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My recollection is that much of the direct mail to the north Raleigh zipcodes glossed over the details. Politically expedient? Yes. Misleading? I'd say it was right on the edge, but short of misleading if voters took the time to research the details for themselves. Of course, not all did. And not all the direct mail was that way. For the record... I live in 27613, I voted for it, and it passed in my precinct (half inside the city limits) by a thin margin.
My recollection is that much of the direct mail to the north Raleigh zipcodes glossed over the details. Politically expedient? Yes. Misleading? I'd say it was right on the edge, but short of misleading if voters took the time to research the details for themselves. Of course, not all did. And not all the direct mail was that way. For the record... I live in 27613, I voted for it, and it passed in my precinct (half inside the city limits) by a thin margin.
Well we both know there could be money allocated to providing more than adequate public transportation if we put just as money towards it as we do to complete 540 or other roadway projects. (IMO, that's probably the real problem - that these initiatives have to be led by county/municipalities vs. NCDOT)
The BRT isn't just a solution to the current traffic needs. Thousands of people move to Wake County every year. The BRT will help direct some of that growth towards the south side of the City. It will also promote density expanding out from the DT core. Sites on the BRT like Mission Valley, the Blue Ridge Kmart, Jones Franklin/Western, Industrial yards south of the fairgrounds, the US70/401 South Corridor, and east Raleigh along New Bern will have much more development capacity to help absorb that population. Every resident added along the BRT corridors is potentially one less person to commute on the beltline. I think it benefits N. Raleigh by helping focus traffic and development centers away from the existing N Raleigh neighborhoods.
I don't think the BRT needs to go to Union station anytime soon. Not that many people will take the BRT to catch an Amtrak. Warehouse is up and coming but it won't be as big a draw as the Urban Center for a long time. I think it's most important to reach Moore Square station for now.
I also think hitting Nash Square and the new City Hall block redevelopment should be a priority. Western to S McDowell would get you that, and it hits the Convention center and RedHat directly. Hitting N Wilmington would give you Seaboard, facilitate the MLS proposal (as if that's a possibility), help improvements of the government complex. That's why I would like to see the South Side of C and the North Side of B combined to a Scenario E. Maybe come in on McDowell, Martin to NWilmington, to Peace, then North. Either that or try to focus on speed and just hit McDowell with a couple stops downtown continuing North on Capital with no turns.
There is actually a good bit of new transit planned OTB. The 15 minute corridors are mostly ITB or parallel to and just outside of the beltline but there are a number of OTB routes that will see frequency double from 60 to 30 minutes. As a rider myself I can say the difference between 60 and 30 is a huge improvement in the convenience factor. If you somehow miss an hourly bus, your entire day is shot. If you miss a 30 minute bus, you can usually still recover. 15 minute is of course better... but that's just not possible to do everywhere.
In addition, many of the OTB routes will benefit from the BRT investments downtown in terms of faster trip times. The Six Forks and Falls of Neuse routes, as well as Capital Blvd and Wake Forest Express routes, will all share the Capital Blvd BRT route for example.
I don't think the BRT needs to go to Union station anytime soon. Not that many people will take the BRT to catch an Amtrak. Warehouse is up and coming but it won't be as big a draw as the Urban Center for a long time. I think it's most important to reach Moore Square station for now.
While I agree that Fayetteville Street and Moore Square probably are the biggest destinations and should be top priority, there are a number of reasons that Union Station and the Warehouse District are important too.
1. Let's not forget that in addition to Amtrak, commuter rail is still a thing.
2. The west side of downtown is where there is more room to grow and also where more growth is likely to occur in the foreseeable future, thanks to proximity to amenities like the university and Dix, and indeed eventually Union Station
3. We should not build these BRT routes just for Raleigh of 2018. Even though it is not light rail, they are legitimately talking about dedicated bus lanes, signal priority, amenity-rich platforms, and other things. These are expensive to build and we need to build it for the future. We should do our best to forecast what Raleigh of 2038 will look like, maybe even further, and build for that.
4. You mention direct service to the convention center, but I think Union Station and the Warehouse District are a much stronger destination than the convention center anyway.
Now, is Nash Square close enough to the warehouse district and Union Station? I don't think so, but I could *MAYBE* be convinced. The appeal of sticking to Dawson and McDowell for the sake of speed and simplicity is strong, but the problem is then you are too far from Moore Square.
While I agree that Fayetteville Street and Moore Square probably are the biggest destinations and should be top priority, there are a number of reasons that Union Station and the Warehouse District are important too.
1. Let's not forget that in addition to Amtrak, commuter rail is still a thing.
2. The west side of downtown is where there is more room to grow and also where more growth is likely to occur in the foreseeable future, thanks to proximity to amenities like the university and Dix, and indeed eventually Union Station
3. We should not build these BRT routes just for Raleigh of 2018. Even though it is not light rail, they are legitimately talking about dedicated bus lanes, signal priority, amenity-rich platforms, and other things. These are expensive to build and we need to build it for the future. We should do our best to forecast what Raleigh of 2038 will look like, maybe even further, and build for that.
4. You mention direct service to the convention center, but I think Union Station and the Warehouse District are a much stronger destination than the convention center anyway.
Now, is Nash Square close enough to the warehouse district and Union Station? I don't think so, but I could *MAYBE* be convinced. The appeal of sticking to Dawson and McDowell for the sake of speed and simplicity is strong, but the problem is then you are too far from Moore Square.
It all depends on where the commuter rail stops are located. A large portion of the commuter rail line will parallel the primary BRT routes. My guess is that people will transition from normal bus/uber/taxi/bike/ped to the BRT OR Commuter rail line rather than from the BRT to the Commuter line. A multi-modal station sounds nice on paper, but I don't think it would be as practical here as having the BRT with as direct a route as possible connected to a local network.
I mention RedHat Amp and the Convention center as ancillary benefits of a primary line that would go by City Hall. Warehouse and Union Station are trendy right now, but in the future the core of DT is still going to be closer to Fayettville Street and City Hall. I would also say there is much, much, more development potential between Dawson and McDowell than Harrington and West. Directing the BRT to Warehouse would in fact be building the line for Raleigh buildings that opened in 2018, and not thinking about the present and future center of the city.
It all depends on where the commuter rail stops are located. A large portion of the commuter rail line will parallel the primary BRT routes. My guess is that people will transition from normal bus/uber/taxi/bike/ped to the BRT OR Commuter rail line rather than from the BRT to the Commuter line. A multi-modal station sounds nice on paper, but I don't think it would be as practical here as having the BRT with as direct a route as possible connected to a local network.
After taking a closer look at the alternatives - I think that Alternative B is probably the most likely alternative to gain any traction with city council/public, though I agree with the comments made by orulz and OberlinSouth that some aspects of C should be integrated to provide closer access to Union Station/Warehouse District
Alternative D is supposed to be the "hybrid" alternative of B and C, with the buses coming in from the north on Dawson/McDowell but still hitting GoRaleigh Station. Personally I think it's kind of a mess. I made the suggestion that instead of cutting from Dawson/Mcdowell to Wilmington/Blount on Edenton and Morgan, buses should stay on Dawson/Mcdowell a bit further south, until Nash Square, and then cut over on Martin and/or Hargett, which makes for a shorter walk to Union Station.
But even then I still don't like that option all that much. Only the Capital Blvd line (And whichever that one runs through to) would directly serve Union Station or really anywhere on the west side of downtown.
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