News

Here is a brief weekly update from the RTA business coalition – the voice of the regional business community on transportation.

In today’s weekly member briefing – and also in last week’s and next week’s briefings – I will provide a look ahead for the coming year.

Our Metropolitan Rapid Transit system begins construction
In 2021, the City of Raleigh will begin construction of our region’s first rapid transit corridor, the New Bern Avenue BRT. This enhanced transit investment will extend for five miles east from Downtown Raleigh, past the Raleigh campus of RTA member WakeMed Health and Hospitals, and continue past I-440 into east Raleigh. 2022 is the year where rapid transit work begins in earnest; by the end of the decade we will have more than 50 miles of bus rapid transit across our extended market. More to come on all six BRT corridors and extensions serving Wake County this year.

Discussions on enhanced transit continue in Durham, Orange
Durham and Orange counties have continued progress on their respective revised county transit implementation plans. 2022 is the year that Durham and Orange counties will look to approve revised transit plans for their communities. We are hopeful that these new and complementary plans will incorporate commuter rail, expanded and interconnected bus rapid transit, and an overall improved ability for current and future residents to get around this region.

Along with multimodal linkages including the Triangle Bikeway
This past fall, the Triangle Bikeway study concluded, laying the groundwork for positive movement for multiple segments of this future multimodal regional corridor. 2022 is the year where the region can invest in detailed planning and design to advance multiple sections of the Triangle Bikeway corridor. You can download a video commissioned by RTA and developed by RTA Regional Leadership Team member McAdams of the proposed Triangle Bikeway.

And enhanced statewide mobility policies, led by NCDOT
In 2021 we saw the expansion of NCDOT’s Complete Streets policy to incorporate transit, catalyzed by the work of the RTA-led Freeway And Street-based Transit (FAST) study, jointly funded by RTA, NCDOT, GoTriangle, and the NC Turnpike Authority. NCDOT has created an excellent FAST vision webpage , which includes a statewide FAST implementation playbook. 2022 is the year to embrace the FAST vision by incorporating transit enhancements into freeway and regional boulevard improvements across the Triangle and statewide.

Let’s get moving,
Joe

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director

Click here for prior RTA Member Briefings and RTA Blogs.