The problem (well, one of the problems) with DORLT is that there was no political will to take space away from cars to give buses a dedicated lane on 15-501. Every possible solution had its own challenges that were going to be difficult to surmount, and the huge challenge for BRT would have been creating the dedicated lanes.
The free lunch would be to radically upzone for more residential housing in Chapel Hill so more people could just live closer to where they work, but alas.
True, that would be a massive battle with NCDOT that would probably turn into a political nightmare. That said, one of the perks of BRT is that its alignment can be more versatile. You can join mixed traffic if it’s absolutely critical, or deviate onto a side street, or even develop your own ROW. Perhaps they could have followed a route parallel to US-15/501, like Old Chapel Hill Rd.
It does look like they’re currently floating the idea of converting GoTriangle 400 to BRT somewhere down the road, so I’m curious to see what they come up with. I just hope it’s not some pseudo-BRT project that has raised platforms and some signal priority with hardly any bus lanes. A BRT project that isn’t at least pursuing ITDP certification really shouldn’t be called BRT.
That’s probably what’s screwing up NSBRT, come to think of it. There’s not nearly enough TOD effort happening with that project.
The Alternatives Analysis cited “economic development potential” as well as higher likelihood for public and agency support as the justification for light rail over BRT. It’s hard to compare apples-to-apples by cost and ridership, though, since they proposed interlining BRT and other buses on dedicated off-road busway. In hindsight, it’s difficult to tell if consultants designed the BRT alternative incompetently since it was too new at the time, or if it’s because GoTriangle was pressuring them to be biased towards light rail…
GoTriangle’s trying to put their focus on the light rail cost postmortem because 
politics so it’s harder to find now, but their library of all public documents is still available through this page.
Not that we’re not trying.
Rewriting its equivalent of Raleigh’s Future Land Use Map to define specific corridors and areas for denser, transit-friendly development clusters.
Redeveloping a key connection between Franklin St. and UNC to be less sketchy, and more open and walkable.
Looking into building denser TODs in a former surface parking lot and a soon-to-be-replaced parking deck,…
…and beginning construction of another on the corner of a key intersection.
Preparing to build affordable apartments near a GoTriangle park and ride.
Opening the new home for most of UNC Health’s outpatient facilities in the Eastowne district. This will be the first phase of a mixed-use development along 15-501 across the street from a former Amazon HQ2 candidate site. (Note that this would be a major reason against an Old Chapel Hill Rd. BRT alignment)
…but even then, it’s hard because Chapel Hill’s NIMBY influencers are privileged, bored, are merciless. Imagine if Livable Raleigh took a high school student’s op-ed and decided they should bully them in retaliation. That’s CHALT, Chapel Hill’s NIMBY party, and they had a stranglehold on local media and elections until that high school incident cost them last November’s election.
True, though transit upgrades for 15-501 are on NCDOT’s current STIP.
…then again, in fairness, the DCHC MPO’s also proposing to axe it from the next STIP. I still don’t think that’s mainly because of the state being anti-transit, though. The current STIP upgrade has to cut $8 billion in past overcommitments due of their budget shortfalls. Plus, that project is still making up for fuckups in its first feasibility study.
GoTriangle heard an update on the Orange County Transit Plan this Wednesday, and planners want to build BRT on 15-501 (and also to Southpoint and RTP along NC54). They couldn’t budget it until a horizon year of 2050, but did include an estimated “cost to implement Silver+ BRT [ITDP scale]” of $300M in Orange County ($50M/mile) in 2022 dollars. In the meantime, they want to:
Let buses skip lines of car traffic and drive on the shoulders of Manning Dr. and Fordham Blvd. (the two biggest traffic bottlenecks in Chapel Hill) in FY2026-28
Consolidate the GoTriangle 400 and 405 buses so they run consistent services all the way to Carrboro every 15min, all day, in FY2029
Spend the 2030s taking an “Incremental Step towards BRT on [the] US 15-501 Corridor” by running “Arterial Bus Rapid Transit on 15-501”. This also includes more shoulder widening and queue jumps, as well as traffic signal priority and BRT-like bus stations.
Upgrade the arterial rapid transit line into true BRT whenever they can get funding. “Silver” might sound bad, but in the BRT Standard, most “good” BRTs actually have that rating, and “Gold” can be risky overkill as Albuquerque found out the hard way.
