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and still relies on mixed -use traffic for portions of its trip. Businesses cannot plan on bus service, <br />but businesses can and will plan on a fixed light rail system. <br />D. Light Rail Creates Desirable Mixed -Use Communities <br />Private citizens are also increasingly choosing to live near established public <br />transportation options. Indeed, a recent Chapel Hill poll indicated that the D-0 LRT project is <br />"overwhelmingly popular" with 69% of voters supporting the project .26 This is in line with <br />national trends showing that people, particularly the Millennial generation, are consciously <br />driving less and prefer to use alternate modes of transportation. 27 The vast majority of <br />Millennials express a preference for living in more urbanized, mixed -use, walkable communities <br />with public transportation access. 28 Existing compact, mixed -use development along public <br />transportation routes have shown that such less automobile- dependent communities are a reality <br />with corresponding real benefits: "[r]esidents of communities with high - quality, well integrated <br />public transit ... own half as many vehicles, drive half as many annual miles, walk and bicycle <br />four times more, and use public transit ten times more than residents of more automobile - <br />dependent communities. "29 <br />Light rail will also assist less mobile populations, such as the elderly, 0- or low -car <br />households, and lower- income families. These populations will be able to depend on light rail <br />for their transportation needs, while also making long -term housing and employment decisions <br />knowing that light rail will remain, fixed in route, for the future. Indeed, the D-0 LRT system <br />will connect large employment and education centers with its end points near the institutions of <br />the University of North Carolina and Duke University, respectively. 30 Public transportation to <br />such employment hubs will provide a low -cost, reliable means of transportation to jobs for low - <br />income and 0 -car households. These same individuals will also have greater access to the <br />educational opportunities at both universities on the D-0 LRT project route. Light rail and its <br />corresponding transit - oriented development "provide basic mobility and accessibility, <br />particularly for physically and economically disadvantaged people, such as people with <br />disabilities and lower- income seniors. "31 Public transportation and more compact, mixed -use <br />communities can provide a means of greater access to necessary medical services for the elderly <br />and disabled .32 The D-0 LRT project exemplifies this attribute by connecting to both the UNC <br />26 Memorandum from Tom Jensen, Dir. of Pub. Policy Polling, State of the Chapel Hill Election 2 (Sept. 23, 2015), <br />available at http:// chapelboro .com/wp- content/Uploads /2015 /09 /ChapelHillPoll2015.pdf. <br />27 TONY DUTZIK & PHINEAS BAXANDALL, U.S. PIRG FUND & FRONTIER GRP., A NEW DIRECTION: OUR CHANGING <br />RELATIONSHIP WITH DRIVING AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 21 -25 (2013), available at <br />http: / /www.uspirg.org /sites /pirg /files/ reports /A %2ONew %2ODirection %2OvU S.pdf. <br />" Id. at 23; Millennials Prefer Cities to Suburbs, Subways to Driveways, NIELSON (Mar. 4, 2014), <br />http: / /www.r ielsen.com/us /en/insights /news /2014 / mllennials- prefer - cities -to- suburbs- subways- to- driveways.html. <br />29 LITMAN, supra note 9, at 3. <br />30 E.g. DEIS, at 1- 3 -1 -4. <br />31 LITMAN, supra note 9, at 16. <br />32 E.g. WENDY FOX -GRAGE & JANA LYNOTT, AARP PUB. POLICY INST., EXPANDING SPECIALIZED <br />TRANSPORTATION: NEW OPPORTUNITIES UNDER THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 1 (Jan. 2015), available at <br />m <br />