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2035 Triangle Regional Transit Vision Plan


ChiefJoJo

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2 hours ago, ctl said:

Wake County has now mapped absentee and early votes from November 2016 into precinct totals. The full dataset is available at http://www.wakegov.com/elections/data/Past Election Results/2016-11-08 - General Election/20161108ResultsByPrecinct.htm. Here is a map with precincts in orange that voted in favor of the transit tax, courtesy of Gerry Cohen. Enough support in most Raleigh and Cary precincts to overcome opposition elsewhere in the county.

15965578_10104182926224138_4575830251043368433_n.jpg

 

also passed in every Morrisville precinct, most Garner precincts, and about half of the Apex precincts. It also passed in little old Zebulon (that's the precinct in the far eastern part of the county, totally away from the urban areas that voted heavily yes)

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  • 6 months later...

The FTA has granted approval for DOLRT to enter into the final engineering phase of project development.

http://gotriangle.org/news/article?item=f1127c3a-8fff-4e15-921a-0a25e8920cc4

This is the next step to progress towards federal funding approval. The NCGA's intransigence nearly derailed this approval and (I believe) gotriangle still has a big challenge to find the 15% of project funding that was originally assumed to come from the state before an FFGA can be signed.

 

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On 7/28/2017 at 9:04 PM, DwnTwnRaleighGuy said:

And if I am reading this correctly, it is possible to have light-rail running between Durham and Chapel-Hill by 2028? 

Yes, that's the plan. Engineering phase starts now, construction 2020, and opens 2028. The only reason it will take that long is that only so much funding can be spent per year, so they have to drag it out by a few years longer than it would actually take so they can get the max funding each year. 

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

The City of Raleigh has accepted Oaks & Spokes' donation to build a protected cycle track along West St. between Hargett and Jones. 

http://www.raleighnc.gov/home/news/content/CorNews/Articles/OaksAndSpokes.html

I think this is really neat, especially since I had first heard of the plan on InboundRaleigh and was hoping O&C would reach their goal.

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4 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

It’s a locked article. Anyone care to share?

Here ya go:

Quote

While it’s still years away from construction – and still subject to federal funding decisions – the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project is a major priority for regional transit agency GoTriangle in 2018.

That’s according to Jeff Mann, GoTriangle’s general manager, speaking a week after Amazon named the Triangle as a finalist for its HQ2. The e-commerce giant has listed mass transit accessibility as a priority in its site selection.

Mann says he’s had several conversations with officials about the company over the past week.

“We look forward to working with partners in the region,” he says. But regardless of what the Seattle firm decides to do, he sees light rail making a difference in Triangle traffic.

Last summer, the feds gave GoTriangle permission to enter into the engineering phase, a $100 million effort that takes the project from 30 percent to a final design. And, as design work continues, Mann says plans are also progressing for what officials call the ROMF – the “Rail Operations and Maintenance Facility.”

GoTriangle has made offers to all nine property owners whose 15 parcels make up the ROMF, space that will not only accommodate staff but also have the space to store, service and maintain up to 26 light rail vehicles.  

Mann says those negotiations with landowners “are progressing,” but declined to comment further about the process.

A map from 2016 of the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project

A map from 2016 of the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project

In GoTriangle’s monthly update memo to Orange County commissioners last week, the agency told officials that, if settlements aren’t reached, “GoTriangle will request authorization from the Board to acquire any remaining parcels by eminent domain.”

The facility is targeted to start construction in 2019.

But it’s just one piece of the expansive – and expensive – light rail plan for the region.

Elected officials in both Durham and Orange counties added yet another element in December, voting to add a station in downtown Durham between Blackwell and Mangum streets. That change is being submitted to the FTA for re-evaluation as part of the engineering phase, as it wasn’t on the original paperwork. Mann says it’s simply an “added component,” and hasn’t contributed to any delays.

According to the update memo, the project is still on track to finish 50 percent of the design work by March. Stakeholders, including Durham, Chapel Hill and the N.C. Department of Transportation, will formally review the plans and provide comments to GoTriangle.

The project is expected to complete 75 percent of the design phase this fall, and finish in 2019. That’s when GoTriangle hopes to obtain the full federal funding agreement for the project so that construction can get started.

GoTriangle continues to count on the Federal Transit Administration following through with its end of the deal. The FTA’s approval for “pre-award authority” is not a guarantee that the project will get the more than $1.2 billion in Capital Investment Grants that account for more than half of the light rail costs – though officials have said repeatedly they believe the feds will recognize the project’s importance.

The 17.7-mile system is projected to provide more than 26,000 trips per day to residents and commuters in Durham and Chapel Hill when it’s complete.

 

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  • 3 months later...

GoTriangle is holding a round of meetings about the Wake County transit plan in the coming weeks. The first meeting already happened, in fact.

The subject is Bus Rapid Transit and the Frequent Bus Network.  This will be the "core" of transit in the Raleigh area and implementation should happen between now and 2027.

Monday, April 30, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Garner Town Hall (2nd floor)

Thursday, May 3, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
GoRaleigh Operations Center

Monday, May 14, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WakeMed Andrews Conference Center

Tuesday, May 15, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Cary Arts Center (Paul Cooper Room)

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The BRT planners are certainly not doing anything to endear themselves to North Raleigh/North Wake residents, even though a fair number of North Raleigh/North Wake precincts voted for the tax. I wonder if they'd vote that way again, having seen the map.

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Not every corridor can have BRT, and they've chosen the three highest ridership single routes (Capital, New Bern, and South Saunders) plus the westbound corridor which has a lot of ridership spread out over several routes (GoRaleigh 4, 11, 12, and the GoTriangle 100, 105, 300, and 301.)  I don't think that BRT on Falls, Six Forks, or even Glenwood, really makes sense at this time..