Yeah, ITDP is very picky when it comes to BRT. Bronze is still excellent by American standards, so Silver would definitely be nothing to sneeze at.
pertinent items in NCDOT’s draft STIP. “Projects scheduled in the first five years are generally considered to be committed, while those on the latter half of the schedule are subject to be re-evaluated when the next STIP is developed.”
GO RALEIGH
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND FINAL DESIGN OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT IN WAKE TRANSIT WESTERN CORRIDOR (DOWNTOWN RALEIGH TO DOWNTOWN CARY).
2022
$46,668,000
CONSTRUCT BUS RAPID TRANSIT ON NEW BERN CORRIDOR.
2022
$47,454,000
US 64 BUSINESS (NEW HOPE ROAD) IN RALEIGH. CONSTRUCT TRANSFER FACILITY.
SOUTH WILMINGTON STREET AT PECAN ROAD IN RALEIGH. CONSTRUCT OFF-STREET TRANSFER FACILITY.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY GO RALEIGH
DESIGN, RIGHT OF WAY, AND CONSTRUCTION OF UP TO 100 NEW BUS STOP SITES IN THE CITY OF RALEIGH. SITES WILL BE BUILT FOR ADA ACCESSIBILITY AS WELL AS PASSENGER AMENITIES WHEN APPROPRIATE.
2020
$2,502,000
UNION STATION IN RALEIGH. CONSTRUCT BUS COMPONENT.
2020
$53,160,000
“O” FUNDING REFLECTS WAKE COUNTY TAX DISTRICT FUNDS AND GO TRIANGLE FUNDS; “DP” FUNDING REFLECTS “BUILD” DISCRETIONARY AWARD; “T” FUNDING REFLECTS REIMBURSEMENT TO CITY OF RALEIGH
RALEIGH UNION STATION BUS FACILITY INTER-CITY/COMMUTER RAIL PARK AND RIDE
2022
$5,625,000
CONSTRUCT NEW TRANSIT CENTER AT MIDTOWN AREA OF RALEIGH
2024 - 2025
$5,785,000
DEVELOPED ENHANCED TRANSFER POINTS THROUGHOUT GO RALEIGH SYSTEM IN LOCATION WITH HIGH RIDERSHIP (75 + BOARDINGS PER DAY)
2021
$1,185,000
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND FINAL DESIGN ON BUS RAPID TRANSIT IN WAKE TRANSIT PLAN NORTHERN CORRIDOR.
2020
$5,540,000
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND FINAL DESIGN OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT IN WAKE TRANSIT SOUTHERN CORRIDOR ( DOWNTOWN RALEIGH TO DOWNTOWN GARNER)
2022
$29,277,000
BUILD PARK AND RIDE FACILITY AT GORMAN STREET AT I-40 IN RALEIGH
2025 - 2027
$3,046,000
GORALEIGH PARK AND RIDE AT POOLE ROAD.
2021
$455,000
MAJOR INVESTMENT STUDY/ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS FOR BUS RAPID TRANSIT EXTENSION TO RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK AND CLAYTON.
2021
$430,000
Also:
GOTRIANGLE
BUILD NEW PARK AND RIDE AT HILLSBOROUGH ST AND I-440 IN RALEIGH.
2022 - 2023
$7,420,000
BUILD NEW PARK AND RIDE AT CREEDMOOR AND I-540 OR AT FALLS OF NEUSE AND I-540 IN RALEIGH.
2023 - 2024
$2,600,000
PURCHASE AND INSTALL SIGNAGE AT DESIGNATED LOCATIONS ALONG I-540 AND I-40 FOR BUS ON SHOULDER SYSTEM. (BOSS) UTILIZE EASTBOUND SHOULDER OF I-540 BETWEEN NC-147 AND CAPITAL BLVD AND EASTBOUND ON I-40 BETWEEN WADE AVENUE AND S SAUNDERS STREET.
2021
$454,000
EARLY PROJECT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES FOR COMMUTER RAIL FROM GARNER TO WESTERN DURHAM
2021
$9,200,000
GOTRIANGLE WAKE COUNTY BUS PLAN UPDATE.
