Meanwhile in China…
Not endorsing this model, but just pointing out New Bern has plenty of opportunity as a transit corridor. So long as leaders keep their spine and communicate strongly on the land use / future planning need and explain ridership numbers to the public.
At first I thought this was a southern corridor BRT station along Wilmington St.
Mass transit doesn’t have to serve the people who are already in remote suburban areas to be effective. You can look at development in DC and Charlotte and other cities before and after the subway or light rail and see how transit stops spur development nearby. As fast as the Triangle is growing it would be helpful to have at least some of the growth going to mass transit hubs to get as many people off the roads as possible. For me it’s a major lifestyle improvement to have a rail option. Most people who have traveled around Europe by rail lament that the US is so far behind in developing transit alternatives to cars. It doesn’t mean that everyone abandons the car. It just gives people an alternative. And as there is more and more traffic which tends to be worse in suburban and exurban areas, more people choose rail options.
Don’t worry. No one will force you to sell your car and use only mass transit once rail is finished. Everyone will still be allowed to get in their cars and allowed to sit in traffic. It’s just now there will be a choice if they would rather do that or use rail instead.
The roads vs transit debate seems a bit silly if you can only think of it as one or the other. We all face different priorities throughout our lives, years, even day-to-day, that affect our mobility choices. I’ll admit that I’ve driven an 1/8 of a mile to run an errand but on another day, walked almost 5 miles to get to my destination. On each of those moments, numerous factors influenced my mobility choice at that exact moment.
The main benefit, among many, to providing alternatives out there, in my view any way, are that we can get more people to the destinations they want to go to in different ways. Cars are taking up way to much space during peak times at popular locations. For example, Glenwood South has easy parking on Saturday morning but is seen as more difficult that same night. Transit and other alternatives can make up for this.
Bringing this back to BRT, perhaps more people will go to a movie at the Alamo cause they can avoid parking and instead take the bus, or maybe scoot down the wide multi-use path. (I know this is a use case I look forward to! 
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Rather than sticking with one formula (currently roads used by personal vehicles) we can ease off the huge use of land for car parking and start getting people places they want to go without a car by providing choices that are taken into consideration day-to-day. In Raleigh’s next few decades, I’m not sure car ownership is going to drop but the percentage of trips used in those cars is what I’m hoping to see go down.
My point is New Bern Ave does not need BRT now. Run it to RTP and other much better places first.
If your argument is that more people may go to Alamo theater…We are now in the fractions upon fractions of people who would consider that.
Yes, but Broad st has these all within a concentrated areas. How many billions and lines would it take for Raleigh to do the same. Raleigh built different.
Well you forgot one important area the hospital, and also that a dense low-income area.
New Bern Ave consistently has the highest ridership per mile of the whole GoRaleigh system, so… idk what to tell you, man.
Obviously, a bus on New Bern worked for the 43,000 people who rode it in September, and a faster bus will probably work better.
Also pertinent here: transit is about shaping the future, not the present.
People make choices based on the modes available to them at the time. People will make different choices once BRT is available. The biggest choices are when people choose new office, retail, and residential locations – especially for businesses.
Right now, downtown Raleigh isn’t really the most accessible location in the region; it’s not faster or easier for the largest number of people. Bulldozing much of downtown for highways and parking lots will (a) never succeed in making downtown more accessible, given that the suburbs will always have more roads & are closer to suburbanites anyways; (b) will destroy most of what makes downtown special anyways. So downtown has to compete with transit.
I think it’s important to recognize that people do indeed vote with their feet, and downtown has been gaining population as fast as new housing options are brought online in the city’s core. There is a growing number of folks who want something different but it hasn’t been offered to them yet. We can talk about how people aren’t riding the buses now, but is our current experience a good one? BRT will undoubtedly improve the experience and we will soon learn how effective it is.
This does not mean that others aren’t choosing suburbia. We know that’s not the case.
I know @Boltman is being a Debbie Downer it could really improve this low-income marginalized community.
Why are y’all wasting so much time every week trying to convince/reason with @Boltman on the topic of transit? Clearly he isn’t going to change his mind lol. And that’s fine, we’re all entitled to our own opinions. Just feel like y’all beating a dead horse at this point.
He’s sorta conservative when it comes to transit.
My goal is not in convincing @Boltman but rather in having a response on record to his statements. Although his opinions are contrary to those held by many of us on here, and some of his messages can border a bit on trolling, his opinions do seem to be genuinely held and they are shared by quite few people out there. Therefore, having a response on record seems important.
Yeah, I think his opinions are from the attitudes and sentiments and lack of leadership of mass transit projects here in the Triangle. From the failed DOLRT, to even Wake County plans to having a Light Rail train system of its own according to @keita that was scrapped due to some “Safety Complaint” I think that just a bunch of bull the could have converted it to a tram. Hs response is a result of the clown and aloof leadership of CAMPO and some Wake County and Durham, and Johnston County leaders. I think former mayor Charles Meeker did his best and was the best advocate transit and of such light rail system he was probably is appalled that light rail was cancelled here in Raleigh. We need to get our sh7t together really!
Missed that, good catch.
The trend for public transit: down
Traffic is down too from pre-pandemic numbers. I guess we can stop building new roads as well since ‘ the numbers are down’
