CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines

[kayman]

On 3/23/2023 at 9:23 AM, kayman said:

CRTPO is a metropolitan planning organization (MPO), which is federally mandated by the FHWA and FTA to consider the interest of all municipalities and counties within the urban area of 50,000 or more.  Unless said jurisdictions opt to be a part of another MPO.  They ironically have happened here because the York County portion of the Charlotte urban area is planned by the RFATS MPO housed in the City of Rock Hill.  The Charlotte urban area is in 4 counties (Mecklenburg, Union, Iredell, and York counties).  Tbh, CRTPO shouldn't even be lead nor housed within the City of Charlotte municipal government because it gives majority of the influence of federally mandated metropolitan planning level decisions to one government (Charlotte) when it affects the entire urban area.  That's why 9 out 10 times MPOs are housed in regional councils or councils of governments such as the Centralina Regional Council to neutralize overzealous influence.   CRTPO acts and operates like it is a City of Charlotte board, which is a fatally flaw philosophy for a MPO when you know that sooner than later those suburban governments are seeing that increasingly in the policy decisions.  Regardless of our own philosophies of the non-Charlotte municipalities in the urban area, Charlotte shouldn't be the housing agency for a MPO.   You might want to read this article from Tennessee that discusses the fatal flaws that occurred in Nashville with its MPO: (https://www.nashvillepost.com/politics/amp-haunting-nashville-from-the-grave/article_852b5cc4-1bb9-5aaf-93b4-238f011cc43d.html )  Yeah, that issue was remarkably like the problems here with Charlotte's MPO with the current I-77 South managed/express lanes project over the Charlotte weighted vote situation.

Regardless, of what is said in the interlocal agreements MTC operates as a City of Charlotte board.  "A wholesale cleanup" as you said will not solve the problems. 4532001-charlotte-catsreview-presentation.pdf

 

The report on pages 8, 13, and 14 shows that CATS doesn't have a clear line of leadership nor direction at all.  The MTC was created to be a regional oversight of the operations and expansion efforts of CATS from the enabling state-initiated legislative actions.  However, the City of Charlotte through the City Manager's office (through the Assistant City Manager who the CATS CEO reports to) has direct influence and involvement in the daily operations of CATS.  CATS operates as a COC department. The pages (8, 13, and 14) of the attached report show CATS leadership and organizational structure is a quagmire of leadership and influence and needs an organizational reform.   How can a competent and seasoned public transportation professional from elsewhere would want to take on the role of the CATS CEO when the MTC and the COC City Council both can initiate their termination procedures if either is not satisfied with their decisions?   In other words, the CEO is asked to serve two masters at once but runs the risk of failing to satisfy at least one of them.  There is a clause in the interlocal agreement for the MTC bylaws to allow any member jurisdiction with a budgetary or operational decision to exit the agreement.  In other words, this mess of CATS organizational structure is convoluted at best and set up to fail at its worst.  

CATS is an enterprise fund directly funded by the Mecklenburg County transit sales tax.  Said sales tax is funded by all of the taxpayers who either live or shop in Mecklenburg County.  The fact that the City of Charlotte has overwhelming influence over that is problematic at best.  All of the 6 other municipal jurisdictions including Mecklenburg County ought to have equal footing over the voting decisions since they are state mandated by law to participate in this sales tax collection by default unless they decide to exit the participation. MTC or whatever policy/budgetary board should be a part of an independent authority seperate from the City of Charlotte or its City Manager control because it is a regionally funded entity.  Said CATS CEO in leadership will always act on the behalf of their direct supervisor (Charlotte City Manager) for their own professional advancement and (annual) performance review rather than acting on the well-being of the regional community.  I agree that service operations should be restored but it shows that there is a culture of "do what you need to do" inherently exposed by the report along with the recently exposed issues. The Charlotte City Manager's office is clearly the source of these operational problems with "this silent keep things under wraps for public image" culture regardless of what is not said aloud. 

Furthermore, unless other counties such as Cabarrus, Gaston, Union, or York decided to implement their own county-level transit sales tax then they will continue to be non-voting (ex-officio) members of the said independent policy board over CATS operations because they must pay into to be able to influence and vote on anything.  I highly doubt any of those counties will be able to do such at this point in the next 5 years regardless.  

In other words, the City of Charlotte itself cannot have superfluous influence over every regional body.  Especially, when the funding for the regional transit comes from a county-level tax that covers all of Mecklenburg County.  Or in the case of CRTPO, it is mandated and funded by federal funding source.

