas.
I wish we DID have such a system, I just hear all the complaints and issues about why not.
Francois you are right. In Charlotte, it has become more difficult to get federal and state funding. The lines are so expensive to build and operate. It is not uncommon for a line to cost $1 billion to build and at least $1 or more per mile to operate. Charlotte funded the lynx blue line south with a .5 sales tax. The plan is for suburban counties to join in with a sales tax also. But that has not happened yet. But that element is critical. Charlotte is now the number one destination city in the US for milineals. This is due to great environment the rail line and downtown has created with walkable neighborhoods and access to bars and restaurants and sporting events without an auto. Charlotte now has almost 40 craft breweries and many of these are on the rail line. The extension of the rail line north will open for business in March 2018 to university city. Denver too has a sales tax of .45 in eight counties to fund its system. Charlotte has plans for a line from lake Norman, Matthews and the airport all to downtown. These are not funded yet. It is almost a certainty that these lines end up costing millions more dollars to build than expected once they move from the planning and design stage to the build stage. But I can say that the line in Charlotte has been a huge success and I believe that is an understatement. More apartments were built on this rail line over the last 10 years than in any other specific area of the country. I believe this is what NC’s bigger cities must do. I believe that the Triad is going to suffer tremendous urban Sarawak due to the grandiose freeway system being built there. It is hard to build a great downtown with the suburbs pulling so hard against downtown. Former ceo of Bank of America, Hugh Mccol, stated that a very strong downtown is critical to the longevity of any thriving city. I believe that is true. But Charlotte is going to still experience urban sprawls but the rail line will redirect some of that growth and create much higher densities along the rail lines.
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