The Orange County Board of Commissioners heard a proposal on Tuesday for a bus rapid transit system that would provide service to residents of Carrboro and Chapel Hill.
The proposal was pitched by Brian Litchfield, the director of Chapel Hill Transit, who explained that the service corridor under consideration is intended to benefit commuters.
“It starts at the existing Eubanks park-and-ride and then moves down Martin Luther King [Junior] Boulevard through downtown Chapel Hill […] out to the Southern Village park-and-ride.”
Three options were presented to commissioners by Litchfield, with each option incorporating a special lane that would keep buses separate from regular traffic flows.
“We’re talking about dedicated lanes on [option one] and [option two], and then [option three] would be the dedicated center lane.”
The dedicated lanes would enable buses to make more trips over an anticipated seven-day operating schedule that Litchfield briefed to commissioners.
“5:00 AM to 11:00 PM [on weekdays and] 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM [on weekends],” he cited. “Frequency that’s anticipated is seven-and-a-half minutes during the day.”
A study on the system was initiated in 2014 by Chapel Hill Transit that put the estimated number of passengers over the course of 60 hours at over 20,000.
“In a single day we’d carry enough folks to, perhaps, almost fill Cameron Indoor Stadium and in about two-and-a-half days, enough folks to carry the Smith Center,” noted Litchfield.
He reminded commissioners that the system is intended to interface with the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project, which would bring commuter trains to the area.
“The two projects aren’t dependent on one another; they could move forward independent of each other. However, they are designed to integrate.”
Commissioners will reconvene on February 16 for further deliberation on the system and its estimated capital cost of approximately $100 million.
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