 

Tonight's meeting is heated over what I posted nearly 2 months ago. Mecklenburg County Commissioner Altman, Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox, Huntersville Mayor Melinda Bales,  Pineville Mayor Jack Edwards, and  Cornelius Mayor Woody Washam are all asking what is the point of the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) if the Charlotte City Council can supercede and usurp the MTC fiduciary authority to conduct a third-party investigation into the overall operations of CATS. Especially, after the interlocal agreement was read by Commissioner Altman explaining the conflict of who can hire or fire the CATS CEO. 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by kayman

[videtur quam contuor]

With the decline in ridership, the reduction in service, the delay in trains and extension of headways all delivering poor service compared to X years ago, what is the momentum of further apartment building in properties along the rail line? Thousands upon thousands of new residents within walking distance of the Blue Line yet declining ridership suggests (nay, indicates) the purpose of these new apartment buildings follows some other reasoning. 

[kermit]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:51 AM, tarhoosier said:

With the decline in ridership, the reduction in service, the delay in trains and extension of headways all delivering poor service compared to X years ago, what is the momentum of further apartment building in properties along the rail line? Thousands upon thousands of new residents within walking distance of the Blue Line yet declining ridership suggests (nay, indicates) the purpose of these new apartment buildings follows some other reasoning. 

Developers love to use rail as a marketing device for apartments, they don’t really care if residents actually ride. The presence of rail does signal that the neighborhood is (or is becoming) more pedestrian friendly (and often entertainment dense). I do think walkability is a critical element influencing rent premiums and rail generally (but not always) enables walkability (regardless of how many ride).

My observations as a Blue Line rider suggest that a larger portion of renters along Brevard St (Parkwood and 25th st stations) use the Blue Line than Southend residents. [perhaps a product of less parking on Brevard thanks to several parking-lite projects along w big parking decks in SE)

EDIT: I don't believe Blue Line ridership has been declining over the past year (have not checked the data however). Any discussions of lagging Blue Line ridership should begin with an admission that 20 minute frequencies for most of the day substantially depress ridership.

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by kermit

[tozmervo]

On 5/5/2023 at 10:00 AM, kermit said:

EDIT: I don't believe Blue Line ridership has been declining over the past year (have not checked the data however). Any discussions of lagging Blue Line ridership should begin with an admission that 20 minute frequencies for most of the day substantially depress ridership.

 

As of March ridership numbers, all transit modes are up versus last year. That's the end of the good news. 

	M-18	M-19	M-22	M-23	2023 vs 2022	2023 vs 2018
Local Bus	1,067,708	940,813	478,630	518,884	108%	49%
Express Bus	65,214	56,389	14,881	19,909	134%	31%
Circulators	75,593	58,055	25,546	32,073	126%	42%
Blue Line	591,619	750,932	389,434	458,092	118%	77%
Gold Line	19,726	16,918	41,849	55,749	133%	283%

[CLTranspo]

4 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

As of March ridership numbers, all transit modes are up versus last year. That's the end of the good news. 

	M-18	M-19	M-22	M-23	2023 vs 2022	2023 vs 2018
Local Bus	1,067,708	940,813	478,630	518,884	108%	49%
Express Bus	65,214	56,389	14,881	19,909	134%	31%
Circulators	75,593	58,055	25,546	32,073	126%	42%
Blue Line	591,619	750,932	389,434	458,092	118%	77%
Gold Line	19,726	16,918	41,849	55,749	133%	283%

Gold line ridership seems impressive!

[kermit]

11 minutes ago, CLTranspo said:

Gold line ridership seems impressive!

I agree. IIRC their 1,800 per day is in line with pre-construction estimates. This is particularly impressive given the garbage frequencies that the Gold Line runs.

[videtur quam contuor]

what is the natural ridership contingent for Gold Line?

[kermit]

37 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

what is the natural ridership contingent for Gold Line?

The very few times I rode it was mostly used by folks going from the transit center or Square to West End / Five points. As I understand it the GL also gets a big MLS crowd.

Ridership would be hugely different if it ran every 5 minutes instead of every 20. That would generate much more of the 'lets ride three stops to get lunch' crowd (this is what makes the Kansas City streetcar successful).

 

[CLT Development]

10 minutes ago, kermit said:

The very few times I rode it was mostly used by folks going from the transit center or Square to West End / Five points. As I understand it the GL also gets a big MLS crowd.

Ridership would be hugely different if it ran every 5 minutes instead of every 20. That would generate much more of the 'lets ride three stops to get lunch' crowd (this is what makes the Kansas City streetcar successful).

 

Which would also be applicable to the Blue Line if it was running 5-7Min. 

[15895]

1 hour ago, CLT Development said:

Which would also be applicable to the Blue Line if it was running 5-7Min. 

