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BOA talks Triangle Transit

Posted on March 1, 2012February 29, 2012 by Susan Dickson

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

CARRBORO – Would Carrboro residents use Triangle Transit to commute to Durham and Raleigh? The Carrboro Board of Aldermen thinks so, and on Tuesday considered just where a Triangle Transit stop might be located in Carrboro.

Transportation planner Jeff Brubaker discussed the feasibility of a Triangle Transit stop on West Weaver Street, near the town’s municipal parking lot. Triangle Transit provides regional bus service as far east as Zebulon and as far west as Chapel Hill.

Triangle Transit had a stop at Carrboro Plaza in the 1990s, but service was discontinued, with the closest stop to Carrboro now at Carolina Coffee Shop on East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.

Brubaker said that 16.3 percent of Carrboro residents who commute to work use public transit, compared with 10.3 in Chapel Hill, 1.7 percent in the Triangle and 1 percent statewide, according to the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Within a half-mile of the Weaver Street municipal lot are 712 residential addresses and more than 1,200 residents older than 18, and within 2 miles, 7,984 residential addresses and more than 12,000 residents over 18.

In addition, Brubaker said that the municipal lot, which has a capacity of 33 cars, is only one-third full at peak usage and could potentially be used as a park-and-ride lot for commuters.

“What I like about this proposal is that it does try to identify a place that can be a park-and-ride for Triangle Transit in downtown Carrboro,” board member Lydia Lavelle said, adding that the Chapel Hill stop doesn’t serve commuters as a park-and-ride.

Lavelle, who lives in Fox Meadow in northern Carrboro, said she would like to see a transit route that goes from the northern part of Carrboro to downtown Durham, noting the large number of people who use the Eubanks Road park-and-ride to commute to Raleigh.

Brubaker said 27 percent of Carrboro commuters work in Durham.

Mayor Mark Chilton said he would like to also explore the possibility of using the parking lot at Wilson Park as a park-and-ride lot for a Triangle Transit stop, since much of the parking lot is unused much of the time.

Board member Jacquie Gist cautioned that the lot at West Weaver, which now has a two-hour parking limit, might fill up with cars of residents commuting to UNC, rather than to Durham or Raleigh, if it were opened up for use as a park-and-ride.

Town staff will look into several locations as possible park-and-ride locations for a Triangle Transit stop and report back to the board on how best to make a proposal to Triangle Transit officials.

4 thoughts on “BOA talks Triangle Transit”

  1. Chris Weaver says:
    March 1, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    Will people ever use it?
    Sure…to do what? Go Shop elsewhere? More than likely…
    Who will pay for it? the riders? sure…but not enough to make is…..sustainable.
    Charlotte’s light rail is loosing $20 per rider….and it is in a higher density area than the proposed rail. Sooo who is to pay? Well…of Orange County it will be those who pay the majority of taxes now…property owners.
    While it is fun to daydream of locations in which to locate a stop, when it comes to spending other people’s money to serve a small portion of a population it’s time to wake up. If this was a viable idea some entrepreneur would have done it already (see:Orlando). Using Government to extract wealth from the population to cater to a small segments romantic dream is never a good idea. There is not any data anywhere to support it. Anywhere.
    The FTA data shows CHT is operating at a loss. (code 4051)
    Charlotte is at a loss (code 4008)
    MARTA (Atl) is at a loss (code 4022)
    Plug these city codes in the Profile search bar here http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/data.htm
    Pick the year data you wish to look at. It matters not which one.They all are in the red…and will require great subsidies from the taxpayers for life.

    I though we were all done with “too big to fail”? There is no MERIT here or anywhere.
    I love riding trains, I just do not think that I or the rest of the county who will never utilize it should pay for it in our sleep…for the rest of our lives.

    Show me a light rail plan that will be (key word) Self -sustainable…and I’m on board.

    Chris Weaver

  2. Tucker Clark says:
    March 2, 2012 at 12:30 pm

    Chris,

    it’s a new, proposed BUS stop – with a new park and ride lot- for an already existing BUS service.

    No trains in this article.

  3. Jess Thornton says:
    March 2, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    Chris, It seems that this article is about existing TTA stops, as in for the TTA buses. I would support a TTA stop in Carrboro, as now, to commute to work on the TTA bus, I have to take a Chapel Hill bust to Franklin and Columbia.

  4. Brian Green says:
    March 2, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    The idea of connecting Carrboro to the Greater Triangle via the TTA is an idea I support. It takes too long to get to Durham and Raleigh from Carrboro because it requires transferring to the Chapel Hill transit routes.

    Chris, please explain to me how a transit system based around cars is sustainable? Money is not the only cost to factor in.

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