News

Let’s Welcome New NC Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins, and let’s thank Secretary Boyette for his Leadership

With NCDOT Secretary Eric Boyette’s retirement last month, longtime regional and state transportation leader Joey Hopkins has been named as our state’s newest secretary of transportation. Hopkins’ impressive 30 year career at NCDOT has included several roles including deputy chief engineer, division engineer, division maintenance engineer, and most recently chief operating officer for the Department.

RTA is grateful for Secretary Boyette’s outstanding service to the Research Triangle region and the entire state — he has been thoughtful, approachable, and a terrific partner. We are looking forward to continued excellence from Secretary Hopkins, who I have had the honor of knowing and learning from for many years, and who has served the citizens of North Carolina as a professional at NCDOT for more than three decades. North Carolina continues to be blessed with outstanding leaders and champions for transportation — outgoing Secretary Boyette, incoming Secretary Hopkins, new chief operating officer Chris Peoples, and the entire NCDOT executive leadership team. The regional business community appreciates our ongoing partnership with NCDOT.

RTA offers comments on US 70 corridor between Durham and west Raleigh

RTA applauds the cooperative efforts of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO, NCDOT, the City of Durham, the County of Durham, and other partners on the need for an improved, multimodal US 70 corridor in Durham between I-885 and the proposed freeway upgrade of US 70 near I-540 in west Raleigh.

RTA has long supported a multimodal, context sensitive freeway for the corridor. We still do. However, we would also be open to supporting a regional boulevard design. We do not have sufficient information on the costs of all of the proposed options, the comparative benefits of the freeway and non-freeway concepts, the relative likelihood of state funding, or the differences in potential implementation time, to have a current “favorite” alternative.

The regional business community — and pretty much anyone who travels in and around the Triangle — knows the importance of US 70 to our metropolitan area. We are confident that a thoughtful comparison of alternatives, including consideration of innovative concepts, will provide a pathway to a viable, consensus solution that addresses the legitimate access, regional travel, and multimodal mobility needs for the corridor. You can view the comments we submitted to DCHC MPO last month on their US 70 study outreach effort here.

Public Transit could save users over $10K a year 

The American Public Transit Association recently published a new study showcasing the increased cost savings for using public transit. The study estimates that with the cost of inflation on automobile purchases, operation, and maintenance, travelers could now save up to $13,000 annually by shifting some of their travel to public transportation. RTA continues to support expanded, enhanced multimodal travel options for our market — and the better our system is, the more likely that more people will find it valuable and use it, at least for some trips. We thank each of our regional and state transit planning, funding, and implementation partners who are creating more options for our growing region. To learn more about the APTA study, please read this week’s blog.

Let’s get moving,

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director