Agenda - 11-01-2022; 5-c - 2022 Orange County Transit Plan Update

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• . . .- 29 the region. A rapidly growing and deeply interconnected region like the Research Triangle benefits from investing in high quality public transit service. Local and regional transit service provides options for a range of transit riders including commuters, students, workers, travelers, and more. Transit relieves congestion and reduces travel times on the region's major transportation corridors, making connections between the places riders call home and the region's major employment hubs. Fare-free service provided by Chapel Hill reduces the need for parking on and near UNC Chapel Hill's campus, supporting higher and better uses of limited land resources.And, thanks to membership in the Burlington-Graham MPO, there are also connections in the County to western destinations via Piedmont Authority for Regional Transit (PART), a service that is expanding. Regional demographic and economic trends impact the transportation system and transit services telling us who lives in our region, where they live, where they need to travel, and the choices they make about how they meet travel needs. Tracking patterns and trends guides the important decisions we make about transit investments. • Some of the largest increases in growth are occurring in the region's more rural and suburban areas including southeast Durham County and northwest Chatham County • Urban areas are also experiencing growth, but at a relatively slower rate • Two industry sectors make up nearly 40% of the region's jobs: "educational services" and "health care and social assistance" • 10% of jobs are in "professional, scientific, and technical services" • Jobs tend to be concentrated near higher education and research facilities • Average annual salaries in these industries range from around $58,000 to $96,000 • 25% of the region's jobs are in sectors that don't enjoy the same high salaries including "retail trade;" "accommodation and food services;" "administrative support;" "waste management;" "transportation and warehousing;" and "arts, entertainment, and recreation" Residents employed in these industries are more likely to be housing and transportation cost-burdened • There has been significant growth in the region's share of older residents since 2012 (age 65 and over) who tend to concentrate in the far northern and southern parts of the region • Households earning more than $125,000 annually increased regionally and tend to be located in the region's northern and southwestern areas but there is a significant cluster in and around Chapel Hill's urban core • There has been a regional decrease in households earning less than $25,000 (the lowest reported income bracket), but extremely low-income households are increasing on the region's fringes, particularly in northern and eastern Durham County • The region's minority populations are increasingly moving outside of urban centers including significant growth in African American and Hispanic populations in Orange County north of Chapel Hill and 1-85 and 1-40 and to the north and east of Hillsborough.