Durham's Use of Public Transit Continues to Rise

The New York Times reports this morning that the rate of transit use in the U.S. continues to grow according to the report by American Public Transportation Organization (APTO), which has recently released its latest annual report.

Aside from national data, the report contains some interesting information about the overall growth of public transit ridership in. As detailed in the table below, the ridership increased by 13% from October 2010 to October 2011. In its press-release APTO specifically singled out Durham, along with the Triangle as a whole, as an sample of 2012 ridership increases. According to the press-release, the January saw a 15% increase in transit use in Durham.

Things are looking even better for the region as a whole. For the Triangle, the increase in ridership between October 2010 and October 2011 was at strong 16%. But the January 2012 growth was at a staggering 33.9%, with double digit increases every month they were tracking it.

 

To put all of these numbers perspective, consider that in large cities the bus ridership increased only by 0.4%  and the total transit use rose by 2.5%

This data should lend additional support and urgency to the need to implement light rail and other public transit solutions in the region. Durham has lead the way by passing the first transit referendum. And it leads North Carolina in transit use per capita. But now Orange and Wake counties must follow suit. And, if light and commuter rail is ever built, our neighborhood will be among its major beneficiaries because one of the major stations will be located just a short distance away from the Ninth Street Shopping District.

Here is to hoping that decision-makers in our and neighboring counties are drawing similar conclusions!

Durham Leads North Carolina in Public Transit Use

Although the bar is set  pretty low, it is heartening to see that according to American City Business Journal, The tri-county area that includes Durham leads the State in the number of transit users per capita. About 4% of all commuters in Durham use public transit, a seemingly low number that is made no less low by the fact that in the city the size of Charlotte only about 2% of all commuters use public transit. The number is still below the national average of 5% although, according to the Triangle Business Journal article, from which this data was taken, that number is heavily skewed by large transit-dependent cities like New York and Boston.

Of course, the hope is that with the wider implementation and adoption of the transit initiatives following last November's referendum, Durham numbers will rise significantly. And judging by the number of bike commuters in our own neighborhood, alternative forms of transit are increasingly taking root in the Bull City.

The increased use of public transit is good for the environment, the health and economic vitality of the community and for property values. In a recent article in the Atlantic Magazine, the authors describe how favorable public perception of light rail affects economic development and property values in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Future of Transit in the Triangle

The Herald Sun has a good article about the visit of the current FTA commissioner to the Triangle, which sums up the current state of the proposed transit plans for the Wake-Durham-Orange Tri-Country Region. The good news is that, as the article describes, all three counties are moving forward in planning for the proposed transit and aligning their wider zoning and long-term development plans to include transit. The bad news is that many of the proposals continue to make the crucial mistake of transit planners elsewhere: in the name of convenience and cost, the transit is routed through an existing major road artery, such as 15/501 corridor. Slate had an excellent article on the folly of this approach - if we want to spur dense development along the transit corridor, we must ensure that transit is easily accessible by pedestrians; plopping it in the middle of a median on 15/501 is not going to accomplish it. Washington, DC provides an excellent study in contrasts of two approaches. The first section of the Orange line through the Roslyn/Ballston corridor has been constructed underground, spurring massive and highly dense development overhead. In contrast, the rest of the Orange line runs along the I-66 corridor through  Fairfax County,creating massive parking lots on both sides of the highway and not much else. Given that one of the future stations is going to be built near Ninth Street, it is never too early to start thinking about how proposed design of the entire system will affect our our own neighborhood.

High Density development sprouted around underground transit

High pedestrian traffic and successful businesses abound

Versus

Surface parking lots

Barren landscape and little in the way of urban density