Public transit comes to Morrisville, with launch of on-demand shuttle
The town of Morrisville is about to get its first public transit system.
The Morrisville Smart Shuttle will begin carrying residents around town on Saturday, Oct. 2. People can summon the on-demand service from their phone or computer and travel between one of 14 locations in town, including shopping centers, major subdivisions, Cedar Fork Community Center and the Morrisville Community Library.
For those who want to go beyond town limits, four of the shuttle stops will coincide with GoCary bus stops, and the shuttle will also go to the Regional Transit Center off Slater Road where riders can connect with GoTriangle buses.
The shuttles are free. They are being financed by the town and by the 1/2-cent transit sales tax, which Wake County voters approved in 2016 along with a 10-year plan for increasing opportunities for people to get around without driving.
The plan included a program for parts of the county that did not already have transit. Before tapping into that money, the town completed a transit study in 2019 to determine how to best serve its residents. The on-demand service seemed to make more sense than having buses follow scheduled routes, as in larger cities such as Raleigh and Durham.
The Smart Shuttle is a 16-passenger bus with a bike rack on the front and a ramp and tie downs for wheel chairs. GoCary will operate the service, running two shuttles at a time weekdays and one on weekends. The shuttle will be available 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information about the shuttle, including a map of stops and links to the apps for Apple and Android phones, go to www.townofmorrisville.org/smartshuttle.
Morrisville won’t be the only area of Wake County to get an on-demand shuttle this fall. Wake County plans to launch a micro-transit service in the rural northeast corner of the county, including the towns of Rolesville, Wendell and Zebulon and the space in between.
Residents of the area will be able to summon the GoWake SmartRide NE shuttle using the Uber app or by phone. A ride will cost $2. The start date has not been set yet.
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Public transit comes to Morrisville, with launch of on-demand shuttle."
