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3 <br />Triangle Regional Transportation Development Plan -Executive Summary <br />Introduction <br />The objective of the Triangle Regional Transportation Development Plan (TDP) is to <br />identify the feasibility of consolidating and/or coordinating the services and functions of <br />the community transportation services in Durham, Orange and Wake Counties..lust as the <br />State of North Carolina embarked upon a comprehensive effort to coordinate human <br />service transportation programs at the county level in the past 20 years, the value of <br />regionalization of community transportation services represents a new opportunity. <br />North Carolina has been at the forefront nationally regarding the coordination of <br />community transportation services since an Executive Order was implemented in 1978. <br />Since that time both public transit and community transportation services have evolved, <br />with arguably the greatest variety of all those services existing in Durham, Orange and <br />Wake Counties,. Each of the services provided in the three counties constitutes <br />community transportation; however some differences exist between the services provided <br />to customers. These differences are due in part to the varied organizational structures of <br />the services, as well as the contrast between urban and rural areas, county size, and <br />interaction with other transportation systems in the region. <br />Complicating the mix of services and variety of operators is the fact that the public transit <br />systems are usually provided through the city government, while the community <br />transportation services are provided through the county government, In addition, within <br />the Triangle there are several institutional and operating policies in place that impact the <br />community transportation programs, including agreements limiting the operation of <br />Orange Public Transportation within the towns of Chapel Hill and Canboro. Conversely, <br />in Durham County, both ADA paratransit clients and community transportation program <br />clients can share vehicles, since these services are operated under one contract.. <br />Currently, the only public tt~ansit entity that operates in multiple counties within the <br />region is the Triangle Transit Authority (TTA), which has the additional ability to extend <br />fixed route services into all of'the affected counties.. <br />Benefits of Regionalization of Community Transportation Systems in the Triangle <br />Prior work by the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina <br />State University also highlights a number of these broader perspectives on <br />regionalization, including: <br />• Benefits to riders <br />• More effective regional, transportation and land use planning <br />• Ability to address regional transportation problems <br />• Adequate funding for transportation <br />• Operational and administrative economies <br />• Coordination or consolidation with special or rural public hansportation services <br />Triangle Regionnl Transpa ration Development Plmr -Executive Summary <br />