Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker gave a regional, three-county emphasis to his push for public transit today when he announced plans to run for re-election.
Meeker last year spearheaded action on a 10-year Wake County plan to beef up bus service and lay tracks for light-rail trains. That would give Wake the option to move on its own if Durham and Orange counties can't agree on priorities and funding for regional transit.
But when he cited transit as one of his top three campaign priorities today, he took the Three Musketeers approach: All for one and one for all.
"We simply need to have good regional transit. Raleigh is now one of the 50 biggest cities in the country. We don’t have adequate public transportation. We need to get moving forward. If we’re going to be successful in the years and decades ahead, we simply have to have better transit. That’s going to require all of us, all three counties, to work together," Meeker said.
The General Assembly appears appears likely this year to approve transit legislation that would give Triangle counties the option for a half-cent sales tax to pay for trains and buses, if approved by voters in a referendum. Meeker said he thought Wake could be ready to put the issue on the October ballot this year, but he'd rather wait until the rest of the region is ready, too.
"What we're hearing from Durham and Orange counties is that it may well be 2010 before we're all ready in terms of having plans and ready to go to the public ...," he said.
"I would favor all of us doing it together. This really is a regional market in terms of how people think about it. The plan really only makes sense if all three counties move forward."
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the
Comments
Our Municipal Degeneration Needs Change
Tue, 04/14/2009 - 00:01 — dlhertzbergIf I get bicycle lanes and logistic mass transit I will consider not abandoning my unsustainable, bare bones, diminished quality of life existence here in the triangle.
Naysayers, step aside
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 22:53 — Real_Americans_ThinkWe have heard from the Naysayers for 20 years or more about why mass transit won't work here blah blah blah. And we keep building subdivisions, having more sprawl, etc. just to prove the point, apparently. We all drive 20-50 miles per day and for what? Mass transit is supposedly unsustainable but you can easily predict which corridors will be densely congested day after day - apparently many of us are traveling the same route and direction at the same time. The challenge is having feeder transit service to some multimodal transit hubs (car, bike, pedestrian, bus, train), and for those hubs to also be destinations in their own right (e.g., shopping centers). Other cities worldwide do this. So can we. Remember high gas prices? They will come back.
MERGER
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 22:51 — articsThere is absolutely no sense in The Triangle being served by at least four separate municipal bus concerns [Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and TTA]. Blend these individual systems into one REGIONAL carrier, and then proceed to invoke the service changes necessary to provide this area with an up-to-date and efficient bus operation. LRT is a possibilty for the future, but fix the bus systems first!
Public Trans
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 21:18 — PACK_MIKE77Just don't let the CAT designers determine the routes. CAT only benefits those that get to work on the same bus that stops in front of their house. To transfer is a nightmare. I was told it was a HUB system through downtown. New York uses a criss cross pattern. Raleigh is a looping system. You better not need to get to work in a hurry.
Why it is a bad plan
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 20:21 — tangozHow many people use the transit systems currently compared to how many do not?
Very few use the transit systems
Is the mass transit system self sustainable? That answer is:
No.
Will mass transit go to the airport?
They have been unable to manage this.
Very few people use CAT
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 21:09 — drewkVery few people use CAT because it is an awful service. Bus routes are infrequent and unreliable.
Meekers transit plans
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 20:09 — JoeGovernmentWo...I am in favor of Meekers plans except for 1 thing. What about Johnston County? There are so many folks who live in Johnston County who commute To Raleigh and points beyond. Why are we not trying to get Johnston County residents involved? It would benefit all the triangle to get some of those cars off the roads. I have tried to get into the commute to work via bus option only to be told that Johnston County was not participating. I was told to lobby the County to participate. Thats TTA's job to do not mine. Why couldn't a light rail line run down I-40 out to at least NC 210 or TTA run buses hourly this way from 6:00 am to at least &:00PM? just a thought. The light rail plan needs have a long term vision to criss cross The Triangle around at least The I 440 and I-40 routes. I enquired about TTA,s Van Pool and was told to forget about it the waiting list is very long.
Cary v. region
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 17:56 — ShFrazierLast I heard, Cary has an in-city transport system that can only be used by Cary residents. Which means that a Cary resident living outside of Cary's TTA coverage can use Cary's transport to get to a TTA stop and can go from there to any part of the region s/he wants using TTA and local city buses. But if a non-Cary resident wants to access parts of Cary outside Cary's TTA coverage, they better know somebody with a car.
So I'd be surprised if Cary residents were willing to sign off on paying for light rail. As it currently stands, they already have nothing to lose. In fact, I wonder if Cary would be the biggest clog in the pipeline toward total regional coverage (or is that my non-Cary residential prejudice showing . . . :-) ).
