Elizabeth "Lizzy Bee" living in North Carolina

Helpful! Maybe you could add in an extremely low-income parameter. For the Raleigh area of North Carolina, the "Wake Transit Plan Update: Market Analysis: Fall 2024" included a Transit Propensity Index that showed people with income below $15,000 = 6.3 times as likely to ride transit.

Yes, yes, yes: "One of the most important things we can do in trying to rebuild America’s liberal democracy is to get out of our own heads and into the world, meet one another, and tell a new story about this country and who we are going to be." Less time online -- more hours in real interaction!

In my area, the only way to reach a library by bus is to ride the commuter express to the neighboring town. I need to catch the 5:05 bus, arriving at 5:25pm, race-walk to the library, check out pre-planned books, race back for the final 6:30pm loop. Often the only passenger at least one direction!

I am from an explosive-growth town in North Carolina, where dangerous traffic and impatient drivers have become a big problem for pedestrians. These raised crosswalks look better than what we have now. Do you happen to know the cost?

Yippee! Excited about improving my transit advocacy skills and networking with other non-driving bus-riding activists.

Yum! I love pineapple in savory dishes. I am one of the strange people who likes pineapple on pizza.

Yum! I keep pumpkin puree in the refrigerator constantly. Add to lots of bean bowls and Indian sauce. My dogs enjoy a daily spoonful.

The book banning is infuriating. I love the artwork of two girls reading that accompanies your article.

Special gold shoes worn by small town mayor.

Our mayor in Apex, North Carolina, certainly has that "swagger" spirit. He wears gold shoes for recognizability and posts lots of body building videos.

Yes! I live in Apex, North Carolina. Both the single GoApex route and the adjacent GoCary system are currently free. I am now quasi-retired with income declining, so now qualified for a free GoTriangle pass that works for GoRaleigh. When working full time, I paid for bus rides at reasonable fares.

Increased risk for pedestrians: this is a daily reality for me. Impatient drivers, frustrated by traffic congestion, race through right and left turns, without checking crosswalks. Even with a walk signal, I scrutinize driver's faces and aggression levels before bravely crossing. I feel invisible!

Interesting! "Free parking represents a greater subsidy to automobile commuting than free gasoline would be."

I would love to learn more about these tradeoffs: "given resource constraints a mobility strategy requires some
tradeoffs between service frequency and coverage—a bus can run in a straight line every, say, 15 minutes or in a larger zigzag pattern once an hour, but not both." Giant loops, in my town.

100% true in my booming town: "suburban arterial roads tend to be designed in ways unsuited and unsafe for the pedestrian, undermining walkability and, often, elongating driving distances." The "peripheries" are unserved by transit (and increasingly filled with McMansions).

Registered and excited!

Very happy that my personal transit budget for 2025 is zero! Gave up car. Local bus for my town and adjacent town is free. Income below $39,000 so eligible for free regional transit pass. Live in central downtown area of Apex, North Carolina, so over 50% of errands & activities reachable by walking.

In the 1980s in Los Angeles, I intentionally rented on Venice Boulevard. The bus stop across the street hosted an express bus route, limited bus route, and regular bus route. 24-hour service from downtown to the beach, with three minute frequently during the day. Felt like there was always a bus!

I think the "continuum" concept is so useful for describing many human characteristics. Including the mood disorders that impact my family to varying degrees and at different levels during our lifespan.

Yes! "Thousands of highly trained researchers and clinicians have generated an extraordinary amount of information about autism’s genetics and neurobiology, developed reliable early detection methods, expanded special education and improved behavioral and medical therapies."

My neighborhood is undergoing brutal gentrification. I've noticed that people in the huge McMansions on treeless lots (replacing the bulldozed modest 1950s ranch houses) leave floodlights surrounding the property on round-the-clock.

Bravo! I never drove into age forty: bus and train rider while living in California. Then I had a job transfer to the Raleigh-area where a car was required for my former office location. Now at age 62, back to buses and walking -- because options now exist here! I feel far more connected locally.

My home is within a twenty minute walk to the historic downtown, the town campus, and important bus stops. (For residents in the explosion of outlying expensive housing developments, the bus system does not reach that far yet and walking-for-errands has limited feasibility.)

There is a GoTriangle regional hourly route to a brand-new Raleigh station that then connects further to Durham or Chapel Hill. Sidewalk, greenbelt, and bike lane improvements are rolling out -- very good news for the intersection where I live.

A mobility hub site has been identified, potentially connected to a proposed regional passenger rail. Options to reach the adjacent larger community of Cary will improve with a twice-an-hour free route launching in early November. The Cary bus depot is conveniently in shared space with Amtrak.

Route One frequency will improve to every thirty minutes, plus Sunday service, in a few months. The town council recently approved a parks-to-library route for 2028, as part of a broader transit prioritization study and plan.

We've exploded from the historic 3,000 residents to 80,000 now and 130,000 population coming. Absolutely car-dependent still, but options are improving. Apex Route One is a free one-hour loop to main destinations north, south, and through the historic downtown.

Apex, North Carolina, is working hard to improve transit, bicycle, and pedestrian options. In 2015, Money Magazine selected Apex as the highest-ranked "Best Place to Live in the United States." In 2019, town was number one in the country for home construction per capita.

Beautiful reflection on moss! I do my best to spread and nurture moss in my garden.

For many years when I lived in Los Angeles, my apartment was across Venice Boulevard from a bus stop with 24-hour service by a regular route, a limited route, and an express route. During prime hours, a bus passed every three minutes. Traveling from downtown to the beach!

Hello: I discovered you through the article "What I've Learned From Getting Transit Wrong." Brilliant perspective. I am bus-dependent in fast-growing Apex, North Carolina, with one in-town bus route and expansion plans in three years -- but plenty of hostile opposition.