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News & Observer(Print Friendly) : http : //www . . . ws/columnists/Story/831902p - 821424c . html http : //cgi . newsobserver . com/standing/help/tools/_scripts/friendly-print . cgi 13 newsobtservilu Published : Tuesday, October 23 , 2001 5 : 02 a . m . EDT Road Worrier Free rides to arrive soon in RTP , Chapel Hill By RICHARD STRADLING , Staff Writer Transit boosters in Research Triangle Park , Chapel Hill and Carrboro think they can lure people out of their cars by letting them ride the bus for free . A program now in the works at RTP would give workers free bus passes if their employers sign up and pay a lump sum to the Triangle Transit Authority . The Ecopass program , named and modeled after similar programs in Denver and California ' s Silicon Valley , could begin as soon as January . Also in January , the Chapel Hill Transit system will rip theffare boxes out of its buses . Chapel Hill , Carrboro and UNC - Chapel Hill are providing an additional $ 1 . 5 million to the transit system to make up for the lost fares . The university plans to collect a fee of less than $ 10 a semester from every student on campus to help cover the costs . The savings to passengers varies by system and route . The fare between RTP and anywhere TTA serves , for example , is $ 3 a round trip , or $ 48 for a monthly pass . Is that enough to get people to forsake their cars ? Meredith Yankow , RTP ' s new travel demand management coordinator , thinks so . Yankow says 205 out of 285 people said in an online survey that they would ride the bus if it were free . Assuming they don ' t already ride the bus , those 205 people alone would represent a significant bump in bus ridership to RTP , where an earlier survey of 37 , 296 workers found only 189 regular bus riders . " I don ' t think it will be a situation in the beginning where TTA' s buses will be overwhelmed , " she said . " But I think there will be an increase , and it will give people who have not used the bus before a chance to try it . " Yankow also cites the success of the programs in Denver and Silicon Valley , where Ecopass holders have free access to bus and light rail . Transit ridership among Silicon Valley commuters rose 55 percent in the first year of Ecopass , said Scott Haywood , sales program manager for the Valley Transportation Authority . But Matt McKrell is skeptical that a free ride will entice more than a token number of Triangle residents from their cars . McKrell , a 40 -year- old computer programmer , rides the bus from Cary to IBM in the park every day to save money and aggravation but says he is an exception . Free ridership is a noble experiment , he says , but it isn ' t money that keeps people off buses . " Ordinary city buses take too long to get where they' re going because they have to make stops along the way to pick up and let off passengers , " McKrell said . "Yet they' re stuck in the same traffic as everyone else . " Dedicated bus lanes and devices that let bus drivers control traffic lights would help , McKrell said . So would convenient routes and more frequent service , says Nancy Breeding , who works in the University Theatre at N . C . State University and lives in North Raleigh . Breeding , 49 , has in mind Capital Area Transit buses , which she says are clean and affordable but have " lousy routes and lengthy commute times . " " Buses don 't have to be free to be effective . They just have to run where people need to go , " she said . " It shouldn ' t have to take two hours to get from Method Road [ near NCSU ] to North Raleigh . " Improving service is one of the goals of fare -free busing . Yankow says money from Ecopass could be used to enhance TTA service to RTP , perhaps by installing canopies at bus stops or adding new routes . Chapel Hill Transit will put more buses on the road next year and has hired a consultant to study its five busiest routes to see how they could be improved . 1 of 2 10/30/2001 2 : 38 PM