Agenda - 02-16-1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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a PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND RIDESHARING ALTERNATIVES The System-wide Impact Of Public Transportation and Ridesharing "If a relatively high percentage of persons choose public transportation for commuter and other trips, public transportation can help maintain acceptable levels of service on existing highways and their currently planned improvements. Properly operated and promoted, public transportation can forestall, but not eliminate, the long term need for new highway construction. Stated another way, public transportation can help stretch the value of our transportation dollar. "At present the average vehicle occupancy rate (VOR) in the morning rush hour on I-40 to the Research Triangle Park is a low 1.1 persons per vehicle. This translates to one person in addition to the driver in every tenth car. Highway corridors to major downtown employment centers often have a VOR of 1.3 or higher, especially when parking is restricted and travel costs for gasoline, parking, and tolls are expensive - "In order to reach higher rates of vehicle occupancy, the attraction of rideshar- ing must be increased relative to the single passenger automobile "In summary, if there can be significant increases in the use of carpools, vanpools, buses, then there can be sufficient impacts on congestion and the need to build highways. The success of public transportation, however, will depend not only on making it available, but also making it attractive with respect to cost, conve- nience, speed, and safety. There are challenging opportunities to the public and private sectors to use transportation and land use policies to influence public transportation and eventually the ways in which we live and travel." It is the opinion of the staff that, although public transportation can have the benefit of delaying the need to widen existing streets in certain congested areas where parking is at a premium, (such as around the U.N.C. Campus), it is unlikely that improved public transportation could eliminate the need for construction of new roads in the areas where the existing road network is insufficient or unsafe. It would be necessary for the local governments to make a major commitment of local funds to increase the level of public transportation services, along with significant increases in housing densities along transit corridors to result in a significant system-wide impact. The governments' commitment would have to be accompanied by a commitment by the citizenry to use public transportation or ridesharing modes on a daily basis. These major shifts in governmental priorities and individual lifestyles are speculative and, in fact, counter to recent trends. 2 TRAVEL IN THE TRIANGLE: CHOICES, Report #2, Research Triangle Regional Public Transportation Study, pp. 5-7, March, 1987, Department of Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University 4.5