In Depth: Best And Worst Commutes In Small Cities http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/24/cities-commute-fuel-forbeslife-cx_mw_0424realestate.html Worst: No. 2: Raleigh, N.C. Raleigh is a victim of its own success. Like Atlanta, it's one of the fastest-growing cities in America, and its infrastructure development has trailed its job creation and population growth. Drivers spend 35 hours a year in traffic, yet only 11% carpool and just 2% use public transit or walk. This makes for an efficiency rating not far off from congested--and larger--Dallas
Here are two words that will send shivers down any fical convservatives spine MASS TRANSIT or lack there of.... IE light rail. commuter rail. more buses, trolleys running in downtown areas....etc. The completion of I-540, HOV lanes, Widening I-40 from US-1 to Wade Avenue. Widen I-440 from Wade Ave to I-40. One pipe dream would be to make Gov Easley's administration pay back all the funds they stole from the highway trust fund to balance their budget
mass transit will never work here. people won't ride the bus in chapel hill for free. which reminds me, the traffic here is not just two cities with rtp in the middle, it's three: chapel hill. actually, it's four: cary is now bigger than chapel hill. i'm all for the highway projects you mention, though...
I lived in Coral Springs, Florida when they went and started tri rail. The fiscal conservatives would come up with the same ole tired bull that the tri rail would be a boondoggle and that no one would ride it. The Tri rail started on sharing the FEC tracks that ran along I-95 ( http://www.tri-rail.com/ ). It ran from just north of West Palm Beach to just south of Miami. With connecting vans to the three airports. Each train consisted of an engine and three double decker cars. That was back in 1988. The Traffic along I-95 had gotten so bad more people are riding the train the ever. The trains consist now of an engine and 5 double decker cars, and more trains on the schedule. From what my family who still lives down there tell me, Tri rail is adding one or two more sets of tracks to run along side the existing FEC lines. And most tri rail stations are only a few miles away, maybe 10-12 miles at the most. I use to live in Coral Springs and work in South Beach. It would cost me 5 dollars for a round trip ticket from Pompano beach station to Miami. Then for a buck i would catch a jitney that would take me to the beach. And on the way back someone would drop me off at the train station. And for $6.00 i could go to and from work. It would cost me twice that amount if i had to drive it every day and pay for gas and parking. Imagine going from exit 312 all the way to downtown Chapel Hill and back for 6.00 for gas and parking. And imagine riding the train and having use of WI-FI
as a kid i lived in Northern NJ and use to take mass transit into NYC. Hated the traffic and the costs of parking and bridge\tunnel costs. With congestion already here and slated to get worse, I am just afraid that this area will grow so much with no alternate transportation that large corporations move out of the area and take their best employees with them. And new corporations won't want to move here. I know that sounds naive, just a thought
I had to agree. After checking it out, I agree that Rochester, NY, is one of the best place to commute. While living there during my college years way back, I didn't have any problem commuting from my apartment to a campus. I also agree that Los Angeles is one of the worst place to drive. Been there, done that.
the difference i think would be that the service was started on existing train tracks already in place. here, the idea was to build the entire system from scratch, including developments around train stations. now, if they started a commuter rail that used existing tracks, like just built stations in a few key locations like downtown raleigh, downtown cary, downtown clayton, etc., and it gained in popularity, i could see getting further into it. but nobody wants to walk up and hand these idiots 2 billion dollars to start without any proof it would work in this market. and that's the key. this market. as you may have heard, many people don't care how they do it in florida, new jersey, or new york. this is north carolina, and the population density just doesn't support it on such a huge scale...
