I look forward to utilizing this one single BRT route when it’s completed just in time for me turning 85 years old and needing to be rushed to WakeMed - at least it will save me the ambulance fees.
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Imagine if the city had invested all of this time and money making the pedestrian experience across downtown and its edges excellent. Just imagine if that sort of placemaking prompted more people to want to be downtown and more businesses wanted to open because of it. Just imagine.
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When I imagine the city actually spending an equivalent amount of time and money to make our pedestrian experience excellent the first thing that comes to mind are the battles over on-street parking and changes made to reduce vehicle speed and throughput. I intend no sarcasm or snarky-ness, it’s just that when I start imagining the details and the process of making an excellent pedestrian experience a reality I see so many hurdles and so much push back.
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The city did it before with the part of Hillsborough Street that runs through NC State. That street has an infinitely better pedestrian experience than it did decades ago and that’s done a pretty good job at activating it.
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It seems like some of the questions in that article directly came from our conversation on this thread - so it’s nice to see that there’s some influential lurkers in our community!
Another factor that could work in favor of potential contractors (though it’s unclear if they even have the capacity to pay attention to things like this): Chapel Hill Transit won a federal grant to help develop its BRT line!
This grant is not the $138 million blockbuster that the Biden administration asked Congress to fund last year, but it’s still a significant step forward to make the Triangle serious about building BRT that works.
The Chapel Hill project’s expected to be shovel-ready in less than two years - so this means that, if our region wins all the BRT grants that it wants, there should be 3 new BRT lines under construction to some degree in the next 5-10 years. If that’s not enticing to contractors, I’m not sure what would be.
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Also, the RTA announced that the federal government awarded money to Durham, which has been quietly saving up money for its own downtown BRT line, to kickstart its planning efforts!
This means that, like I said, there’s 3 new BRT lines that could enter construction in the next 5-ish years - but in the longer term, this new line could keep that BRT-building market going, too (since it’ll probably mature around the same timeline as the Capital Blvd. and/or North Hills lines).
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Looking at the work program, did the 100x get delayed to FY2030? I thought that was supposed to be a FY2025/FY2026, project.
No, and I was surprised to see it on Durham’s funding list, too! The adopted FY25 Wake Transit Annual Work Plan still includes it in its list of items to fund for FY2026 (with a potential start date of July 2025).
For those of y’all who don’t know what we’re talking about, GoTriangle is planning to upgrade the 100 bus by making it run more frequently (every 15min instead of 30, later (more evening and weekend services), and extending it to downtown Durham. This would fully replace the 100, eliminate the 700 and DRX, and also make the current RDU airport-only service permanent, too.
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So, in effect, the 100 could work as a de facto Raleigh to Durham bus with high frequency and extended day schedule?
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Not de facto; that’s actually, literally what will happen as long as nothing significantly changes in this coming year’s annual work plan.
The proposed schedule calls for buses to run up to every 15min on weekdays during the day. Beyond that, it pushes for half-hourly service on evenings and weekends during the day, and hourly service on weekend evenings + late weekday nights,
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Guess we’re never getting that amazing 35-ish minute service from Raleigh to RDU back ever again. Riders are to blame for this one, no one took it but people always complain they want transit to RDU. Switch to airport shuttle is a downgrade 100%.
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I like the airport shuttle. it allows higher frequency to Morrisville/RTP and Regional Transit Center. Regional Transit Center allows connections to Durham and Chapel Hill and RTP is a big employment hub, although needs better last mile connections. I get annoyed when I take the 100 during it’s deviation to RDU since it takes like 10 extra minutes and usually I see at most 1 or 2 people get on/off there.
When I take the 100/RDU Shuttle to the airport, I mostly get annoyed at the span, how it doesn’t run early/late enough for me to make my flight and I get annoyed at how it’s not consistent if I need to take the RDU Shuttle vs the 100.
I would like to eventually see the RDU shuttle route through the airport to Brier Creek to a transfer between the GoRaleigh 70L, GoRaleigh 6 and GoDurham 2, Since that area is lacking connections and would then provide an alternate route between Raleigh, Durham and Regional Transit Center.
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I’ve taken that 100 bus to and from RDU often.
I guess I need to look at this again. I thought that this bus service was still running to RDU but will continue on to Durham. Is it now skipping RDU?
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In my experience, Lyft has efficient, reliable service and great last mile connection for trips to and from RDU.
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I love it too, but I’d love an option besides tacking on an extra $80 - 100 to the cost of my flight to get from Oakwood and back.
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It’s way cheaper if you live in west Raleigh like me. It’s not as cool as downtown, but it’s super drivable!
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So it’s the fault of passengers that they don’t ride something they don’t want to use? That feels a bit disingenuous and gaslight-y to me…
I feel like the people who complain about a lack of bus connections to RDU are the same crowd of people who complained that the commuter rail proposal didn’t go to the airport: disingenuous people who wouldn’t use public transit unless they were 100% convenient for them, and would otherwise hyper-fixate on their shortcomings. It’s only a “major” issue because a ton of people wield that argument in bad faith.
That’s right, and this is how things have already been working since the pandemic. With this proposal, the RDU shuttle would be timed so that you could transfer between it and the 100X at RTP without having to wait.
Note the difference between the RDU (orange) and 100X (red) route, with stops marked with circles. All annotations use the same legend as with my previous post. The black dotted lines, on the other hand, are the portions of the 100 that’s getting axed for good - which should show you how much the 100 would get more streamlined and predictable to ride.
Side note: the one red blip off of I-40 is the part of the Park Point development where GoTriangle wanted to move the Regional Transit Center back in 2022. The actual location of that stop should be on the other side of NC-54 based on the rewritten grant proposal that was awarded a few months ago, but it looks like this map simply doesn’t reflect that change, yet.
This also means that, sure, a trip from Raleigh to RDU would be a bit longer - but only by like 10 minutes. That is not that much of a difference!? Plus, I’d imagine that more people would ride the bus between Hub RTP and Raleigh than to/from the airport, anyways, so it makes more sense to build in the time savings to the thing that benefits more people.
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If you’re flying into RDU to get to RTP, it’s safe to assume it’s for a business trip, and most people in that situation are likely taking an Uber or similar service, often covered by their company. The alternative—using a bus—feels impractical for business travelers.
The City of Raleigh and Wake County haven’t done enough to shift the metro area’s focus toward Raleigh’s side. Former Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin likely shared this perspective, especially with her support for eventually extending the BRT to the airport. However, with her no longer in office, it’s unclear how much momentum remains for such initiatives.
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I really like Jarrett Walker’s take on airport transit: Keys to Great Airport Transit — Human Transit
I support good airport transit, especially by the benchmarks Jarrett lays out. I’ve taken the current setup before, took my parents on it when they came to visit and will probably do so again.
I live in Downtown Raleigh and work at RTP, about 3 miles from the current Regional Transit Center. I go to the airport maybe 3-4 times a year. I go to RTP at least 3 times per week. I think that we have a much larger total addressable market providing more service to RTP/Morrisville than the airport and we can’t really serve both on the same route, without making it circuitous. I would rather have a frequent connection to RTP with frequent connections to Durham/Chapel Hill/RDU than an infrequent connection to RDU and an infrequent connection to RTP.
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What’s it like using GoTriangle to go to RTP?
I use GoTriangle to go to RDU a few times a year, but there’s usually only one or two other people getting off at the airport. The direct route to the airport was convenient, but I like that this new route will increase frequency to the airport at some times of day.
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