News Archive

Favorable reception to bus service at city-county meeting

By: Michael Abernethy
Published: Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Most said benefits outweigh costs of park-and-ride service after Tuesday's information session

An overall favorable reaction to starting a park-and-ride bus service in Alamance County answered the first questions at Tuesday's joint meeting between the Alamance County Board of Commissioners and the Burlington City Council.

Questions left to be answered involve when the county might get it and how much it might cost taxpayers.

After a presentation by Piedmont Area Regional Transit Director Brent McKinney outlining demand and usage among the bus service's 10-county region, commissioners and council members seemed to agree that a basic park-and-ride service is necessary. Alamance and Rockingham counties are the only ones in the area that do not pay for or receive direct park-and-ride service.

Federal and state grants would cover 90 percent of the startup costs. The county would have to provide the rest - about $100,000 to start with. Burlington already returns about $1 million to the state annually because it doesn't have mass transit. The $100,000 could be paid for by a 5 percent increase on car-rental fees or up-to $5 added to county vehicle registrations.

Tuesday's discussion revolved around three initial park-and-ride lots in view of the interstate: one in Mebane, one in Burlington and one in Gibsonville. PART service would begin with two buses making eight trips a day out-of-county. Service would increase as demand grew.

A $1.4 million grant from the federal stimulus project is expected to be available for Alamance County to begin building park-and-ride lots.

Councilmen David Huffman and Jim Butler seemed to push for the registration tax after McKinney said it would be needed to fund the operation after 2012 whether or not the rental tax was enacted. County commissioners seemed comfortable with no more than a $1 addition. Commissioners would have to approve any tax increase in a public vote.

McKinney estimates that about 12,000 county residents will commute to work in Guilford or Orange counties daily by next year. Another 5,000 people drive into Alamance County daily. PART service would save those residents time and money on their vehicles, he says.

"One of the challenges is to get people to rely on transit. We grew up in a region of the country where we didn't rely on public transportation much," McKinney said. Ridership in each of the eight counties served by PART has increased each year this decade.

PART already connects users to bus service in the Triangle and runs a bus to Blowing Rock. McKinney envisions a system that would connect riders to Charlotte and other areas west as well as areas closer to the coast.

"I think this is a great idea. I think (residents) will find out in the long run that this will save them money," said Commissioner Eddie Boswell after the meeting.

Commissioner Ann Vaughan thinks park-and-ride service is overdue here and that it "moves us into the 21st century."

Mayor pro tem David Huffman said residents here "deserve this service" to get them to hospitals and schools in Orange, Guilford and Forsythe counties.

Not everyone was in favor of a county-funded transit system. Though absent due to scheduling conflicts, Commissioner Tim Sutton said in a phone message early Tuesday that he is "against taxing anyone for public transit ... I object to having people pay for other people's ride, no matter how small the cost."