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Waaaaaaait a second!!! I've NEVER stated on ANY public forum that mass transit ends highway traffic (and if I have, it was my wife using my username to post something). Mass transit is about choice, not ending road traffic. For example, I am off from my work today (as you can tell by all of the posting ). If I wanted to go to Concord Mills today after my wife gets off from her work, I'd like to have the option of catching a train rather than sitting still on I-85 north. If I wanted to go to downtown Davidson, I'd like to have that same option. Often times I simply choose not to go places due to afternoon traffic. To me, lack of mass transit options in a place with somewhat heavy rush hour traffic is a quality of life issue.
Which is why those who don't wish to deal with "the problems on I-77" should have another option.
I don't understand why they (the elected officials) have been given a choice in this matter. Let the voters decide just like Mecklenburg did twice. Simple.
Urban - I didn't say it would stop the congestion, lol. Take a breath, friend. I said "alleviate." And as far as choice . . . well . . . I guess we have choices as to what kind of car, truck or motorcyle or bike to drive, or hitch a ride with a friend. I think "choice" is the worst of reasons to use to justify the cost of mass transit. A bus gives you a choice.
Green is a better justification, as is alleviating some congestion. People can get behind that. They are not gonna care that you or anybody else just want to have a choice of how to traverse the county, lol.
I think any time you are asking local municipalities to commit Big Bucks, those decisions should be made at the local level. Elected officials were elected expressly to carry out that duty.
Ani, the idiotic portion of this is that this corridor is the most settled, but historically,blue collar. But, there's old money in Kings Mountain & Gastonia. . .
I'm starting to think that the mind set is going somewhere other than what we've discussed in the past. Think about this. . . Kings Mountain has over 28K in the zip code & is where people are told to look for rural. It speaks to the size of the area. Some day this could be the largest city next to Charlotte.
West of Charlotte is no longer the land of drunken Scotch Irish laborers.
Well, Kings Mountain better be careful . . . if the median income starts rising, Charlotte will doubtless try to annex them, hee hee hee.
All kidding aside, that area was expected to be a major industrial, warehouse and trucking corridor. Maybe Kings Mtn. will continue w/ the slow and steady growth . . . they are getting more businesses to relocate. They could be the surprise when figures are tallied up on population growth in 2030.
If this is to be a commuter rail, wouldn't they have some type of park and ride set up? Depending on how long the actual train took, I don't think people would mind a 15-20 minute drive to get to the initial train station.
I really don't know, but have a feeling that most wouldn't.
The express bus from Mooresville (junction of Brawley and Williamson) used to take 30 mins or so with no stops, but obviously dealing with I77 traffic until the HOV after J19.
My husband used to ride it twice a week.
His actual journey time wasn't that different from driving by the time he allowed for getting to the pick up 5 mins before the bus left and then getting to East Blvd from uptown.
If a family only had one car then someone would have to take the person to the bus stop as there are no public buses in Mooresville.
I am sure that he would not make a 15 minute drive to Mount Mourne,to get on a train that may take longer (with the stops) to get to uptown than if he had just gone straight onto the I77 making a journey that takes 40 mins. !
It would probably be quicker for him just to drive to Davidson and get on the express bus!
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by anifani821
Well, Kings Mountain better be careful . . . if the median income starts rising, Charlotte will doubtless try to annex them, hee hee hee.
All kidding aside, that area was expected to be a major industrial, warehouse and trucking corridor. Maybe Kings Mtn. will continue w/ the slow and steady growth . . . they are getting more businesses to relocate. They could be the surprise when figures are tallied up on population growth in 2030.
LOL, it's already the surprise. The city population is just over 11K, but the zipcode population is over 28K. I expect that after more businesses come in here it will give the city money to start annexing. The city could easily be over 30K by 2020, & still have farms & rural areas. That's bigger than Shelby is now.
This is the same distance from Charlotte as Mooresville.
Gastonia is improving, too. Down the road, CATS may seriously regret not hooking up with Gastonia. When the jobs come back, even if there was only one stop in west Charlotte, for the airport, it could give people a way to come out & get jobs & stay in Charlotte. Trains allow traffic to go both ways.
I really don't know, but have a feeling that most wouldn't.
The express bus from Mooresville (junction of Brawley and Williamson) used to take 30 mins or so with no stops, but obviously dealing with I77 traffic until the HOV after J19.
My husband used to ride it twice a week.
His actual journey time wasn't that different from driving by the time he allowed for getting to the pick up 5 mins before the bus left and then getting to East Blvd from uptown.
If a family only had one car then someone would have to take the person to the bus stop as there are no public buses in Mooresville.
I am sure that he would not make a 15 minute drive to Mount Mourne,to get on a train that may take longer (with the stops) to get to uptown than if he had just gone straight onto the I77 making a journey that takes 40 mins. !
It would probably be quicker for him just to drive to Davidson and get on the express bus!
