Working on a project at the moment, and I found myself getting hung up by the semantics of light rail vs. streetcar. Probably not worth much, but I found this little tidbit which was a nice run down…
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All electric buses are now operating at RDU. As a plus the lack of rumbling diesel/gas engines will reduce motion sickness and improve ride quality.
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I just noticed one of these last week when we flew back from San Diego. Definitely a lack of rumbling.
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I love the electric vehicles. The first time I had an electric car rolling behind me in the parking lot a couple years ago… just the crunch of the tires on the asphalt. So cool! It’s great for fleet vehicles like these buses for sure.
I saw that University Apartments just south of Mission Valley was recently sold to a developer out of Cali. They mention density along the Avent Ferry Corridor and 5 story development. If Avent Ferry starts blowing up, Mission Valley has the potential to become a significant transit node.
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I started a new job recently and my new commute is via bike (bought an E-bike) with a big portion on Avent Ferry. Could realy relly use a greenway style mutliuse path on each side of that road.
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Remember wishing the same thing when biking to the Durham VA during my postdoctoral study back before the American Tobacco Trail opened. Bikeways were more established when bike commuting in Columbus during my residency. (Those were the days!)
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There’s an Avent Ferry Road corridor study underway now. My memory is that all preliminary design options include bike Lanes. I’ll find a link and post shortly.
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I could find nothing on the Avent Ferry Corridor study on the City’s new website. I’m sure they’re still working out the kinks on the new site.
Here’s an N&O article on it from 2018 that shows some cross sections of design options.
A couple other potentially relevant projects:
New sidewalk to connect Centennial bikeway to Avent Ferry.
This is nice because it fills a relatively small gap in an otherwise decent bike/ped network.
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I was reading a few unrelated things, but came across some interesting ideas. Are any of these things ideas that Raleigh (or someone in NC) could go for?
1. Fund more transit projects -directly with the help of visitors to the area
Miami was able to pull this off because they have the world’s biggest cruise port there -something that Raleigh obviously won’t ever have. But can’t we do something similar, like congestion pricing and fees for Uber/Lyft users where public transit is totally available?
2. Give transit operators a slice of the pie to make projects cost less/happen faster
As it turns out, Norfolk Southern actually doesn’t mind public-private partnerships sometimes, and even has a real estate operation. Their properties aren’t really awe-inspiring, to be fair, but they’re still certified to do it.
Does this mean that, if NS can be convinced to start some developments of their own, we may be able to use that as a way to make the Southeast Higher-speed Rail or commuter rail to happen/be paid for more quickly?
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Sure, why not, raise my taxes to drive my car to work so I can pay more taxes. Why not raise them so high that it’s not worth going to work in a car, on a bike, on a bus. I love when us hard working blue bloods just minding our business have to be screwed with for the sake of ppl downtown with their elite transit ideas.
Us pll driving our cars are not the friggin enemy, it’s because we have to. We already pay a crap ton of taxes on the federal, state, local, registration, inspection, gas taxes, and other hidden expenses from govt.
The city and county continue to raise tax for schools, parks, recreation, services and transportation bonds and such.
Seems like a lot of it must be wasted. How many times have we repaved 40 and 440 with mistakes.
Any way, Happy Thanksgiving
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You make some good points that I was alluding to elsewhere. Public-private partnerships are definitely becoming a thing.
The NCDOT has made freight-related investments with the CSX Carolina Connector currently undergoing construction in Rocky Mount. And, the North Carolina State Port Authority worked with Norfolk Southern to create the Charlotte Inland Terminal back in 1984.
Locally, the NCRR owns the H Line and is getting courted with ways to have Norfolk Southern, it’s primary tenant, to share the road with the likes of GoTriangle. And, there’s the usual noise about the state buying the abandoned portion of the S-Line north of Norlina to the Virginia state line.
We’re already seeing the explosion of projects centered around RUS as well as Durham Station. So, in the vein of what you’ve proposed, Norfolk Southern has a plum piece of real estate at Glenwood Yard which has serious potential. The funny thing about the yard, though, is that even though it was ‘abandoned’ in favor of Selma Yard, there has been a pick up in traffic.
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What if North Hills (or any nearby locale) had been developed like this?
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…but the name of the development is called Culdesac.
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Kansas City becomes the first major city with fare free transit service in the US: https://www.435mag.com/kansas-city-becomes-first-major-american-city-with-universal-fare-free-public-transit/
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This seems applicable here. The City is looking for feedback on what the future of Capital Blvd North should look like:
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This just dropped. The Virginia DOT is going to drop $3.7B on purchasing the RF&P mainline from CSX. This will make it a passenger only corridor for Virginia Railway Express regional commuter and Amtrak.
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This is really exciting!
…though, correction: the entire NoVA line is not going to become passenger-only; this is ONLY primarily true for the Long Bridge on the Potomac near DC.
BUT!! The DC2RVA line is only the second most important part of this article for all of us on this website. If you ask me, THIS is the exciting news:
I’m really curious about how Virginia’s DoT managed to pull this deal off, though. What made CSX say yes -and more importantly, can we adopt any part of their tactics for trains from Raleigh to Wilmington/Fayetteville/Asheville?
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