Transportation
- June 12, 2008
Public forum on transit scheduled for June 26
The Triangle needs some form of reliable, timely public transportation to connect us. Sure you can catch a bus in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. You can even catch a bus between the cities (though as downtown Raleigh blogger Leo recently discovered, there are some issues with it). But efforts to bring other mass transit to the Triangle have stalled mostly because it’s super expensive.
But if you’re interested in finding out what speed bumps really stand in the way of bringing enhanced transit to the Triangle, then steer yourself over to N.C. State University next week for a forum aimed at raising awareness about transit issues.
The event is called “Transit: Is Wake County Ready for It?” and is being sponsored by Wake Up Wake County, a group of residents who educate others about the effects of local growth. It runs from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursday June 26 at NCSU’s McKimmon Center, 1101 Gorman St., Raleigh.
The keynote speakers are Carol Coletta, who leads CEO’s for Cities and hosts an NPR syndicated program called “Smart Cities” and Keith Parker, CEO of Charlotte’s CATS, the city’s new rail service.
The forum will provide an evening of open dialogue about the real potential for transit’s success in Wake County. WakeUP hopes that the event will propel the community to action as it evaluates the recommendations recently made by the Special Transit Advisory Committee and the state’s 21st Century Transportation Committee. No other citizen group in Wake County is organizing a similar public education event on transit.
A panel discussion on transit in the Triangle will be moderated by Nina Szlosberg, DOT and 21st Century Transportation CommitteeBoard member. Members of the panel will include Smedes York (STAC co-chair), Courtney Crowder (SE Raleigh Assembly), Mary Ann Baldwin (Raleigh City Council), Matt Christiansen (KB Home) and other business leaders in Wake County. There will be no admission charge.
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4 Responses to “Public forum on transit scheduled for June 26”
The problem in Raleigh is that everything is so spread out. It just doesn’t seem to be feasible to have public transportation connecting all the various areas of raleigh - North Raleigh, RTP, downtown, North Hills, Glenwood South, Briar Creek (if you can even call that Raleigh), etc. But I’m not public transportation expert so I’m interested in hearing the ideas that come out of this forum.
By Jason Peck on Jun 12, 2008
So, is this specifically for Wake County or for the Triangle in general?
By allen on Jun 17, 2008
Allen,
It appears that the forum will also focus on Triangle issues … here’s a line from the press release:
Overview of new proposal for regional transit in Wake and the Triangle
By ginny on Jun 18, 2008
Thank you! Living in Durham (a slightly more centralized city), I’m very interested in inter-city transportation that could become better Triangle Transit. One day, probably a long time from now, we’ll have a decent train system. Hey, who knows? Maybe higher gas prices will produce reverse urban sprawl?
By allen on Jun 21, 2008