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An additional problem is frequency - if you go to one place, it can take up to 3 hours round trip depending on how the bus schedules line up. Even more if you have to make a transfer. Reducing bus frequency down to 15 minutes will shorten these extremely long trips.
True story, and Lord help you if you just so happen to miss the bus.
Earlier in this thread, I think, someone mentioned that a survey went out and the populace was asked if they preferred higher frequency or better coverage from transit. I wonder if "both" was ever an option.
Sure improve the bus service but don't raise the sales tax. The rail idea is just an expensive boondoggle.
How exactly can something be improved without new funding? To improve we need more and better, which can't be accomplished with existing funding. If it could be, don't you think they'd have tried that before now?
And the state legislature has dictated that they only way transit improvements like this can be funded is via sales tax so....? We don't have any other options.
I understand you don't agree with sales taxes in general, but you do agree that we need improvements. And even if you call the rail a "boondoggle" (which I disagree with, but whatever), you're throwing a very large baby (the massive improvement in bus service) out with a relatively small amount of bath water (the single rail line).
How exactly can something be improved without new funding? To improve we need more and better, which can't be accomplished with existing funding. If it could be, don't you think they'd have tried that before now?
And the state legislature has dictated that they only way transit improvements like this can be funded is via sales tax so....? We don't have any other options.
I understand you don't agree with sales taxes in general, but you do agree that we need improvements. And even if you call the rail a "boondoggle" (which I disagree with, but whatever), you're throwing a very large baby (the massive improvement in bus service) out with a relatively small amount of bath water (the single rail line).
Not to mention that the rail line is based on existing track/infrastructure out there so they won't have to build it from scratch like the Durham-Orange County light rail line.
How exactly can something be improved without new funding? To improve we need more and better, which can't be accomplished with existing funding. If it could be, don't you think they'd have tried that before now?
And the state legislature has dictated that they only way transit improvements like this can be funded is via sales tax so....? We don't have any other options.
I understand you don't agree with sales taxes in general, but you do agree that we need improvements. And even if you call the rail a "boondoggle" (which I disagree with, but whatever), you're throwing a very large baby (the massive improvement in bus service) out with a relatively small amount of bath water (the single rail line).
Improve the bus service with existing revenue. If it's such a good idea that should be easy. Don't raise sales tax on people who are already struggling.
You're sure. But really, you wouldn't know which way the preponderance went, would you, not having been in Raleigh at that time.
And since you didn't talk to everyone in Raleigh at the time, you don't really know what everyone thought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamish Forbes
Try to keep your eye on the ball. The question I have addressed -- as I have mentioned several times -- concerns whether Raleigh was barely livable 30 years ago. Yes, Raleigh was quite livable in 1986, and that's a fact. A couple hundred thousand people survived and even prospered.
You seem to be the one losing the ball...if you will recall, you said "Raleigh was a much better place to live 30 years ago"...that's what you and I have been discussing.
With the constant rate of growth in this area, which was a deliberate attempt to attract investment and jobs with RTP, I'd say the past leaders dropped the ball on planning some kind of mass transit plan.
Sure, this area grew during the hay-day of suburban living, but if I worked in RTP in 2016, I'd be happy to take a train from a park-and-ride lot to work. That's only going work well if RTP were built densely -- which it isn't -- so people could walk from the stop to their building, but the park's expansion could have been factored in if municipalities/people would work together as a region.
When things crashed in 2007, many people said "Whew, finally the schools are going to get a break and the number of new students will drop." Barely. Fewer new students came, but the curve just wasn't quite as steep. It didn't even flatten out.
Year after people poured into the region. What did our elected leaders think was going to happen? You can only build so many roads. This area was developed without any thought of non-car travel. I don't know how you now go back and reverse-engineer a mass transit solution.
With the constant rate of growth in this area, which was a deliberate attempt to attract investment and jobs with RTP, I'd say the past leaders dropped the ball on planning some kind of mass transit plan.
Sure, this area grew during the hay-day of suburban living, but if I worked in RTP in 2016, I'd be happy to take a train from a park-and-ride lot to work. That's only going work well if RTP were built densely -- which it isn't -- so people could walk from the stop to their building, but the park's expansion could have been factored in if municipalities/people would work together as a region.
When things crashed in 2007, many people said "Whew, finally the schools are going to get a break and the number of new students will drop." Barely. Fewer new students came, but the curve just wasn't quite as steep. It didn't even flatten out.
Year after people poured into the region. What did our elected leaders think was going to happen? You can only build so many roads. This area was developed without any thought of non-car travel. I don't know how you now go back and reverse-engineer a mass transit solution.
For RTP, a circulator bus like the Downtown "R" line could circle the area starting and ending at the rail line station.
Those working downtown could use the new transit station being constructed to replace the Amtrak station and the R line could be expanded to serve more workplaces.
Improve the bus service with existing revenue. If it's such a good idea that should be easy. Don't raise sales tax on people who are already struggling.
This doesn't make any sense, so I don't really know how to respond to it. There's only so much you can do with existing resources which are already tapped out. We want improvement, not just shifting things around so they're different but just as bad.
This doesn't make any sense, so I don't really know how to respond to it. There's only so much you can do with existing resources which are already tapped out. We want improvement, not just shifting things around so they're different but just as bad.
I'd love to hear how we are going to increase bus service from every hour to every 15 minutes while using the existing resources (just have the buses go super fast I guess!)
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