We are one Triangle now. Our transit plan will serve us all.
Every public transit project has its share of controversies, as the Durham-Orange light rail transit project is showing. Whether it’s Duke University concerns about the rail line’s path through its campus, or downtown Durham business worries over closing an unsafe at-grade intersection, or Chapel Hill and Durham neighbor apprehensions over potential operational noise, or the legislature changing light rail state funding rules, the Durham-Orange light rail project has been much in the news.
It’s tempting to focus on one transit project in isolation, but Durham-Orange light rail needs to be seen in context. It is one vital component in the bigger picture of a regional transit network, a plan that will link us all together.
A transit network works when it gives people choices that make it easy to use transit rather than driving and parking. A transit network succeeds based on how far it reaches places most people want to go and how convenient it is to get there. GoTriangle’s integrated network plan over the next ten years will make transit a strong option over driving by combining regional reach with lots of connections and high frequency services.
Regular I-40 drivers won’t be surprised that the most congested roadway in North Carolina, with 195,000 cars per day, is I-40 at Page Road. Driving US 15-501 and NC 147 during busy periods is no picnic, either. With job growth and 80 people moving to the Triangle area every day, traffic volumes are rising fast, and we can’t afford to build our way out of congestion. We need more and better transit options.
Most of us probably haven’t thought about transit in regional terms. It’s natural to conceptualize transit in purely county terms. That’s a legacy of the three transit plans in Durham, Orange, and Wake being approved by voters in different years and also because transit tax revenues must be spent in the origin counties.
But the individual county transit plans are integral parts of a GoTriangle regional network transit plan—and the three-county reach strengthens the network. We are one region now, and we need to see the value of the overall transit network, regardless of where we live and work in the Triangle.
Ten years from now, the GoTriangle regional bus network that already knits together Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties will be enhanced by nearly 18 miles of light rail service connecting Durham and Orange Counties and by 37 miles of commuter rail service between Wake and Durham counties, including RTP. Easy connections between local bus, regional bus, light rail, and commuter rail in downtown Durham will tie transit services there together.
The regional transit network will become stronger still with a new Chapel Hill bus rapid transit line, an expanded bus system serving all 12 Wake County municipalities, four new bus rapid transit corridors in Raleigh and Cary, and with many services offering 15-minute frequencies.
These transit services unify to form a strong regional network. Individual county transit plans will be joined into a whole akin to old-time quilting bees in which artisans worked to consolidate separate parts into a single quilt. GoTriangle’s regional transit system will integrate the three county plans to cover the most traveled areas of the Triangle with connected and frequent service.
We need to support GoTriangle’s well-designed regional transit network of services. Wake, Durham or Orange, light rail, bus rapid transit, commuter rail or bus, we will all benefit from the mobility choices available in the cohesive GoTriangle transit network that will come online over the next 10 years. We are one region. With transit as with everything else, we rise or fall together.