Raleigh Downtown Living Advocates

Category: Transportation / Parking (Page 4 of 10)

DLA Adopts Downtown Bus Shelter: early adopter of new city-wide program

November 17, 2012 /

The Downtown Living Advocates has adopted the R-Line (R9) bus shelter located at the corner of Dawson and Morgan Streets.

The City’s shelter adoption program began in September, and the DLA quickly volunteered to be one of the first adopters.

 

About the Adopt-A-Shelter Program

Adoption requires maintaining the shelter and assisting in removing trash in and around the shelter area on a monthly basis.  The City of Raleigh provides trash bags, disposable gloves and safety vests to assist in the trash removal around adopted shelters.  Volunteers are also asked to notify City of Raleigh staff of any special maintenance needs and report vandalism or suspicious activity.

Residents can sign up for a one-year commitment to keep the adopted bus shelter clean for CAT riders, and all of the 184 bus shelters throughout the City of Raleigh are available for adoption.

Code for American web application makes signing up easy

Code for America has stepped up to offer an interactive web web application to encourage participation in this City program.  The online application displays which Capital Area Transit (CAT) bus shelters are available for adoption.

The URL for the app is http://adoptashelter.raleighnc.gov/

Code for Raleigh includes volunteers from CityCamp Raleigh, who advocate for existing applications and technology created by Code for America, a national non-profit focused on improving government through technology.
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Race for Reuse Campaign targets 20 adopted shelters by December 6th

The Raleigh brigade has entered the Code for America Race for Reuse campaign, which is looking to have 20 new shelters adopted by December 6 to meet its success criteria.

We think we can double the existing adoption rate from 20 adopters to 40 adopters during the campaign,” said Jason Hibbets, a Code for Raleigh brigade captain. “Over the coming weeks, we hope to drive awareness of the bus shelter adoption program and host a ‘civic-athon’ on December 1 to sign-up new users, add new features and create Triangle Wiki pages about each adopted shelter.

Civic-athon Event December 1st

Register today and save the date for Saturday, December 1 to Adopt a Raleigh bus shelter and address bug/feature requests to the web application.  The event will be located in downtown Raleigh, but the exact location has not been announced.

First Phase of Union Station in Downtown Raleigh Moves Forward

September 21, 2012 /

Joseph Szabo, the head of the Federal Railroad Administration, visited Raleigh’s warehouse district this morning to announce that the Federal Government had awarded Raleigh with the final amount of funding needed to complete the cost of a $60 million replacement for Raleigh’s Amtrak station.

  • $43 Million: Federal
  • $ 9 Million:  State
  • $6 Million: City
  • $2 Million: TTA
  • $60 Million: Total

The first phase of Union Station will be in the former Dillon Supply Viaduct Building near the corner of West and Martin streets, just a block from the planned Citrix Systems headquarters office, and around the corner from the BEST Raleigh mural now being painted by a group of local artists.

This first phase of the city’s Union Station project will serve as Raleigh’s new Amtrak depot, replacing the cramped and busy station a few blocks away on Cabarrus Street.  Project design will begin in January, with construction starting in January 2014.

Planned expansions in the future would establish Union Station as a hub for commuter trains between Durham and Raleigh as part of the Wake County Transit plan.  As you may recall, funding for the transit plan was delayed by the recent decision of the Wake County Commissioners to put off having a referendum on the transit bond.

Eventually, Union Station could also serve as the hub for inter-state High Speed Rail  (route pictured here) and a local Light Rail service that would run between Raleigh and Cary.

Associated posts:

County Transit Plan Moving Forward

Vote YES for Raleigh’s Transportation Bond

Proposed extension to R-Line daytime route to increase passenger wait times

August 13, 2012 /

Public loitering in front of the Wilmoore Cafe and other businesses adjacent to the Moore Square transit mall have prompted the Raleigh Transit Authority to propose a change to the current R-Line route.

Click to enlarge

The proposed change will move the current R-Line stop #16 from its current location to south of Martin Street. Unfortunately, the daytime route will also be extended to include three additional stops (R17-19) – see map.

While transit riders have experienced the congestion around this R-Line transit stop for some time, it was this report through the SeeClickFix app that got the city’s attention.

 

People loitering in front of the businesses surrounding Moore square transit station has become a huge problem and is of great concern to customers and business owners. Panhandling, begging, profanity, open containers/alcohol consumption, public urination, littering, sleeping, etc. has made Wilmington Street an unpleasant place to be for everybody. Please help to solve these problems so downtown Raleigh can be enjoyable for everyone.

The city says that the proposed move is also being done to relieve traffic and pedestrian congestion at this location where both TTA and R-Line buses must stop directly in front of a mid-block crosswalk on Wilmington Street.

So why extend the R-Line route?

Moving the R-Line route to the evening schedule will add three more stops to the daytime route, resulting in additional wait times for passengers at all other 16 stops.

Upon our inquiry we received these comments from the city as to the reasons for the route extension:

  1. Promote convenient access to the R-Line (from Moore Square) without it being on Wilmington Street.
  2. Allow the R-Line to by-pass by this section of Wilmington Street.

The proposed changes have not yet been approved, as they are conditional upon the Raleigh City Council adopting parking changes being proposed on the section of Wilmington Street between Hargett and Martin Streets.

Want to weigh-in on this issue?  Go to the SeeClickFix Report link.

 

Time to SpeakUP and pack the house for transit!

June 14, 2012 /

On Monday, June 18, supporters of the proposed Wake County transit plan will attend the Board of Commissioner’s meeting at 2:00 pm to show their support for moving forward with a public hearing and referendum on the plan.

The conservative majority is blocking public education, input and vote on the transit plan and it is bad governance.  We must hold them accountable for blocking the public’s voice on this critical public infrastructure.

Attendees and speakers are needed.  If you’d like to speak in support of the plan, please email Capital Area Friends of Transit and arrive at 1:30 to sign up.

The Commissioners meet on the 7th floor, Room 700 of the Wake County Courthouse, 335 S Salisbury Street Raleigh, NC 27601.

Thank you!

 

Post Contributed by Tappan Vickery: Program Coordinator / WakeUp Wake County

As a resident of Wake County, I’d like to see the mass transit plan for Wake County on the November ballot

May 30, 2012 /

There was an important message brought to light in the Editorial Section of the N&O this morning regarding transit for us in Raleigh / Wake County.

The Editorial references our right to vote on transit in the general election this November.  Whether you are for or against mass transit for our region, the question is shouldn’t our county commissioners give us as residents a right to vote our preference during a scheduled election?  The general elections is when most people vote.  If it’s not on the November ballot, it would then require a special vote, that typically brings a small percentage of voters to the pole.

Please read this article from the N&O this morning: Clear the way for a vote on  transit plan.

Email this message below, to your county commissioner / all the county commissioners, so your voice can be heard.

This is all you need to say . . . but you need to  say it.

As a resident of Wake County, I’d like to see the mass transit plan for Wake County on the November ballot.

Here are the email address of each county commissioner:

joe.bryan@wakegov.com, paul.coble@wakegov.com, bward@wakegov.com, james.west@wakegov.com, phil.matthews@wakegov.com, Tony.Gurley@wakegov.com, ervin.portman@wakegov.com

And, if you’re as passionate as I am about Downtown, and have one extra minute, share this post with a couple of folks… the more residents the county commissioners hear from, the better.

Author:  Ann-Cabell Baum Andersen

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