The City of Greensboro is asking for your input on how to accomplish one of the goals of the City Council – to become a car optional city by 2040.
According to the new Greensboro Transit Department web page, the goal of the long range transit plan called GoBORO is for the city to become car optional by 2045. Perhaps the people actually doing the work believe they need a few more years.
The deadline may be flexible, but the goal of providing people with a variety of transportation options so that they have a choice of getting around without driving a car is the same.
Bus transportation will play a big role in making Greensboro car optional, and two different concepts for improving bus service are being considered.
The Ridership Concept would have buses run their routes with higher frequency in areas where there are the most people and popular destinations. More frequency would mean shorter wait times and more convenience for bus riders.
The Coverage Concept would expand the areas covered by bus routes so that some service is provided to as much of Greensboro as possible. This concept would expand the area of coverage but lower the frequency, meaning longer wait times between buses, which would make using public transit less convenient.
So it seems two options being considered are expanding the frequency of buses in areas where people are currently using public transportation or occasionally running buses through neighborhoods where people currently are not using public transportation.
If the goal is to increase ridership, it seems The Ridership Concept is the obvious answer, but it doesn’t seem that Greensboro can be considered a car-optional city if there are large parts of the city where people have to walk several miles to get to a bus stop.
Those who want to be heard on this topic are invited to go to www.greensboro-nc.gov/GoBORO and take the online survey.
The buses are now running about empty. Please do not throw more money into this pit. The city has covered the windows so we cannot see that there is nobody on the big beautiful buses being driven by high paid city employees.
Greensboro has a woke Portland mindset. Forrest said it best
“Stupid is as stupid does “
Council. go kick rocks you’re all as dumb as a sack of hammers
LMAO…screw city council.
Whatever plan they come up with , have the city council test it out first, for 6 plus months. Yeah , that’s what I thought too…..
URBAN SPRAWL creates incredibly difficult situations where “ car optional “ dreams can be achieved. With all the industrial growth in the airport area and Randolph County it seems impossible to achieve such a goal. On top of that growth we’re witnessing households moving out of the county in favor of lower taxes in surrounding counties, again challenging “car optional “ dreams. Until such time as every planner incorporates this dream in their futures and until such time as alternative fuels become viable I see no chance “car optional “ cities will ever happen.
Fire this City Council.
The Left is adept at twisting language to promote its goals. For example, when I first heard the term “Gender Affirming Care” I was in favor of it, because I believed it meant what it said : affirming the gender of the individual. So a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. But no! It means exactly the opposite, and more accurately should be called Gender Rejection Care.
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In the same way, when Leftists talk about “car optional cities”, what they mean is Car Prohibited Cities. The Left is incrementally making driving our cars as frustrating, time consuming, costly, and aggravating as they can. They will install Road Ragers (“traffic calming”) like humps in the road, to impede our progress. They will choke and narrow our roads with unused bike lanes and – next – bus lanes. They will reduce speed limits to absurdly low levels. They will install “Gotcha Cameras” to fine us when we dare to exceed their ridiculous speed restrictions. They will do all they can to increase the price of gasoline, and every other cost associated with driving. They will even impose “Congestion Charges”, which is a fee for just driving down the road.
Ultimately they want to corral us into what they call “15 Minute Cities”, in which we will all be confined, having to beg permission to leave our zone (really). They are, of course, just concentration camps. That is their ultimate goal.
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The Left resents and despises the private automobile because it’s our freedom and independence.
We should fight against every minor theft of our physical freedom, because this is a war.
If we do nothing, we lose.
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Right! One way to enhance the goal of “car optional” is to make the cost of living so high that people can’t afford a car; or 1 or 2 v/s 2 or 3, etc. You get that with high taxation and inflation. Who is responsible for that?
Yes, “Car optional” means the very wealthy will have the option of owning a car, and the rest of us will be reduced to bicycles or forced onto “public transportation”, like cattle.
You’re not going to get your “15 Minute City”. A town has to start that way, not change into one. It doesn’t work backward, only forward from conception. That’s why cities like SF, NYC, Chicago, and Philly work so well with transit systems, they began as cities dependent on local transit. Places like G’boro, Winston, and Raleigh began as hubs for farming communities with people traveling from far away and it’s always going to be that way. A large portion of the population travels more than 15-25 miles into the city to do business and that’s not conducive to a “car-optional city”.
As a bicyclist I would recommend for bikes lanes, but the number of distracted drivers these days precludes this option. Maybe some more bike paths parallels to roadways or in center medians of some of the major throughways, but these would require real money and I doubt they would justify the cost.
One potential real option would be park and ride buses from hubs that would provide delivery and pick up to main areas like Friendly Center, downtown, coliseum etc. from outlying areas especially where there is already tons of parking perhaps not fully utilized.
You are right. It is not safe to bike in the streets or highways. Designated bike lanes are a feel-good needless expense. I used to cycle Spring Garden St from Guilford College to downtown & back. Locals have little street parking available because of bike lanes. Cyclists can choose themselves if they want to risk it, we don’t need govt to tell us how to do everything.
I lived up North for a while. People used public buses, trains, and subways a lot. We have a bus system here now, if anyone rides. If they ever fill up, just add more routes and buses. Who knows, mebbe a private company can take over the bus system, and run it better and cheaper. Years ago, Duke Power had trolley cars all over town, which we used.
There weren’t many cars until well after WWII. I remember our first car in the late 40s, we never had more than one. My parents both worked downtown, and took the same bus to work.
I believe the City Council speaks with forked tongue. Car-optional city? Really? What about millions and millions of tax dollars spent on the Westin parking deck? The Westin parking deck benefits the Woolworth tax-exempt boondoggle run by Skip Alston. The project also benefits Randall Kaplan and his wife, Kathy Manning (one of the 20 richest members of Congress). What about Roy Carroll’s parking deck? Do these expenditures really look like a city that is serious about car optional? Wait, I get it. Car optional is only for “let them eat cake” locals.
You know how to put it.
It’s going to be funny to hear how the council explains how the high dollar electric buses can’t be fixed when they have problems because the 5.5 billion dollar company that built them is now bankrupt. The 5.5 billion was directly from slo joes administration meaning Taxpayers dollars Maybe we could all get roller skates
One way to fix the car-optional city is to continue to not pave the streets in downtown. I don’t think you can drive 30 feet without going over a pot-hole, rut, or uneven pavement. The railroad tracks at the train station is an example of lazy politicians blaming the railroads. You want to make downtown a place to go? Fix the streets!!!!
BTW, this is true across the city. If you drive on West Friendly Ave and Guilford College Road, there is no smooth pavement since the asphalt has moved overtime and created ruts and bumps. Oh I’m sorry . . .the money for street maintenance was cut so the council could give away more money to their constituent groups to keep them elected.