Sic transit gloria, Raleigh-Chapel Hill route
Tom Jensen, the bright young man who’s running the shop for Dean Debnam’s Public Policy Polling, commutes to Raleigh from Chapel Hill. On the Triangle Transit’s express bus, which is a big step up from the bad old days when there was no such bus, but not such a happy experience nonetheless — as Jensen explains in a heartfelt plea to our Triangle legislators. Read it and weep, and then come to WakeUP Wake County’s transit forum next Thursday, June 26, 7 p.m., at the McKimmon Center, NCSU (off Western Boulevard).
Dear Triangle Legislators,
The transit system in the Triangle is in critical condition due to the strain put on it by increased ridership in the last few months.
Tonight folks waiting at NC State to take a bus from Raleigh back home to Chapel Hill had to wait as long as 90 minutes to catch a ride. The 4:49 bus broke down. Then the 5:24 bus was so full of downtown commuters who would have been on the 4:49 bus that not only was every seat occupied but the aisles were completely full of folks standing for the 55 minute ride to Chapel Hill. Only about five of the 40 people who were waiting to get on the bus at State were able to board the bus since it was already filled well past capacity. Around 5:45 word came that the 5:49 bus was also packed to the gills from people who got on downtown and thus would not be stopping at State either. Finally a little after 6 TTA sent an extra bus to pick up people waiting at NCSU, some of whom had been waiting since 4:30, and take them home.
Most of these folks got home around 7 PM. In the time it took them to get a bus home tonight they could have just about driven to Charlotte, Richmond, or Wilmington.
Bus riders become a much more tightly knit group when things are going wrong. Many stories were told by those waiting of family dinners, meetings with professors, and community activities that were being missed for the evening because of this commuting disaster.
Most days it’s not this bad, but by no means was this an isolated occurrence. I don’t fault TTA, but they simply can not handle the massive increase in ridership with their current funding that has occurred in the last couple months due to gas prices. Their buses are old. They break down constantly. The air conditioning works less than half of the time. It is not pleasant to have to stand all the way back from Raleigh to Chapel Hill or be packed in like sardines when the temperature is 100 degrees and the air conditioning is not working. A few months ago a bus even caught fire and was almost completely destroyed in a Chapel Hill parking lot, just moments after three dozens commuters had stepped off of it. It was a miracle that no one was injured in that incident, but it’s an indication of what poor repair some of TTA’s fleet is in.
It will be very hard to consider the short session a success unless something major is done to help the transit situation both short and long term in the Triangle. Gas prices aren’t going down any time soon, and the demand is going to continue to spiral and put an increasingly heavy strain on our system.
We need to reward people for doing the right thing. If we want people to use public transportation, it needs to be reliable, comfortable, and convenient. The folks who live in Orange and Durham Counties and work in Raleigh are true residents of the Triangle. They spend their tax dollars in all three of our counties, and if they’re willing to sacrifice some time and take their cars off of our clogged roadways we need to make it worth their while.
It is my understanding that an important measure that could help us bring our transit system into the 21st century has been bottled up because of concern about the funding mechanism. I, too, am no fan of the sales tax. But I would prefer it to nothing. Every session that goes by without something significant being done to help the transit situation in the Triangle just causes the situation to get worse and worse. We are going to have to make sacrifices to deal with this problem.
It is critical that you all do not wait for the next session but act now.
Thank you for your conscientious service to North Carolina,
Tom Jensen