Transit’s Future

The Triangle is home to 1.5 million people and is projected to grow rapidly to 2.5 million people over the next generation, adding more people than currently live in our four largest cities combined: Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill. With the added population will also come changes in its demographic makeup, housing and the propensity for people to want and to use high-quality transit service:

  • Those aged 65 and older will grow from less than 10 percent of our population in 2000 to more than 15 percent.
  • Proportionately more people will live as singles, couples or other households without young children.
  • A significant number of people will continue to live in households without a car, either by choice or necessity; the number of households without cars in the region increased from 27,000 to 29,000 between 1990 and 2000.
  • Market research indicates that about 20-30 percent of people would prefer to live in a more compact, walkable neighborhood where people can get to jobs, shopping and recreation without using a car. Where such neighborhoods exist or are built, they typically command a premium over comparable suburban housing, since a much smaller percentage of housing is supplied in this walkable, transit-oriented pattern.

One thing that will not change is the Triangle’s challenge. The number of people that cross a county boundary every day to get to work has ballooned from 57,000 in 1980 to 180,000 in 2000. One of every seven workers who lives in Wake County travels to a job in Durham or Orange counties. And one of every 10 workers who lives in Durham or Orange counties travels to a job in Wake County. Upwards of 50 percent of the workers in eastern Chatham County, southern Granville and Franklin counties, northwestern Johnston County and northern Harnett County commute.

Riders have embraced transit in the Triangle at levels higher than the national average. A Mayor’s initiative has called for increased bus service. A Special Transit Advisory Committee has urged the region’s two planning organizations for more bus service in the region with future needs being met by bus, rail and/or circulators. Transit’s future is bright.

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