Published December 23, 2023
Trains, Planes, and Automobiles
Big news in the transportation world. Amtrak just received a BILLION DOLLARS in federal grant money to improve the existing rail line connecting Raleigh to Richmond and subsequently, Washington DC. It is a huge win for regional transportation. Today's blog is an opinion place written by an amateur transportation fanatic.
In 2008 at the ripe age of 20. I was studying Political Science and Arabic at Appalachian State University. After searching and searching for a suitable (ie affordable) study abroad program in an Arabic-speaking country, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I applied for a 6-week program in Alexandria, Egypt that allowed me to teach English and take Arabic lessons in exchange. That 6 week program turned into 6 months and I ended up getting a job teaching English at the adult level and making a nice little life for myself in Alexandria. My time in Alexandria had the most amazing and profound effect on me as a young man. You would think I left that experience with maybe a deep connection to the Arabic language, Islamic Studies, or Middle Eastern politics. The truth is, I came back to Appalachian State fascinated by cities. Big cities. I grew up in the suburbs of North Raleigh and commuted down Capital Blvd to Enloe (06!) every day for High School. All I knew was the car-centric development promoted in the '60s and '70s where it's normal to get in your car to go to the grocery store, to see a friend, or to do anything. Living in Egypt ignited in me a passion for cities and how they serve people. Not because either of those cities is a beacon for sound development, it was the opposite. These cities were chaotic and messy. You could see the battle between modern development and ancient architecture on the landscape. Sometimes the power would go out for no reason or we'd have to call some boy in our building to bring us a new propane tank. The streets were a cacophony of cars, motorcycles, trucks, carts, you name it. The cheapest way for me to get to work was the world's slowest trolly line that penetrated the maze of neighborhoods set back from the Corniche, or waterfront of Alexandria. Even though this tram line went about 7 miles per hour. I loved every minute of it. I loved that it cost about $.50 and you got the thinnest piece of paper to serve as a ticket. I loved that people just jumped on and off. I relished how old and creaky it was and how sometimes it would just stop for no reason. It's always been about the journey for me, never the destination.
The reason I'm sharing all of this with you is because the rest of my time at Appalachian State was spent studying Community and Regional Planning with an emphasis on transportation. I love transportation. I love how smart transportation planning improves the quality of life for so many people and makes or breaks the attractiveness of a city. To describe how OBSESSED I was with transportation, I almost got a tattoo of Berlin's underground train system, the U-Bahn. Thinking back on it, that would have been a weird move, but I believe that sound transportation planning is the cornerstone of livability and I believe to my very soul that it will make or break cities in the future. I once attended a talk led by a man who runs a recruiting firm for jobs at the highest level. For example, when Blue Cross and Blue Shield hired a new CEO, they call this guy. He explained how the lack of public transportation was one of the top reasons CEO-level individuals did NOT want to move here. This stuff is important.
So here's my opinion. I love that NC received this federal grant. I love that we're going to have a fast, direct line into our nation's capital and vice versa. My question is, when those folks take the train into Raleigh, how are they going to get to the rest of the triangle? How are they going to get to RTP? They'll take a train to Raleigh and then hop in an Uber or Lyft to get to downtown Durham? Our lack of local transportation is abysmal. Yeah, I said it. It's terrible. We have a train line connecting Raleigh and Durham directly that runs twice a day and it's part of a regional line going from Richmond to Charlotte which means it's not at all during commuter times. Why isn't there a train running every 30 minutes? We were so close to a light rail system connecting Durham and Chapel Hill before Duke put a stop to it. We have these amazing, flat cities that could be bikable, walkable, and interconnected. Instead, we spend 100s of millions of $$$ to widen I-40 or expand 55 going into downtown Durham. Our planning revolves around putting more cars on the road, which won't do anything to relieve traffic OR the rates of traffic incidents. Don't get me wrong, we're doing much better than we were 10 or 20 years ago and I'm not naive to the fact that there are many, many private interests involved in all of these decisions that don't make it so easy. But come on Triangle! My wish is that we received a billion-dollar grant to connect our cities before reaching out to the region. But hey, I'm just a guy with a BS in Community Planning who almost got the Berlin U-Bahn system tattooed on his back. What do I know?
