By Ray Gronberg
gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648
DURHAM -- Triangle mayors on Friday touted the success their communities have had in recent years in convincing more people to use public transit, as they prepared for a weeklong effort to sell the idea to even more potential riders.
The kickoff for the annual Try Transit Week promotion featured Durham Mayor Bill Bell, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy.
Bell said there's "no question" about transit's importance to the region's future, and pointed out that the city's opened new bus and train stations this year on the edge of downtown.
To entice people to ride next week, the area's major bus systems plan to offer fare-free service to all riders Thursday, and will make the same offer Tuesday to people who bike to bus stops.
Rides on Chapel Hill Transit -- the area's most heavily used bus system -- are always fare-free. The Durham Area Transit Authority, Capital Area Transit, Triangle Transit, Cary Transit and the N.C. State University Wolfline are joining in during the single-day promotions.
The systems are also offering several other promotions, with details available at http://www.gotriangle.org.
The mayors during Friday's kickoff news conference all pointed to figures showing that bus ridership in the area is up, thanks in part to last year's spike in gasoline prices.
Chapel Hill Transit in fiscal 2008-09 carried 7.4 million riders, and has recorded consecutive years of 18 percent growth in ridership, according to figures provided by DATA spokeswoman Ieshia Robinson.
DATA is the area's second-ranking bus system, with 5.1 million riders in fiscal 2008-09. Raleigh's CAT service saw nearly 5 million boardings, while Triangle Transit reported 1.1 million.
Raleigh and Triangle Transit both saw double-digit gains, percentage-wise, in ridership during fiscal 2008-09. Boardings were up 11 percent on CAT, and on Triangle Transit's commuter lines 21 percent.
Both recorded 9 percent growth in ridership in fiscal 2007-08.
DATA's growth is lagging behind that of the other systems, with boardings up 5 percent in fiscal 2008-09 and 4 percent in fiscal 2007-08. The Durham system has been unable to add service because of funding shortfalls.
Triangle Transit General Manager David King noted that the Chapel Hill and Raleigh systems have grown in part by extending service to outlying communities. CAT has taken on runs to Wake Forest on Triangle Transit's behalf, and Chapel Hill Transit operates in Chatham County.
CAT is also about to extend routes to Wendell and Zebulon, King said.
The systems all told served an average 64,439 riders a day in fiscal 2008-09. Accounting for two-way trips, that figure "probably represents about 40,000 individuals," many of whom otherwise "would be in cars competing for scarce asphalt," King said.
Transit advocates are hoping county leaders in Durham, Orange and Wake counties take advantage of a new state law and call referenda on local-option sales taxes sometime in the next couple of years to raise money for more bus and rail service.
Foy said customer satisfaction will drive public support for transit.
"We really do have a convenient system, a well-used system and we've got the experience and knowledge at this point so we have drivers and riders who are comfortable and who enjoy the system," Foy said. "That's really key. They prefer the bus system to some other mode of transportation. That's our goal, not just for Chapel Hill but for the region."
