TryTransit Week
Date:
Monday, September 22, 2008 - 4:00am to Friday, September 26, 2008 - 1:00pm
I always seem to forget about this until the last minute. Monday is Car Free Day, and I hope you will try some transit all week long. I've been guilty of flying all over this week, but next week I will be happily working from home every day. Maybe I'll take the bus downtown for lunch.
Try
Transit Week is sponsored by Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA), Cary
Transit (C-Tran), Capital Area Transit (CAT), Chapel Hill Transit, UNC
Chapel Hill, NCSU Wolfline and Triangle Transit. The goal of the
campaign is to encourage Triange commuters to try the bus! Taking
transit instead of driving alone helps save our environment, save money
on expensive gas and save our sanity by reducing stressful traffic.
- http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35356768593
Specific local events from Chapel Hill Transit:
-
Monday, 9/22: National Car Free Day
Leave your car at home and ride the bus
-
Wednesday, 9/24: Stuff the Bus
NC-54 East Park and Ride (located off Friday Center Drive and NC 54)
6:00-10:00 a.m.
Chick-fil-A at University Mall (location TBD)
11:00am-2:00pm
Donate 3 canned goods and receive a FREE Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich.
More details coming soon!
- Friday, September 26: Employee Appreciation Day
Say thank you to your favorite driver
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Comments
Someone who really got in the spirit
It seems that someone in Cary really got in the spirit of "Car Free Day" yesterday.
Cary bank robber flees on bike
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3586805/
While I applaud this man's choice of transportation I wouldn't care to see this fine example of minimizing one's carbon footprint put to more extensive use in this specific manner.
Usable Ride Share Site?
As Carrboro resident working in downtown Durham I carpool ocassionally though not enough. One thing I've long for is an easy to use ride share sit TTA's is far too clunky. Something as easy as the Craigs' list ride share but for short commuter trips. Ideas? I know there are tons of people making something very close to this drive... or CH to Raleigh, etc etc.
David Beck
Have You Tried the Bus?
David,
Have you tried taking the bus? Route 403 leaves the Carolina Coffee Shop every 30 minutes during rush hour and gets to downtown Durham in 25 minutes flat.
The CW, J, and F routes all provide connections to the corner of Franklin/Columbia from Carrboro, and a bike ride to Franklin Street bike rack is also a possibility.
We need transit for living
One of the biggest problems with the bus system here (in my opinion) is that it's all designed around commuting to major employers. For example, I have a bus stop 60 seconds walk from my front door, it gets 1 or 2 buses an hour. I love it. But it stops running by 7 pm. Since I work at home, the only time I can use it is for appointments at UNC/downtown Chapel Hill in the middle of the day. I can't get into Carrboro without changing buses, and I can't go out at all after work because I wouldn't be able to get home without a long walk in the dark.
If I want to go somewhere on the weekend, especially in Durham or Raleigh, just forget it.
I think it will represent a real step forward when the Triangle starts to view transit as an essential part of life, not just an essential part of work.
Transit AND density
It Will Need Some Grassroots Support
"I think it will represent a real step forward when the Triangle starts to view transit as an essential part of life, not just an essential part of work."
Ruby,
What you're asking for is going to require the public stepping up and asking/demanding that our elected officials begin to adddress the problem - NOW.
There is such a movement beginning in Wake County (see below; from one of their emails I received) but I haven't seen a similar, citizens'-based initiative here in Orange yet that I'm aware of.
For the past few months, a group of area transit advocates, including folks from groups like Disability Rights NC, Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, Regional Transportation Alliance, Sierra Clubs Capital Group, WakeUP Wake County and Alliance of Disability Advocates, have been meeting informally to explore ways that we can help move transit forward in our area.
We have decided to form a broad alliance that we are calling Capital Area Friends of Transit in order to build public and political support for funding and building an efficient transit system for the whole Triangle and for the Wake County area in particular
Google Transit & Public Data Ownership
Google now has transit maps integrated into their maps system with the ability to create directions. http://www.google.com/transit Plus directions can now be made "by car, by walking, by public transport"
I noticed recently that the Chapel Hill Next Bus system is also using the Google Maps API. But it doesn't include the ability to create directions. The link on the Town's main site goes to another maps system that isn't as resonsive as Google maps. Next Bus's maps do have "real time" bus info that Google maps doesn't appear to have.
Something tells me Google is going to do a better job at digital bus maps than Next Bus... I hope CHTransit works with Google for its maps in the future and isn't locked in too tight with an old system without external hooks like a API. (Application Programing Interface) [Its what makes mash-ups possible.]
Are the GPS coordinates of publicly owned buses private or public information? Because if that data is made proprietary the money spent on the Next Bus system could have locked the town into old technology without the ability to upgrade at a speed close to that of innovation. Just look at the mess that is the present Town of Chapel Hill website for an example.
Gee... if we had community members on a Town Technology board the public would know these things...
TTA's trip planner
There is also a trip planner at http://www.gotriangle.org which I have used a few times in the past. It's especially helpful if you have to make a trip that involves more than one route or system.
Bus/Carpools to Durham
Patrick, thanks. I have taken it every now and then. Problem becomes getting back and weird schedules. And a couple of time the CH Transit bus has been late enoughto make me miss the TTA. It isn't a bad option though. $4 round trip.
But I still like the idea of some kind of really usable ride share. For instance, if I need to go to Raleigh sat aft, how can I catch a ride. Sort of advanced hitch-hiking perhaps. Some risk involved, but I'm willing to chancde it.
David Beck