TL;DR: I think the BRT is in the right place.

However, I definitely have the feeling that ending the "frequent network" at the beltline for every corridor except Capital is a mistake on multiple levels.

First, politically, as you state. It leaves out too much of the city.

Second, for social justice. A disproportionate amount of that frequent service winds up  going through the richest, most exclusive parts of ITB Raleigh like Hayes-Barton.

Third, for ridership. Many of those ITB neighborhoods that wind up getting all the frequent service  will have little chance of attracting riders out of their Teslas and BMWs, zero prospect for getting denser, and really aren't even all that dense compared with some of the older, often rather affordable apartment and townhome complexes scattered throughout North Raleigh,

So, I think that extending the frequent routes further up corridors like Glenwood, Six Forks, and Falls might be a better use of resources than having frequent crosstown routes that bypass downtown.

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9 hours ago, orulz said:

Second, for social justice. A disproportionate amount of that frequent service winds up  going through the richest, most exclusive parts of ITB Raleigh like Hayes-Barton.

In order to connect downtown to Crabtree (busy transfer point) you have to go through ITB Hayes Barton.

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Not necessarily.  A BRT extension could be run Crabtree-Edwards Mill-Duraleigh-Blue Ridge and then connect with the Cary-downtown BRT. It wouldn't be slower than slogging down Glenwood. Crabree-Blue Ridge is already on their service map; the question is whether it should be BRT. 

 

What Crabtree needs is a mini-hub where buses that serve Brier Creek via Glenwood, Creedmoor Rd, downtown, Rex/NCMA, etc converge for passenger exchange. I don't believe Crabtree Valley Mall is the right location for that; it's too congested and time-consuming to get buses in and out of the mall. The city/county should look for a free-standing bus interchange point somewhere near the corner of Glenwood, Creedmoor, and Edwards Mill. 

 

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You probably know this, but there already is a significant transit hub at the mall. It's nice enough: it's under the parking deck, so it's sheltered from the rain, and it's fairly easy to walk into the mall. It does take the buses a bit of time to get in/out, as you mention, but there's potential to improve that with the new Crabtree Valley Avenue interchange that they're planning. They're also planning on reworking the routes in West Raleigh in a way fairly similar to what you mention.

To have an efficient route to Crabtree you have to go up Glenwood, which means going through Hayes-Barton. I recognize that. Glenwood also seems to be gradually moving in the same direction as Peachtree Road in Atlanta between Midtown and Buckhead, where everything within one block is redeveloped into denser multifamily and offices, while keeping the SFH neighborhoods behind it intact. Having frequent bus service in place during that transition is probably worthwhile.

However, I have more of an issue with the crosstown route from Centennial Campus to North Hills.  To me it seems like having both of these routes allocates too much resources to the richest part of Raleigh. These two frequent routes cross at Glenwood/St. Mary's, which is smack in the middle of everywhere, but at the same time is a nowhere itself, with nothing but high-income single family neighborhoods and a golf course within a half-mile radius, and little potential for increasing density along St Mary's or Lassiter Mill in our lifetimes. Coupled with the fact that the only frequent service that extends more than a mile outside the beltline into North Raleigh is on Capital Blvd, you can see how the optics might be troublesome from a general social justice standpoint as well as for residents of North Raleigh at large. I also think there's more potential for infill and redevelopment to increase density along OTB corridors like Glenwood, Six Forks, Falls, and Atlantic than there is in Hayes-Barton.

I also question whether the density and uses are there to justify frequent service along Blue Ridge Road, at the expense of extending frequent service  further out the radial corridors. In the future, perhaps, but today? Not really. 

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^Why's that? Too expensive, not enough benefits? Too much opposition?

NCDOT actually had a meeting on Monday about this. I saw no notice about this meeting (and I keep track of this stuff pretty carefully) so they must have only invited people who live nearby. According to the news, it went about as could be predicted:  a bunch of people who live nearby came and most who spoke were opposed. Some of the concerns were hyperbolic NIMBYism but others seemed reasonable.

Personally I think the idea has promise.

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I think Creedmoor Road would be a highly used corridor. It is peppered with shopping centers and there are tons of townhouses mushed in all over behind them. 

I'd like to see the Crabtree station at J Alexander's corner. Send the frequent service line up Blue Ridge/Edwards Mill to the station, up Creedmoor, right on Strickland (to hit the high density stuff at Six Forks/Strickland), all the way to Falls, then back down Falls through the gullet of office buildings between Millbrook and the Beltline and connect back downtown. I don't think much of Six Forks road's population is interested in a frequent bus line, but DO think Creedmoor and Falls both are/would be. 

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Oh, I believe something should be done about Crabtree. I just question whether NCDOT and the City have the nerve to make it happen -- the political cost as well as the financial cost. How many times have we seen proposals quietly die? 

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44 minutes ago, ctl said:

Oh, I believe something should be done about Crabtree. I just question whether NCDOT and the City have the nerve to make it happen -- the political cost as well as the financial cost. How many times have we seen proposals quietly die? 

They're trying, albeit at a snails pace:
https://www.wral.com/plan-underway-to-reduce-traffic-around-crabtree-valley-mall-/17521765/

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31 minutes ago, orulz said:

This is getting off topic, but NCDOT does have $90 million allocated towards the Crabtree project starting in 2022, which in planning terms is practically tomorrow.

^ which would damn near pay the local contribution on a streetcar connecting NCSU, downtown and Five Points (not meant to imply that any such thing is on the drawing board)

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