With the Triad to the west and the Triangle to the east, Burlington is stuck in the middle with no buses to lighten the load.
BURLINGTON, N.C. -- In Alamance County, the need for public transportation is growing along with the population – especially in Burlington, which is the largest city in North Carolina without a public transit system.
Buses are filling up across the state as working class citizens opt to leave their cars at home. The best Burlington has to offer is 28 passenger vans. "We do about 275 trips a day currently, and that demand continues to go up,” explained Dennis Williams, executive director of the Alamance County Transportation Authority.
Currently, scheduling a ride on one of the ACTA vans must be done a day in advance. They will go from any point in the county to any other point in the county for $7 each way, but taking a trip to work in Greensboro or Raleigh is out of the question.
In Alamance County, the need for public transportation is growing along with the population – especially in Burlington, which is the largest city in North Carolina without a public transit system.
"We see a very strong demand currently from people going to work out of county, especially with the price of fuel,” said Williams. “These are people who go to work to the west or to the east.”
That’s because with the Triad to the west and the Triangle to the east, Burlington is stuck in the middle with no buses to lighten the load. So, Patrick Harman of the Hayden-Harman Foundation has been speaking to civic organization, elected officials and anyone who will listen about the advantages of public transportation.
"I'm trying to get people to think about public transit as an option that you would use occasionally,” he said. “If it's Christmas time and you don't want to deal with all that you can ride the bus and they can drop you off at the door, or if you take your car to get fixed you can take the bus to work."
Harman’s foundation is willing to put up $50,000 a year for the first three years of a new public transit system. He’s hoping others join him.
A 2006 study estimated first-year operating costs for a new public transit system would require $675,000 in local revenues. That breaks down to $12 per Alamance County household. The Burlington City Council will hold a public hearing on the issue on September 2.