Transit Proposal Evokes Deja Vu
The Special Transit Advisory Commission, STAC, agreed Monday to a long-term plan for area transit. The plan’s details will be released later this month, but it appears that the new plan isn’t much different than the old TTA plan that suffered a massive political defeat.
Recommendations include pushing the plan for self-powered diesel locomotives on the L-shaped route joining North Raleigh, Downtown Raleigh, Cary, RTP, and Durham. Additionally, a light-rail route from UNC Hospitals to downtown Durham would be built, along with a better supporting bus network.
Designing a rail system for an area like this, one with so many small foci, is tough, but doable. While the new plan proposes to add Chapel Hill to the mix, it still is wrought with many of the TTA’s old problems that left taxpayers luke-warm at best. The overriding problem which transit “experts” keep ignoring is that people don’t envision themselves using this plan. The more the same plan is forced, the more resistance there will be.
The focus for the plan is getting people to their RTP workplaces, but the problem with RTP is that it is, in fact, not a focal area. It is widely dispersed and commands an extra transit leg for each employee choosing to join the anticipated 14,000 daily train riders. Not many will choose to drive to a park-and-ride, wait for a train in the elements, ride the train through many stops, then wait for a bus to slowly get them to their office. Real estimates show that people with 35 minute commutes would spend at least 75 minutes for each leg.
What we need is a plan that entices people to ride; one that people realistically see themselves using. If STAC wants to put together a plan that people will welcome, they need to show us that they did go back to the drawing board by producing a dream plan we’ve never seen, with no price tag. Otherwise habitual emotions will reject this plan, too. Show that this month’s plan is just “Phase I” of a master plan that works for most instead of being the implied final product. Instead of 56 miles of rail and buses at a cost of $2 billion, shoot for the sky. Put together a plan like this one which has something like 150 miles at a cost of $6 billion. Another idea uses several interlocking “U” shaped routes to overlap and serve RTP well.
People have a comfort zone for spending and cannot comprehend numbers above that zone. Very few people will have a different emotional response to a $6 billion price tag than they would a $2 billion price tag. Either way, the John Locke Foundation hims and haws, right? The difference is that the more comprehensive plan is something people see themselves using more than just for novelty purposes.
There is a nice little dreamy transit site on the net called Carfree Cities. The site outlines a plan where 6 million people could live in an area smaller than the Triangle all less than 35 total minutes away from each other. The plan calls for the typical “string of pearls” transit-oriented-developments, but the string resembles a flower. Something similar could be done in the Triangle, actually, and would actually be able to serve many of RTP’s largest employers without a local shuttle bus system.
I’m not a huge fan of the inefficiencies of a custom-built, high occupancy transit vehicle-based system, but if we’re going to do one, let’s do one that is better than Atlanta’s. I repeatedly hear Atlanta critics who think we can avoid Atlanta’s problems by implementing dumbed-down version of Atlanta’s rail system! This makes no sense. Let’s do better.
Go ahead STAC. Dream and give us something to dream about. Give us something that excites more than 14,000 of our 1,000,000 people.
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am
“Dream and give us something to dream about. Give us something that excites more than 14,000 of our 1,000,000 people.”
I agree. The problem is it appears that any transit plan will try to retrofit our transportation plans to work with what we already have (sprawl). If that’s the case — while it would still be a step in the right direction — then it will be called a boondoggle and a tax black hole. The best plan is to significantly work on building up the mixed-use possibilities along the transit line. Make this a land-use/smart growth proposition and design the growth around the transit line, not try to retrofit it to growth that’s not conducive to it. If that means ignoring the current RTP workers’ needs, then so be it. Maybe RTP, like the rest of the region once rail is here, will build around it.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:21 am
In theory, light rail seems like a great idea. It probably is a great idea, but there seems to be too much fawning over other light rail systems (Charlotte, Atlanta, DC/Northern VA) and not enough customization for our area needs. I admit, I don’t know all the ins and outs of this proposal this time, but is RDU Airport included? If not, once again, this is a HUGE mistake. Everyone with whom I talked about the last plan with was shocked that a stop at the airport was not in the original plan. I mean, come on. How insane.
In regards to RTP workers (something I happen to know a bit about), I think we would be THE target audience for this type of system. However, as Dana points out, the way RTP is laid out makes my 25 to 30 min. average morning commute turn into a 1.5 hour commute if this system is implemented as proposed. Asking people to TRIPLE their commute time and give up the freedom of being able to have their car available rather than being beholden to a transit schedule is not going to fly.
Lastly, taxes. Right now this proposal relies on raising taxes. How typical. Why is it impossible for politicians to come up with something that would not raise my taxes and would also be self-sustaining? I bet this system would never make money in its current proposed form.
Triple my commute time?
Raise my taxes (again)?
No stop at the airport?
No way.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I know people who do not work in RTP don’t understand why the TTA does not start with a loop in Raleigh and one in Durham. I think after the 2nd go around with the TTA, they realize you still have to connect the regions. There has to be a backbone.
As a RTPer, I could get to work fairly quickly, especially during rush hour with light rail service.
For the airport, get me close to RDU and I am OK. You don’t have to provide a entry point 50 yards from baggage claim. I have traveled the US and the world and yes, walking to the train stop in the airport is great but to be honest, walking outside the terminal and catching a bus for a short ride is no big deal. The distance between Miami Blvd. (airport stop) and the airport is a short drive so I guess I don’t understand why people keep bringing this up. It could happen in years to come but it just may not happen the first time around.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am
They say that airport stops are some of the lesser-used stops in rail systems, which is kind of surprising. For almost my entire childhood we went out to the airport to take/pick up my father twice a week. It would have been a lot simpler for him to call us from the airport as he was boarding the train headed for Wake Forest road, but that’s just my story:)
One thing that is brought up with trains a lot is the concept of a multimodal center; one station that handles Amtrak, local rail, and buses. It seems like the airport really ought to be a regional multimodal system. People from all those towns down the train line could ride to the airport or to a system to take them anywhere in the triangle. The airport and it’s poor long term vision is the subject of a whole thread coming later, though.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Dana,
I would bet the plan you proposed would cost closer to $20B, not 6, as hard as that is to comprehend. Actually, a long proposed DC Metro extension to Dulles Airport was just rejected by the feds. IIRC, it cost over $4B for just one line extension of heavy rail.
Forget about corridors and light rail for a moment… you begin by looking at intensive activity centers, or ‘pearls’ as you put it… the PLACES one might want to connect first. So for the Triangle, let’s look at the major activity centers we might want to connect in the region–off the top of my head:
UNC+Med, Downtown Chapel Hill, Duke+Med, Downtown Durham, NCCU, Southpoint, RTP, RDU, Cary, Crabtree, North Hills, Triangle Towne Center, RBC Center/Stadium/Fairgrounds area, NCSU, Downtown Raleigh, Wake Med, Rex, N. Raleigh. Did I miss any? Maybe, but I think I got most of them. Now overlay all those places against this map (what I think is the STAC 2035 plan):
If this was the first time you saw that map, wouldn’t you think it did a pretty comprehensive job of connecting the region?
Maybe I’m too interwoven in the industry to completely understand the average person’s reaction to the plan, but I actually think they got it mostly right, even if some of it looks the same.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I work in downtown Raleigh. My other half works in RTP and was very tired of sitting on I-40 every day. Therefore we cashed out our ITB Raleigh house and bought near RTP and a future TTA train stop. Now I drive home at 65+ opposite the heavy traffic; however, I know the day will come when 40 will be at a stand still every rush hour in both directions. I’m hoping by that day I’ll have my train from RTP to downtown!