Or so says TTA Executive Director David King and Wake County Manager David Cooke. This letter to the editor quotes their statements during a transit debate between them and Dr. David Hartgen, the author of our study of the Wake County Transit Plan.

At the June 11 Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Betty Lou Ward stated: “It seems to me as our population grows … we are going to need to have that mass transportation to relieve the roads.”

“It seems to me” is not good enough when it comes to spending a huge amount of taxpayer dollars.

In Raleigh, at the March 8, 2012 forum, “Wake County in Transit: Is Now the Time?”, County Manager David Cooke answered a question about the alleviation of traffic congestion on the roads. He stated: “We are not implying or promising that, if we invest in transit, that [sic] we would have eliminated congestion or dramatically changed it whatsoever.”

David King, Triangle Transit CEO and general manager, added (holding up his arm with bent elbow at an angle about 45 degrees): “If this is the curve of the rate of increase of congestion; if we implement the plan; then that curve will come down somewhat” (lowers arm to an angle just above bottom level), “but there will still be an increase in congestion. To suggest that this is a way to reduce congestion – nobody on our team ever said that.”

Wynne Coleman

Raleigh