2021
$750,000
CARY TRANSIT/C-TRAN
DOWNTOWN CARY MULTI-MODAL FACILITY.
2022
$44,200,000
VARIOUS
BUS RAPID TRANSIT SERVICE, CARY TO RALEIGH. CONSTRUCT INFRASTRUCTURE, PURCHASE VEHICLES, AND ESTABLISH SERVICE.
2022
$46,668,000
BUS RAPID TRANSIT SERVICE, RALEIGH TO GARNER. CONSTRUCT INFRASTRUCTURE, PURCHASE VEHICLES, AND ESTABLISH SERVICE.
2022
$29,277,000
BUS RAPID TRANSIT SERVICE, MORRISVILLE TO CARY. CONSTRUCT INFRASTRUCTURE, PURCHASE VEHICLES, AND ESTABLISH SERVICE.
NOT FUNDED
Does this mean we will actually see construction begin in 2022? I highly doubt it honestly.
Probably not until early next year. They’re currently acquiring right of way and easements for the next few months.
Dawg we’re not seeing BRT construction for another 15 f’king years at minimum, let’s be real here.
Go Triangle. Have to give the consultants time and their piece first. My confidence in this organization has dwindled. Curious to see how long the union station thing will take.
The BRT projects are mostly led by the City of Raleigh, not GoTriangle. These things take time, regardless.
Seems like Richmond’s popped up quickly. If that dysfunctional city can get it done…. I wonder when their process started.
If Wikipedia is to be trusted, the Pulse BRT traces its roots to transit studies in the '90s for BRT or light rail. In the early 2000s VDOT studied light rail and commuter rail but found they wouldn’t generate enough ridership to justify the cost. It wasn’t until 2010 when BRT was given serious study, which wrapped up in 2014 when community feedback and environmental studies were completed and the route was selected. After about two years of design and permitting it broke ground in late 2016 and opened for operation in June 2018.
So, if you consider 2010 as the start of their process, that’s about in line with Raleigh (for the New Bern line, at least) as we didn’t seriously begin planning efforts until about 2017 (after the sales tax referendum passed), and the line is expected to break ground next year and be open in 2025.
Y’all some grumpy little buggers.
Project site currently has groundbreaking scheduled for this coming winter. I haven’t been out to the corridor lately, but you should be seeing easement flags along New Bern very soon, if not already.
Like @Christopher said, GoTriangle actually has very little to do with this project: it’s the City of Raleigh that’s spearheading it. And, unlike GoTriangle, the City actually has a pretty good track record when it comes to following through on projects that are this far along in the process.
We’ve said this a million times, but I’m gonna say it again: I’d rather have this thing pushed back a year or two and planned properly than thrown together quickly with endless concessions. This whole BRT plan is only going to work if they get all of the elements right out the gate. It needs dedicated lanes, signal priority, proper TOD, attractive and accessible stations, the whole nine yards. The City cannot afford to cut any corners with this thing. If they do, they will fall short on ridership and thus encounter massive resistance to every future transit project they attempt.
So to that point of proper planning, who can fill the community in on the plan for DTR’s 2 bus stations? It appears BRT is currently planned to service the Moore square station only, but that’s gotta change once they build a newer multimodal station at Union station, right?
That, plus when the Western Blvd. service opens since that’s the first route that’s supposed to bring service to Union Station:
Yep, should come online with Western. Still don’t fully understand the routing here, but hey, whatever gets frequent, prioritized cross-town service. I really liked @orulz’s idea of a counter-clockwise loop that all four routes utilized (I’d link the post but have no clue where to find it), but it’s probably too late for that.
Also, I remember hearing a couple years ago that most GoTriangle routes would be shifted to RUS Bus once it’s open, while GoRaleigh routes would primarily remain at Moore Square. Not sure of the accuracy on that (or why you’d opt for regional routes connecting to commuter rail instead of local routes), but that’s what I recall.
FYI folks, BRT is apparently in the line of fire for virtue signaling folks screaming “displacement” and “gentrification”. People really don’t understand how this stuff works.
From last night’s council meeting:
“We don’t fund colonialism here.” Over an improved bus line. Good lord.
So these folks are against gentrification … and better public transportation? Make it make sense.
