Over the next two weeks, Orange County will be holding public outreach sessions to get feedback from central and rural Orange County residents about the Orange County Bus and Rail Investment Plan. Residents are invited to discuss options for new, expanded and existing bus services under the plan. Bus routes to be brought for public input will include rural service routes, regional service routes, and the Hillsborough Circulator.
Four meetings will be held throughout northern Orange County in August. The dates and locations are as follows, and can also be found on the OP calendar.
- August 5th, 5:00-7:00pm, at the Fairview Community Policing Center, Fairview Park, 501 Rainey Avenue, Hillsborough
- August 8th, 5:00-7:00pm, at the Northern Human Services Center Cafeteria, Cedar Grove Park, 5800 NC Hwy. 86
- August 13th, 6:30-8:30pm, at the Efland-Cheeks Community Center, 117 Richmond Road, Efland
- August 14th, 5:00-7:00pm, at the Mebane Arts & Community Center, 633 Corregidor Street, Mebane
More information about the input sessions can be found on GoTriangle here. You can also provide feedback online at the above link if you can't make it to any of these public outreach sessions.
Issues:
Comments
School buses: an unused resource
One thing to consider, radical but that's par for the course, is using school buses. Think about it. Except for early morning and afternoons, they just sit. A while back a fellow did a big study for NPR, who found that people listened to NPR only in the morning and the evening, basically ignoring the classical music in the interim. He used the term "tent-pole," to illustrate the usage at the pole ends, with the high sag in between. (NPR used this information to help them decide to move to all-talk at
many stations. You be the judge as to whether this approach has been a
good one.) That's what we have with school buses. Buses are already there. Of course there are many issues to address here, such as increased maintenance, labor, etc. So, let's get on it!
Doesn't make sense
The main cost of operating bus transit is the labor, not the equipment. In addition, school buses are already being used in the early morning and early evening which overlaps quite a lot with the peak times for transit. I think it was Pat Evans on the CH Town Council that used to repeatedly suggest using school buses for transit. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Also
Not to harp on this, but also: have you been in a school bus recently? I had the opportunity to ride in them when they were used for hotel-to-conference transportation and it was quite difficult to fit our grown-up sized bodies into those kid sized seats. And I'm only 5 feet tall!Anyway, back to rural transportation needs...
Bullying
Ruby, look on the upside. If school buses were used for transit you could taunt, bully and haze riders that look different or aren't in your clique.
Hmm
More like, I could be taunted all over again for being short, fat, and geeky. Awesome.
two prime problems
1) State law does not allow this use of school buses or activity buses2) The buses won't meet federal accessibility standards for transit systems
no seat belts
This has always blown my mind - that school buses don't have seat belts.
How about a flip.
How about a flip. Imagine a robust public transportation system that got kids and even parents to school. Especially high schools. Bonnie Hauser
Furthermore - quoth the raven
School buses, especially at the high school age. drive around half-empty at best. There is something wasteful about this. I think Bonnie is on to something. Can we fashion bus routes that serve students & adults? It's certainly worth looking at.
This goes both ways
My son attended Smith Middle School the past 3 years -- one time he really wanted to go to a UNC baseball game right after school. There's a bus route that goes right by Smith and heads downtown (where he is fine to walk to the Bosh). School ends at 3:10. Guess what time the bus goes by? 2:56 or 4:01pm. I know the 4pm time is great for high school students, but we're still missing opportunity for other riders b/c the CH Transit bus schedule is just off by 15 minutes.