EDITORIAL: Ticket to Ride: If Raleigh and Durham Are Serious About Increasing Ridership on Their Bus Systems, the Experience Needs to Be More Inviting

By The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jul. 14–A glance at U.S. Census data from 1960 to 2000 makes it clear when a tipping point in private car ownership was reached. In the 1970 and ’80s, women started entered the labor force in large numbers. Family incomes rose, and it made sense — and it became possible — for more families to buy a second car.

The average household went from 3.3 people in 1960 to 2.6 in 2000, yet cars per household rose from just over 1 to about 1.7. Now, it seems, even smaller families often have more cars in the driveways than members under the roof.

In the time the United States made that enormous auto-culture shift, mass transit in many areas remained in park. Bus systems, for example, may have expanded, but it’s been a struggle to find adequate financing, and bare-bones service has been the result. Certainly that’s been the case in Raleigh and Durham, where municipal bus stops largely still consist of a pole topped by a sign.

Looking for a bench on which to wait? Good luck. Of 1,700 Capital Area Transit stops in and around Raleigh, just 230 are equipped with benches, and just 130 have shelters. Durham’s numbers are worse. Of 1,500 Durham Area Transit Authority stops, a mere 15 have benches. About 100 provide riders with shelter from the elements.

One hopes the neglect isn’t the result of thinking by City Hall that buses are largely the domain of the poor, so no need to waste money on amenities for them.

Clearly it’s the poor — those least able to buy and maintain a personal car — who use the bus most often. But poor people have a right to adequate municipal services.

Chapel Hill, by the way, does far better with its 606 bus stops, 141 of which include benches and 91, nearly the same number as in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, have shelters. And Chapel Hill’s buses are free.

Raleigh and Durham don’t need shelters and benches at every stop. Still, the cities should give more thought to serving the riders they currently have, as well as inviting one-person-per-car commuters who help clog the region’s highways. Improving rush-hour traffic is a goal of mass transit.

The Triangle Transit Authority, which operates a regional bus service, is ramping up as more commuters choose to leave their cars parked, avoiding gasoline expenses and traffic hassles. But it faces some of the same issues in terms of rider comfort and convenience.

Transit stops that consist of no more than a patch of sidewalk next to a pole might be OK in a big city where buses come along every few minutes, and where a convenient doorway might shield a passenger from a sudden downpour.

But such stops aren’t as suitable where the wait can be long and the stop fairly isolated — more typical of the Triangle.

Except for the rush-hour stress, driving one’s own car to work is a comfortable affair. Unless the Triangle’s municipal bus systems are made more comfortable and inviting, the effort to convince more people to use mass transit systems will be uphill all the way.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

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