One theory has it that if we just make traffic bad enough, people will take the bus. Perhaps that was the rationale behind an item on the Town Council consent agenda coming up this week that would have prohibited turning right at red lights in 16 high-traffic intersections. A former council member proposed the right-turn-on-red […]
All posts in category Transportation
Right on red
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 9, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/09/right-turn-on-red/
Traffic
Last week I arrived at a meeting after it had started because I had seriously underestimated how long it would take me to drive there. Now that students and professors are back and families have returned from vacations in time for the start of school, some 20,000 to 40,000 additional cars are on the street […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 2, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/02/traffic/
BRT’s next stop
If you don’t know what NSBRT is as you read this today, you must have taken off for the beach this past weekend. Town staff hosted a blitz of presentations, focus groups and community input meetings over the weekend to introduce North-South Bus Rapid Transit to the public. The bus line, part of Chapel Hill’s […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 15, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/07/15/brts-next-stop/
R.I.P. DOLRT
If the Orange County commissioners vote at their April 2 meeting to discontinue pursuit of the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit line, and Durham County commissioners do likewise (the agenda of their April 8 meeting is not yet online), the crushingly expensive light rail project will be packed away, perhaps for good. After GoTriangle spent $137 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 1, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/04/01/r-i-p-dolrt/
Mortgaging Our Transit Future
By Bonnie Hauser I’m fascinated by the enthusiastic support that many of our elected officials have for Durham Orange Light Rail (DOLRT). County leaders have already committed nearly $2 billion of local sales taxes and fees to the $3.3 billion project and are preparing to commit more. Do they understand the growing risks and concerns […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 4, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/02/04/mortgaging-our-transit-future/
Affordable Leaves the Station
American philosopher Eric Hoffer would have celebrated his 120th birthday last week, had he not died just shy of 85. Among his memorable insights, he noted: “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” His intuition came to mind as I read one sentence tucked neatly into […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 30, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/30/affordable-leaves-the-station/
Quintessential Chapel Hill Fan
When friends and I would go to baseball games at Yankee Stadium, we always scanned the crowd for nominees to our Quintessential Yankee Fan Hall of Fame. Yankee fans were quite different from Mets fans, I noticed on my very rare trips to Shea Stadium. Perusing crowds became a habit, and when I’m out and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 23, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/23/quintessential-chapel-hill-fan/
DOLRT bills: woulda, coulda, shoulda
Think of the transformative impact $14.5 million could have had on Orange County if we had spent it on extending bus lines so the modestly paid could commute to work and fewer people would have to rely on cars. Instead, Orange County commissioners gambled it away on studies, design and engineering for a light rail […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 4, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/04/dolrt-bills-woulda-coulda-shoulda/
Our chance at the gold — gone
Chapel Hill should bid on hosting a Winter Olympics. Sure, we’d need to build a couple of ski slopes, one with fancy rails and jumps. We would have to retrofit the Dean Dome into an ice-skating rink. And we’d need to build a housing complex for the athletes, though we could repurpose it into affordable […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 19, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/02/19/our-chance-at-the-gold-gone/
What’s driving driverless cars?
As we plan for autonomous vehicles, bear in mind that the car, not the driver, causes the demand for infrastructure. At our Sept. 18 council work session, town planning director Ben Hitchings presented some futuristic ideas of the day when everyone owns, or at least uses, a driverless car. Our starry-eyed discussion focused only on […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 2, 2017
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/10/02/whats-driving-driverless-cars/