… John Quintero’s June 1 column in the News & Observer got me thinking.
Mass transit is perhaps the signature characteristic of a Northern city. Such systems work due to high population densities, favorable development patterns and a cultural mind-set that makes people willing to share a cramped train car with people from all walks of life. The Triangle lacks all of these things.
Yet the region still wants to invest extensively in a transit system. The reason: All “real” (read: Northern) cities have trains, so for the Triangle to be a real city, it needs a train, even a train no one rides. …
Instead of spending public money on attempts to turn the Triangle into the New York of the Piedmont, the region should invest in the things that make it unique. Raleigh-Durham is a livable place that offers a wealth of cultural amenities, economic opportunities, creative people and family-friendly conditions. It is a good place to live, work and raise a family. Accepting and promoting those things is more fundamental to long-term prosperity than attempts at mimicking Northern cities.
After making my first trip to NYC last summer, and having looked down on high rise apartment buildings and just started to realize something of the density issue — how many thousands of people live in the real estate of a single city block — it seems obvious to me that Northeastern-style, downtown transportation systems simply have no place in Raleigh. Sorry ’bout that.
But following John’s comments, what could work? Raleigh is just the center point of a basically rural community, grown up. From where I live in Johnston County, it looks like new residents aim to keep it that way — they don’t seem to rush uptown, they move into Clayton, Knightdale, and other surrounding bedroom developments. Forget moving people around downtown — has anybody really looked at longer range commuter rail as an option, to allow people to live where they want to live, in outlying areas, but dispense with the drive in to work downtown?
So much of the transit proposition seems to fantasize about behavior shifts far beyond the basic “park and ride” v. “ride and park” decision. I for one would seriously consider a train ride from Selma to Raleigh and back, if the price were right and the schedule worked. Currently, neither do. But I for one could do a lot with an extra two hours a day to read, write, or nap.
