My mom and dad had a hilarious argument about the bus service in Raleigh, seeing as a friend was looking to move here. Truly a joy to listen to.
Their argument was about if the bus could be depended on if a car broke down. Is this true without BRT? I mean doesn’t it take like an hour for the buses to show up?
That just sounds like an issue that’s separate and different from BRT. Frequent bus service would be the dealmaker/breaker to answer that question; it’s true that it takes a while for buses to show up in many parts of Wake County, but Raleigh and Cary are working on it:
You can ensure good service by offering services like frequent buses and BRT, of course. But you also need the hardware to back it up; I don’t think you have to only rely on huge upgrades to get a reliable public transit network.
More buses and upgraded bus stops (so you don’t need a phone to see how much time you have to waste at a bus stop), bus-only lanes (or a more temporary version of it, or something more grassroots), a more convenient payment system (see page 19),… they may all seem like small things that don’t directly have things in common, but they’re a good and overdue start for a more reliable and convenient bus system. And you can make them happen without relying on a bus service being called a BRT line.
So, I am a big bus rider. Back in 2015 we sold my car (paid off the last of my wife’s student loans) and I rely on the bus for 90% of my travel. I have found 2 major things to be key for this
#1. Location of where you live and work is the big deal breaker. We lived on Glenwood South at the Devon and I work at Red Hat. So taking the bus to work was easy. Then for groceries we could walk to local stuff for small things or use my wife’s car on the weekends for groceries. When we wanted to buy it actually really really shaped where we could look because I would need to get to work without a car. The closer in neighborhood became the only real options for me then. I ended up in East Raleigh on the #10 line. I just completed a part time MBA at State and the location near my work and on the amazing bus corridor that is Hillsborough. When you get further out the homes are just spread out and hard to get near the bus lines. Then the bus lines take a while to get to downtown.
#2. Frequency of service is the killer app that people who do not ride the bus really under appreciate. You can look up how long taking the bus would take and just account that into your thinking, but in real life trying to get to work when you wake up and get ready, you get lots of stress if you miss the bus and it is an hour before the next one comes. The #10 bus https://www.raleighnc.gov/services/content/PWksTransit/Articles/Route10.html comes every 30 minutes, and it is doable for me because we are close enough that the trip is not that long ~20 minutes to work once I get one the bus. But, when they make to planned changes (~2023) to every 15 minutes. Then I will be able to pretty much just walk to the bus stop whenever and it will be there pretty soon. Everyone who rides the bus is very aware of the frequency of their routes.
The BRT is pretty awesome because not only is it planned for, every 15 minutes (a new bus will show up even if one brakes down, another is on the way), but then the bus will have its own lane and priority (and be very direct, current buses not supper direct). So with a BRT done right you really start to be competitive with cars (if you live near the route).
#3 Access to stops This is not the top two, but something that comes up when I take new routes and especially ones that go further out from downtown is that having good streets and sidewalks to walk from your destination or starting point to the bus on is a big deal. Lots of good housing near a bus line does not have a good way for people to walk there. The Waverly Apartment are a really good (but bad) example of this. Very close to the planned BRT line, but not sidewalks to get there. This also hits hard on the major roads going out to the burbs. You need to walk to the road (housing is often set back a ways) then get across the major road at least once a day. If not going in then coming back.
Have you tried to take the bus to classes, downtown, the airport, or anywhere else around Raleigh?
Frequency is the killer for me and why I don’t take the bus to work more than once or twice a month - I work out in the Crossroads area and the 305 GoTriangle bus out there makes 4 trips out in the morning and 4 trips back in the afternoon. If I’m not out the door by 8 AM, then the option to take the bus is out for me (since I’d have to take the GoRaleigh 2 bus downtown to transfer to the 305). Usually the trip there isn’t the big problem, it’s the trip back and not knowing if I might get held up at work past the last bus or if I have to be somewhere immediately after work and one of those 4 buses doesn’t work out timing wise etc…
Amidst all the hype over Downtown South and Crabtree today, don’t forget about the next BRT open house, which is this evening from 4-7pm at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 E. Martin St.
This will go into further detail on the New Bern Avenue line, focusing (I believe) specifically on potential station locations.
Yes, I will be there. Am I allowed to say I am a journalist with DTR? 
You… probably want to avoid doing that like the plague, unless you want to get into some serious trouble…
North Carolina and the US both have “shield laws” to protect journalists’ access to sources. But whether bloggers and other people on the internet can also be covered seems to be a really messy controversy (see me and me)
Just say you are a Raleighite. The best we can be. 
YES! my goal. I have tried to dress weird, but the people here are too nice so they don’t care.
I will refrain from saying I am a journalist.
Question, Back where I am from, and in the other cities around it, Cameras are allowed. In fact, some people were quite extreme.
Are Cameras Allowed at Raleigh Organizational and Political Events Such as these?
What questions do y’all suggest I ask?
I live real close by so may swing by as well. Let me know if anyone wants to meet up.
I am here now. It is rather interesting.
Thank for sharing your experience. I grew up in Raleigh and only get back for holidays, but I rely on transit every day. I think you summation relations closely to my thoughts as someone who ‘gave up’ his car.
Some of the staff is hilarious, nice people overall. I’ll have an article up in a week or two and I’ll send y’all the link.
I really like the dedicated lanes INSIDE the median. I hope they can use a lot of that up and down New Bern.
Thanks, Leo! I’m also a huge fan of the inside lanes and it’s not really even close. What are the pros for outside lanes over inside lanes anyway?
I’m right there with you. From the posters, it looks like the only benefit of the outside-lane (right-lane) bus/business access lanes is that people can make left turns at more places, going onto New Bern Av.
We’ll need a full traffic study to see if losing access to these left turns is worth it (of course, people will be pissed about it. But the question is if it’s worth kowtowing to those complainers), but my gut feeling is that the median-running transitway will win out as long as it’s not ridiculously costly.
Chapel Hill’s BRT basically settled on mostly converting or building new bus-only lanes on the right side of its central road (MLK Blvd.). But that made sense only because there’s already a wide median with lots of flowers and trees there, all of which would have to be dug up and removed before the road’s right-of-way is expanded and the road itself is repaved. Since the median options are just using existing rights-of-way (read: no eminent domain lawsuits for those areas), it seems like that would make far more sense than a curbside route.
