Member Briefing: June 7, 2019
- June 14, 2019
- Posted by: Joe Milazzo II
- Category: Member briefing
Here is a brief weekly update from the RTA business coalition – the voice of the regional business community on transportation.
Looking to build your regional network? Register for the RTA tour.
We are less than two weeks away from one of our largest tours ever. Now north of 60 attendees, including 8 elected officials, the overnight RTA tour is an outstanding way to quickly grow your regional network. We will learn about various forms of bus rapid transit as well as commuter rail, a freeway cap, and university-transit partnerships. With new transit plans required for the western Triangle as a result of the ending of the light rail project, taking a fresh look at transit options and opportunities is essential. General registration pricing at $749 ends today. If you have not yet registered, please do so now.
Our largest airline hasn’t made RDU into a hub. But…
Delta Air Lines is the largest carrier serving Raleigh-Durham International, now serving 29 destinations via more than 70 daily departures. By comparison, they only had 10 nonstop cities from RDU back in 2010. While RDU is not a Delta “hub”, we are certainly one of the largest non-hub airports in the Delta system, and the number of flights will almost certainly increase as the market continues to grow, and as Atlanta-based Delta continues to see success in their air travel offerings.
What if the best highway funding user fee isn’t a “user fee” at all?
During our Leadership Team discussion on the proposed Duke Energy electric vehicle pilot last month, a question arose on how to fund highways in the future if electric vehicles continue to become widespread and render the gasoline tax increasingly obsolete. In this week’s blog, I spoke to our existing RTA position in favor of network access fees as a sustainable funding source. I shared this with the NC Board of Transportation Funding Appropriations and Strategies (FAST) Committee earlier this week. You can also see the post on LinkedIn.
Thank you for strengthening the regional business community’s voice on transportation through your membership in RTA!
Let’s get moving,
Joe
Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director
