Agenda - 04-27-2017 - 1 - Consideration of the Final Draft Durham – Orange Light Rail Cost Sharing Agreement and Final Draft Orange County Transit Plan

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32 Orange County Transit Plan April 25, 2017 Many people in the two counties rely on transit — based on _ F _z _HE _ customer satisfaction surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016, 38 percent of Chapel Hill Transit passengers, 62 percent of The original Plan and this update have been developed by GoDurham passengers and 32 percent of GoTriangle representatives from Orange County, the Towns of Chapel Hill, passengers either have no access to a car overall or for the Carrboro, and Hillsborough, the University of North Carolina at transit trip they were making. Chapel Hill (UNC), and GoTriangle, with the primary goal of improving transit options throughout the county and making Thus, for people in the community, transit is a lifeline and stronger connections with neighbors in the Triangle region. provides their only opportunity to access employment and educational opportunities and social services. About half of The specific goals of the original Plan, which have been carried GoDurham's riders use the system to go to work,while another through into development of this Plan update, include: 10 percent use it to get to school. Half of Chapel Hill Transit's riders use the system to go to or from school. • Improving overall mobility and transportation options • Providing geographic equity Orange and Durham counties are also interconnected, with . Supporting improved capital facilities major job hubs at UNC, Duke, in downtown Durham, and other . Encouraging transit-supportive land use sites that draw across county lines. According to the most . Providing positive impacts on air quality recent U.S. Census data, 20 percent of Orange County residents commute to work in Durham County, or more than 14,300 The Plan addresses the identified goals in the following ways: people. In Durham County, 17,606 residents — 9.5 percent of the total —commute to Orange County for work. This does not Improving overall mobility and transportation options include the thousands of students at Duke, UNC,and NCCU who also live in one county and attend school in another, or who The Plan provides improved bus service throughout the urban travel between the two counties for other educational or social and rural sections of Orange County, connecting to local opportunities. residential and employment centers throughout the county, and key regional destinations in Alamance, Durham and Wake The updated Orange and Durham Transit Plans continue this Counties. In addition, the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit long local tradition of supporting transit and linking the region system and North-South Corridor Bus Rapid Transit system by devoting additional resources towards improving the transit provide new mobility options along some of the most heavily network through enhanced bus service, a high-quality light rail traveled and congested travel corridors in our region. system, and improved bus facilities. Final Page 8 of 65