DATA circulator to connect downtown, Duke come winter

During our interview with Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA) director Steve Mancuso last week on "Shooting the Bull," Barry and I touched on a number of interesting topics -- but none more so, to my mind, than the DATA downtown circulator that Mancuso described.

We mentioned the item briefly here last spring as one of the augmentations in City services unveiled in this fiscal year's budget -- a budget weak on new spending, with tax increases projected to a large extent to make up for declining sales tax and permit/license collections.

Still, the concept hasn't had a lot of illumination, getting overshadowed more recently by the Durham Area Designers' idea of a streetcar/trolley system running north-south and east-west through core neighborhoods.

Unlike the streetcar concept, however, the DATA circulator is a concrete service that's set to begin this winter; by March, at least, and probably sooner if the Durham Station multimodal transit facility finishes construction ahead of schedule.

In learning about the plan from Mancuso last week, we here at BCR were impressed, and a little bit surprised, by three very important and useful aspects of the proposal -- which combine to make this one of the most important transit improvements that Durham has seen in a long time.

First, the circulator really provides not just intra-downtown connectivity, but links to some of the heart of Durham's economic engine. The circulator will start at Durham Station, head down Pettigrew to the downtown loop, and circumnavigate the loop -- past the Library, Foster St. (near Durham Central Park), the Marriott and the Carolina Theatre -- until reaching Main St.

From there, it's west on Main St. past West Village and Brightleaf Square. Then, importantly, the route will continue past that area, passing Duke's East Campus, Ninth Street and the Erwin Square area. The circulator will turn left on Fifteenth St. and terminate with the Duke campus/medical center area.

That's a critical route for a couple of reasons. First, it helps provide connectivity between the burgeoning downtown area and Duke's massive campus; the medical center is in fact (with the VA) one of the largest single-site employment hubs in the entire Triangle.

Commuters taking Triangle Transit or other intercity service to Durham Station will easily be able to take the circulator that "last mile" to their work. And employees in that same complex will also be able to take the bus towards Ninth Street or downtown to enjoy local restaurants, businesses or shops -- something hard to do today in a limited lunch break.

The opportunities for Duke students to have easier access to Durham businesses is also a key advantage to the plan, particularly with a bus providing direct connections between campus and the Bull City.

There's a second key to the proposal, though, and that's the planned headways for the service.

The circulator, during key daytime hours, is planned to arrive at stations and stops at least every ten minutes. That interval is a key number for transit, and on this one high-traffic route at least addresses a frequent complaint about transit in Durham, where many bus routes only arrive every 30-60 minutes.

A ten minute maximum wait for a bus makes such a service highly useable for everything from West Village residents hopping on/off to hit Whole Foods or Ninth Street, to medical center staff taking a ride to Brightleaf Square for lunch.

That 10 minute headway will diminish for weekend and late evening hours; it's not clear what the frequency will be for the service during those hours.

The third key? It's free. And that's a hard price to beat.

What's still to come for the service? Exact stops along the route haven't been determined yet, BCR has learned, and are still under discussion.

There's also interest in some quarters for a second phase of the circulator to extend eastward, out Main St. and down Fayetteville St. to connect NCCU in a similar fashion.

No matter what, the downtown circulator will be a key new addition for downtown life -- and a key addition for making Durham's transit system more effective.

Learn more in this four-minute excerpt from last week's "Shooting the Bull."

Comments

[AR]

This is exciting! I, for one, will "circulate" downtown for lunch from my office on Broad St. The third point is key- its "free!"

[Matt]

1. Will it be an ordinary city bus, with bike racks?
2. A pet peeve: this will provide connections "between campus and the rest of the Bull City," not "between campus and the Bull City." The two are distinct, but overlapping.

Good news, I say, and likely to get a lot of ridership if properly publicized!

[Joshua Allen]

This is fantastic and because it's free, it will be used more so than otherwise. It may actually get Duke students into our City more often! I think being free is important to get people to try it out; however, it's rather unfair that this route that appeals mostly to middle income households is free while the routes more likely to be taken by poor households cost money.

[Lee]

That's awesome! I look forward to riding it to work.

[Todd]

This is a great plan - the route, the headway, and the price are right on target.

Now if there were just some decent bus shelters thrown into the mix, the plan would be hard to beat.

[Tar Heelz]

With no new money in the DATA budget, what's the source of the funds to run this new "free" service?

[D]

Sounds Great, I hope that they use a different bus/and or design scheme. Something to make it stand out from the regular DATA buses.

[Bull City Rising]

@Joshua: I'm not so sure that it doesn't provide a useful service to low-income Durhamites, too. Once they get into the city core on a bus, the service provides quick access to one of the largest employment bases in the city. Of course, at the same time, having transit services that also draw "riders of choice" also tend to attract more widespread political support for transit, too, something Durham needs.

@TH: Not sure I made this clear enough in the post, but this was one of the few expansions of service in the DATA budget proposal from last spring. From the City: "The proposed budget maintains current service levels by supporting rising fuel and other operating costs, and adds a downtown circulator route late in the year to serve the new Durham Station. Unfortunately, other new routes or expansions in service to existing routes go unmet."

[JaredW]

What terrific news!

I feel as though Durham could have a slightly different feel as a result of this...all for the better. Duke students will be more likely to explore downtown, new businesses could then be supported...everything will feel a little more connected, as it should be with such cool, but perhaps psychologically isolated, islands of shopping/restaurants that we have. And the fact that it's free makes me feel as though the powers that be are really putting in an effort to get the revitalization moving along...

[Mark]

I hope the headway doesn't fall off too much on weekends. I like the idea of driving the family from our home in northern Durham to Erwin Square and then using the circulator to enjoy a day in the city, from the Farmer's Market to Brightleaf, Ninth Street, and more! Very exciting!

[Rob]

Maybe Duke can coordinate with the city to fix the headways issue during the evenings. They already have a C-5 service that covers a little bit of the circulator every 20 minutes (the chapel instead of DUMC, and east campus is hit via campus drive instead of Main St). If Duke Transit can mimic the route in the evenings to augment DATA service, then 10-minute (or at least 15-minute) headways can be maintained through the evening between DATA and Duke.

Duke Transit and DATA have been talking about working together more in the future. This would be a major step in that partnership.