As the lights dimmed inside the Durham Bus Station last Wednesday evening, congresswoman Valerie Foushee came into focus on a projector screen to share a message with a room full of transit experts, elected officials, and residents.
“Transit Equity Day takes place on Rosa Parks’s birthday, February 4, to honor her life, her historic protest, and her pivotal role in the fight for transit equity,” Foushee said. Foushee recently introduced legislation into the U.S. House to officially recognize Transit Equity Day.
“While her courageous action sparked a movement for transit equity, we are still far from achieving a truly equitable transit system.”
Community members and public officials gathered to celebrate Transit Equity Week and learn more about the future of Durham’s transportation system.
Bike Durham, a local transportation equity nonprofit, led the event in collaboration with The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Durham Congregations in Action (DCIA), People’s Alliance, and The Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit. Staff members from the City of Durham, Durham County, and GoTriangle presented updates to their combined transit plan, followed by a brief Q&A with state and local officials.
Gregory Williams, campaign advocacy organizer at Bike Durham, shared anecdotes from community members that Bike Durham surveyed to highlight the ways folks engage with the transportation system in Durham and how fare free bus service, which GoDurham first implemented in 2020 during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, has impacted riders.
Williams said fare free bus service allowed residents to easily visit family members in need, access vital health care centers like Duke Regional and the Veterans Affairs hospital, and connect youth with their friends as well as recreational opportunities.
“This underscores the interconnectedness and importance of a robust, accessible transit system that reaches beyond our immediate view,” Williams said.
Chris Perelstein recently moved from Raleigh to Durham and shared his experience with the bus service. Perelstein reiterated the need for a holistic approach to transit.
“One thing that I would love to address with our elected officials is not just the buses themselves but the tangential infrastructure, things like sidewalks and crosswalks, that are missing throughout Durham,” Perelstein said. “I live downtown where things aren’t too bad, but every time I go north of 85 or south of 147, the whole picture changes and I frequently run into a lot of challenges with the buses.”
Since the light rail project failed, Durham and neighboring communities have been searching for alternative paths to improve regional transit. Ellen Beckmann, Durham County’s transportation director, said community feedback consistently prioritized making improvements to the current system before investing in larger projects. The four areas of emphasis highlighted in the county plan include improving the current system, connecting Durham to the region with options like Bus Rapid Transit, improving all bus stops and stations, and completing projects more quickly.
Jennifer Green, mobility services planning manager for the City of Durham transportation department, also presented the city’s vision for the transit plan. Green said the city used COVID-19 relief funds to offer fare free service the last three years but that “the money is not going to last forever.” City council and staff have already begun their budget process for the upcoming fiscal year and are looking for ways to balance the budget while continuing to offer fare free bus service, Green said.
In 2022, Durham transportation staff conducted an “onboard survey” to get a snapshot of who was riding the bus by capturing different demographic information. Seventy-seven percent of riders identify as Black, according to the survey, while 87 percent of riders live within households making less than $35,000, and 77 percent of riders don’t have access to a car.
“What this tells us is that anything we can do to improve bus stops, provide service more hours of the day, improve frequency, it will make the service more accessible, more available and make the experience for people riding with us a lot better,” Green said.
Other improvements included in the proposed transit plan are more direct routes between major stops that don’t have to transfer at the main station, smaller transit hubs at The Village shopping center and other areas with high ridership, and prioritized bus routes on Fayetteville Street and Holloway Street.
After presentations, Durham Committee member Stella Adams led a Q&A with state senators Natalie Murdock and Mike Woodard, and county commissioner Wendy Jacobs. They took questions from the audience about how they will support the transit plan through their different leadership positions.
Murdock, who serves on the state senate Transportation Committee along with Woodard, said that making improvements at the state level is an uphill fight.
“We are in the super minority of the minority of people that even care about transit, that even want you to have access to transit. It’s not like that in other states,” Murdock said. “The state should provide a lot more money. Your tax dollars should go towards more sidewalks and more access to transit. But unfortunately, a lot of my colleagues think ‘Oh, that’s something for poor people, so they don’t care about it. Those people don’t vote for me.’ So we have to fight tooth and nail to provide more access to transit.”
Follow Reporter Justin Laidlaw on Twitter or send an email to [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].
Support independent local journalism.
Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
You must be logged in to post a comment.