I don't know much about the bus services you mentioned...do they have much ridership? So your last point may be true, especially if this is just a light rail that may not be very fast. But I can't think of many public transit options anywhere that are decidedly faster than driving...the main advantage is not having to deal with traffic and putting the wear and tear and your car...maybe if you lived right above a Metro stop in NoVA/MD, but that's probably about it.
edit: But he can get uptown from Mooresville in 40 minutes at rush hour? I don't make the drive daily, but I'm probably lucky to get there in 40 minutes at rush hour from Cornelius, I would think it's gotta be closer to an hour from Mooresville.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by GoPhils
I don't know much about the bus services you mentioned...do they have much ridership? So your last point may be true, especially if this is just a light rail that may not be very fast. But I can't think of many public transit options anywhere that are decidedly faster than driving...the main advantage is not having to deal with traffic and putting the wear and tear and your car...maybe if you lived right above a Metro stop in NoVA/MD, but that's probably about it.
edit: But he can get uptown from Mooresville in 40 minutes at rush hour? I don't make the drive daily, but I'm probably lucky to get there in 40 minutes at rush hour from Cornelius, I would think it's gotta be closer to an hour from Mooresville.
The last time that I was at my doctor's office, which is on the CMC Main campus I had a conversation with a woman who works there who lives in Mooresville. She told me that she considers herself lucky if she gets there in an hour, & that's not including parking.
I didn't go back and real all messages today, but I thought more about this issue. The train plans to stop at Mount Mourne. That is great for Lowes headquarters and the hospital, but why doesn't it go into downtown Mooresville. That would make the place a destination for people to the south and businesses would surely boom. According to todays' news, plans aren't totally terminated, but a few months will be added for research and confirmation of decision. It won't be until then that I will decide whether the city council consists of a bunch of country bumpkins or a bunch of enlightened individuals with a vision of the future.
This morning on the radio Foxx and others said they hoped to get a deal done. The guy who was against it (can't remember his name) said there wasn't enough proof of businesses getting a boom from the rail line.
My question though is what kind of boom do they expect to get without it? Sounds like a no brainer to me.
I wish they would put a rail line out east off of Independence.
I don't know much about the bus services you mentioned...do they have much ridership? So your last point may be true, especially if this is just a light rail that may not be very fast. But I can't think of many public transit options anywhere that are decidedly faster than driving...the main advantage is not having to deal with traffic and putting the wear and tear and your car...maybe if you lived right above a Metro stop in NoVA/MD, but that's probably about it.
edit: But he can get uptown from Mooresville in 40 minutes at rush hour? I don't make the drive daily, but I'm probably lucky to get there in 40 minutes at rush hour from Cornelius, I would think it's gotta be closer to an hour from Mooresville.
I believe the express bus services from Davidson/Cornelius/Huntersville are well used, but I'm basing this on the knowledege that they have a BIG park and ride where the Huntersville one picks up on 115 exit 25? and when they stopped the Mooresville express Davidson created extra parking.Even though the Mooresville bus only had 60 or so riders per day I guess they were concerned.
I understand that public transport is about being greener and wear and tear etc, but it is also about (or should be about) convenience,otherwise,especially here, people won't use it.
I assume that the light rail won't be going much faster than around 50mph
They are predicting (in the financial plan) 5000 riders a day with 16 return daily trains-sounds like a lot to me????
The traffic that my husband would encounter driving to Mount Mourne would be the same as going directly onto the I77 from Brawley, especially when the Brawley/I77 new exit opens.
Then he has to walk/get to East BLVD from the transit in uptown which is about 2 miles,so 30 mins walk or 20 on the bus (he always walked)
Currently it takes him 40-45 mins to East BLVD if he leaves the house at 6.45. At 7 maybe an hour, and at at 7.30 over an hour. Coming home at 4.30 40-45 mins and at 5 maybe 45-50. Maybe it's the traffic in Cornelius that makes it so long for you?
One of the things I hated about public transport in the UK were the awful kids in groups, people with their music on so loud via earplugs that I could still here it and the unreliability of times eg no bus would turn up for 30 mins when there should have been one every 10 mins and then 3 would arrive at once.
I've used the transit system in London,DC,Paris etc, and found it to be good,apart from the packed rush hour and sometimes weekend trains.
The last time that I was at my doctor's office, which is on the CMC Main campus I had a conversation with a woman who works there who lives in Mooresville. She told me that she considers herself lucky if she gets there in an hour, & that's not including parking.
I can only tell you what mu husband does it in,ie 40-45 mins and he works for CHS with an office on East and one on Morehead.
I guess it depends on where she is coming from in Mooresville and what time she leaves, and also how she drives.
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). If I wanted to go to Concord Mills today after my wife gets off from her work, I'd like to have the option of catching a train rather than sitting still on I-85 north. If I wanted to go to downtown Davidson, I'd like to have that same option. Often times I simply choose not to go places due to afternoon traffic. To me, lack of mass transit options in a place with somewhat heavy rush hour traffic is a quality of life issue.
