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11 <br />Draft Orange County Transit Plan FAQ <br />South Square, Duke University, Ninth Street, Downtown Durham, and NC <br />Central University. <br />Q3: How will the transit plan be funded? <br />A3: The plan will be paid for prirnarily by two proposed new revenue sources: a <br />%-cent sales tax increase and a$10 annual vehicle registration fee increase. To be <br />enacted, the plan must be approved by local elected officials and the sales tax <br />must be approved by a majority of Orange County voters. If implemented, the <br />proposed sales tax will NOT apply to food, medical supplies, gas, and utilities. <br />Q4: Why does the light rail line follow NC 54 and not Fordham Blvd. (US <br />15/501)? <br />A4: The region has been planning for a fixed guideway transit system between <br />Chapel Hill and Durham for more than a decade, and this has included a transit <br />corridor generally following NC 54 between the exit 273 area at I-40 and Fordham <br />Blvd near Glen Lennox. <br />The primary reason for following this alignment is that the NC 54 corridor is by a <br />large margin the highest demand corridor for travel to UNC-Chapel Hill. The table <br />below from UNC's 2010 commuting survey below demonstrates this: <br />Percentage of UNC Commuters to UNC by Major Corridor (Source: UNC Commuter Survey 2010) <br />NC54 (from I-40 MLK (North of <br />at exit 273) campus) 15-501 S(South of <br />campus) 15-501 N(Fordham <br />Blvd) <br />Car Commuters 24.5% 16.9% 16.7% 13.7% <br />ransit Commuters 24.5% 16.4% 15.2% 8.6% <br />As you can see, while the IVC 54 corridor accommodates nearly a quarter of all <br />UNC-bound workers, the corridor along Fordham Blvd from Glen Lennox past <br />University Mall and Eastgate out to exit 270 is the lowest-traffic corridor of the <br />top four commuting corridors. <br />2 <br />