transit

Another Transit Tuesday for the County Commissioners

Damon Seils — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:07:54 -0600

A few years ago, did you imagine you would find yourself wondering whether the Orange County Board of Commissioners supported basic progressive causes like enhanced public transit and smart land use planning?

Light Rail Routing Advocacy for Meadowmont

geoff_green — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:14:44 -0600

Last week, the Meadowmont Community Association (our homeowners' association) sent out a letter (a paper letter, via actual mail!) with the nominal purpose of informing residents of upcoming hearings before Town Council on the routing of the proposed light rail line. (For details on the issue, see my first blog post and my followup.) It omitted some important details however, so I wrote a response and emailed it around to some of my neighbors. I've posted it on my new single-issue website http://meadowmontlightrail.com, and I'm reprinting it below. I hope everyone has a great 2012. — Geoffrey F. Green

Commissioners to discuss transit at work session Thursday

Ed Harrison — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:32:33 -0600

Hope some folks will join me in observing the Orange Commissioners' work session on transit, Thursday, 7 PM, at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road.

The title of the agenda item: Triangle Regional Transit Program – Orange County Bus and Rail Investment Plan; Alternatives Analysis and the Locally Preferred Alternative. There are two attachments. The first was compiled by County staff and is interesting, in many ways.

Ruby (with Izzy) were the bulk of the citizens in the room for the Commissioners' discussion of transit last last month. Because Izzy declared that he had other priorities, Ruby left me to let the Commissioners know that the grassroots organization was out there waiting for a signal from the Commissioners to get going on a transit referendum. It will most likely happen in the November 2012 election

Light rail, redux

geoff_green — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:06:55 -0600

Back in June, you may recall that I wrote a blog post (and a commentary on WCHL) about that month's planned decision by Chapel Hill Town Council on the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for Triangle Transit's proposed light-rail line connecting Durham and Chapel Hill. To recap briefly, the two choices are (a) running the light-rail line through a transit corridor reserved when Town Council approved Meadowmont in 1995, with a station right in front of the Harris Teeter on Meadowmont Lane; or (b) running the light rail line down the south side of NC-54 with a stop in the proposed Hillmont development (formerly known as Woodmont) just east of Barbee Chapel. For various reasons, the decision was delayed, but it's coming up again.

Solve budget woes through growth, not cuts

MLouis — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:43:44 -0500

An article in the Chapel Hill News on Sunday gave me pause on the candidates for the Chapel Hill town council. When asked to speak on town spending, all resorted immediately to either vague plans for reductions or, astonishingly, proposals to charge for transit, which is by far the most effective service Chapel Hill offers.

Instead of deciding which items to cut, the candidates for the council should commit to a pro-growth agenda. Rezone the entire downtown core as TC-3-C, and consider removing the height cap for downtown. Allow people to build along the planned light rail corridor to Durham. Expedite the review process so every proposal doesn't get dragged down in years of bickering.

Durham-Orange Corridor Rail Alternatives Workshop

gercohen — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:24:51 -0500

NOTE: This is NOT a public hearing or a forum, nor is it a meeting, but public comments will be received. It is one-on-one with staff, Monday 8/29, 4-7 pm, CH Municipal Bldg. Attendees will get a chance to see DETAILS of the Durham-Orange Rail Transit Plan. Durham County residents (including 2,071 voters in the Town of Chapel Hill who live in Durham County) vote November 8 on a 1/2% sales tax to fund rail and bus transit expansion. Orange County has not yet set a vote.

http://www.dchcmpo.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=35

The DCHC MPO has released the rail transit Alternatives Analysis for public comment. See Web page for report copies and opportunities for providing comments, and for a recent addendum (August 2011) to the report.
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Public Input Meeting on Eubanks Park and Ride Lot Expansion

Erin Crouse — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:41:46 -0500

News release from the Town:

A public input meeting on the expansion of the Eubanks Road Park and Ride lot will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31, in the Great Hall of the Seymour Senior Center, 2551 Homestead Road.
Park and Ride is an important component of Chapel Hill's transportation system. To allow adequate time for the planning, design and construction of an expanded park and ride lot in the north end of Martin Luther King Boulevard, the six-month process will begin with a feasibility study.
Chapel Hill Transit (CHT) desires adequate park-and-ride capacity developed in an environmentally-friendly, financially-efficient manner that supports transit-compatible redevelopment of adjacent properties. The objectives of the study are to:
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The Future of Regional Transit

Erin Crouse — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:05:45 -0500

Last week was a bad week for local and regional transit. The County Commissioners voted to postpone the half-cent sales tax referendum for increased service and future light rail, and Chapel Hill Transit submitted a budget with heavy service reductions (including cutting service completely to two neighborhoods). With these decisions, it is likely that it will be several years before we see improvements to our transit system.

Public Meeting for proposed Durham and Orange Counties Bus and Rail Investment Plans

admin — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 10:44:36 -0500

News release from City of Durham

Light rail

geoff_green — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:09:14 -0500

On June 27, the Chapel Hill Town Council will be providing recommendations to the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Transportation Advisory Committee regarding the alignment of the proposed light rail line which will connect Chapel Hill with Durham, UNC Hospitals with Duke Hospital and downtown Durham. As a Meadowmont resident, I'm particularly interested in the choices of routing which involve Meadowmont, and I'm interested in what others in the local progressive community think about the options.

When the approval of the Meadowmont community was up before Town Council in 1995, one of its selling points, and presumably one of the reasons Roger Perry and East-West Partners were allowed to build at such high densities, was the reservation of a 50-foot wide mass-transit corridor (see also here). The corridor is still there, still free of development, and passes by the commercial area and rental apartments before making a turn behind the residences in the Cedars retirement community.