Not sure why people wouldn't vote for this
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 17:42 — drewkProperly planned subway and light rail systems are almost always successful wherever they are implemented. The Triangle has some of the worst suburban sprawl in the country, and some of the worst public transportation for a metropolitan area of its size. I realize that some people might not vote in favor of a 0.5% tax increase because they wouldn't directly benefit from light rail (i.e., the light rail wouldn't be located conveniently for them). However, that seems short-sighted to me. If SOME people choose to ride light-rail instead of driving on the interstates, then that still benefits the people who drive because there are fewer cars on the road. The light-rail would help not only those folks who ride it, but also those who still drive by reducing congestion and hopefully shortening their commute.
Light rail is not successful anywhere
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 20:24 — tangozJust to respond. Every mass transit system using light rail is not successful. In Charlotte riders only pay about 18 cents on every dollar needed for the system.
In Oregon the system does not come close to paying for it's own costs.
I wouldn't measure success
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 21:07 — drewkI wouldn't measure success according to balancing the books. I don't think of public transportation as a 'for-profit' enterprise. It is heavily subsidized by states/counties/municipalities because there is a need to reduce traffic congestion and to provide people who cannot afford to drive a way to move about.
Fair point on the airport issue. I remember in the late 1990s the planned light rail map, and thinking it absurd not to have a stop at RDU. It seems to me that RDU is really THE link between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. (I do wonder if the Airport Authority would be opposed to such a stop because of a reduction in parking revenues.)
"The light-rail would help
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 18:57 — jesmyopinion"The light-rail would help not only those folks who ride it, but also
those who still drive by reducing congestion and hopefully shortening
their commute."
I can understand this concept, but how much is it going to cost to get hypothetically 20 people out of their cars and onto rail? If it was cost effective I would be all for it - but I view this as an expensive boondoggle - and I would hate to be proved right.
In some other areas I have visited (ex. NYC), and I assume D.C., I can understand mass transit being almost mandatory, but I do not want to see Raleigh become congested as large cities with mass transit have become - I would rather see sprawl than mass congestion. I like the small town feel of Raleigh.
For me the cost\benefit is not there.
I use to ride between Cary
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 16:53 — jesmyopinionI use to ride between Cary and RTP years ago during rush hour traffic and it was horrible - and I am sure it is even worse today. But I do not think I would drive my car 10 to 15 minutes to a station near my home, wait however long for a train, take a 10-15 minute ride on a train, get off the train, wait however long for a bus (I assume) to take me to my job at RTP, and then do the reverse coming home. That would take too long and it would just be easier to jump in my car (although I may have to sit in some traffic) than having to deal with that hassle. I would assume most others would feel the same. And this rail would be very expensive and would not be worth the expense (in my opinion). If some people would want it, then it should be financially self-supporting - if it would not be self-supporting then drop the idea.
ride bus to work - but keep wishing for light rail
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 15:09 — eliz_adamsMayor Meeker has my full support. I went to HS in the Virginia suburbs of DC back in the 80's. Without transit, more and more of our lives will be spent sitting in traffic. Planning and funding light rail will spur development along transit lines, and will create affordable, pedestrian friendly links between our communities. All three counties, and the Mayors need to work together and put in place a regional transit system. Otherwise, our high tech development will stall due to ever increasing congestion along the I-40 backbone. We can either fully fund transit and light rail, or succumb to the 1-40 parking lot blues.
Car Free
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 15:04 — jugbandI live in downtown Raleigh and I rarely need to use my car to get around--that includes grocery shopping, etc. If I could get to RTP reliably using public transportation, I could be completely carless. That would be so awesome.
light rail
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 14:56 — elynchI'm all for the light rail system going forward. I agree it has to be all 3 counties involved. I would ride the rail, and I know lots of people who would ride to get to work in RTP. Once it is in, more and more people would ride the train. The sooner it's in, the better.
fundamental and overdue
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 14:40 — blg987If you've ever done the commute between RTP and Raleigh on a regular basis, you're familiar with the purgatory that is I-40. It isn't getting better, and no number of new lanes is going to keep up with demand or make a difference in the first place. I'll take a safer, more relaxing trip by train any day. And I admit that putting in rail won't fix everything overnight, especially since the low density of the Triangle doesn't lend itself to point-to-point train service. But what light rail will do is change development patterns in the area. It's not likely that where you live or work now will be close to a rail station, but once light rail is in place, commercial real estate will very quickly follow with rail-convenient housing not far behind. Light rail is going to happen, and as fast as Raleigh is growing, it needs to get on the ball a lot quicker than 2025.
I would not vote for this
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 13:37 — jesmyopinionI would not vote for this tax. Although I respect Meeker for pushing this issue of transportation, I would not ride light-rail and feel it would be a waste of money as I do not believe many other people would use it also. I will reserve judgement on buses.