Seems like the staff shortage around the country in general isn’t an issue like it was. 

Is CATS still dealing with driver issues or some operational issue? I sort of hope that’s the case as opposed to “ridership is well below pre-pandemic; therefore, frequencies  are reduced” type thought process. 

I know some here, including Durhamite, have a pretty good understanding of CATS internally so I’m sorta curious on their speculations or knowledge. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[Durhamite]

6 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Seems like the staff shortage around the country in general isn’t an issue like it was. 

Is CATS still dealing with driver issues or some operational issue? I sort of hope that’s the case as opposed to “ridership is well below pre-pandemic; therefore, frequencies  are reduced” type thought process. 

I know some here, including Durhamite, have a pretty good understanding of CATS internally so I’m sorta curious on their speculations or knowledge. 

Huh? It’s all data and model driven, much like any other industry including the airlines, etc.  Even medical centers will push you through the system sausage grinder.  That’s why it puzzles me that people on here want CATs to do something the the data says not to do, not right now. I don’t care who you put in charge, it takes a bold soul to go against the “machine” these days.  And the machine is only getting smarter, fast.

[15895]

7 hours ago, Durhamite said:

Huh? It’s all data and model driven, much like any other industry including the airlines, etc.  Even medical centers will push you through the system sausage grinder.  That’s why it puzzles me that people on here want CATs to do something the the data says not to do, not right now. I don’t care who you put in charge, it takes a bold soul to go against the “machine” these days.  And the machine is only getting smarter, fast.

Thank god John Lewis is gone. 
 

At this point, it’d be great if Lynx had the frequency of the light rail in Norfolk…

Edited May 9, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[TCLT]

10 hours ago, Durhamite said:

Huh? It’s all data and model driven, much like any other industry including the airlines, etc.  Even medical centers will push you through the system sausage grinder.  That’s why it puzzles me that people on here want CATs to do something the the data says not to do, not right now. I don’t care who you put in charge, it takes a bold soul to go against the “machine” these days.  And the machine is only getting smarter, fast.

Are you saying the data is telling them to keep frequencies and service levels low? And is that data just current ridership? Is that what expected demand is based on? Airlines for example will sometimes start new service or increase frequencies based on the expectation of induced demand. That is the new service getting added will create demand that didn't exist before. Does CATS not believe improving service (especially frequencies) will induce additional ridership? That seems hard to believe. Because if the data is showing that the demand for transit doesn't exist, and can't even be induced, then why are we even debating additional investments in transit infrastructure. 

In any case, with all the missed and deferred maintenance that has to be caught up on I don't see how they can increase frequency any time soon even if the data tells them to.

[Madison Parkitect]

19 hours ago, kermit said:

The very few times I rode it was mostly used by folks going from the transit center or Square to West End / Five points. As I understand it the GL also gets a big MLS crowd.

Ridership would be hugely different if it ran every 5 minutes instead of every 20. That would generate much more of the 'lets ride three stops to get lunch' crowd (this is what makes the Kansas City streetcar successful).

 

This is right. Gold Line ridership is just people who need to go from one specific place to another specific place and can time the headways right. It's not something you can just jump on to go run an errand unless you plan your whole trip around meeting the train as it arrives at your stop. Source: me who sometimes rides it from Trade/Tryon to Gateway if I happen to time it right.

[Durhamite]

7 hours ago, TCLT said:

Are you saying the data is telling them to keep frequencies and service levels low? And is that data just current ridership? Is that what expected demand is based on? Airlines for example will sometimes start new service or increase frequencies based on the expectation of induced demand. That is the new service getting added will create demand that didn't exist before. Does CATS not believe improving service (especially frequencies) will induce additional ridership? That seems hard to believe. Because if the data is showing that the demand for transit doesn't exist, and can't even be induced, then why are we even debating additional investments in transit infrastructure. 

In any case, with all the missed and deferred maintenance that has to be caught up on I don't see how they can increase frequency any time soon even if the data tells them to.

The airlines will also quickly shut down/shift service in a heartbeat based on data/demand.  But how can CATs increase frequency if current conditions do not justify the risk?  They are trying to maintain operations and of course be proactive about possibly changing conditions for future growth.  The repercussions of the pandemic are still lingering and will so for years to come.....maybe 2025?, 2030? Hell, who knows, maybe we'll replace the whole thing with monorail, after all, this is the Charlotte way.  I think most of the problem is legislative headwinds (local, region, state and fed), they really determine the extent of the capability of a public transit system.  Not some glorified CEO or operations manager, the "machine" tells you exactly what to do and when to do it...better than the suits.  The suits that need to be kicked in the rear reside in Raleigh and DC.  Stay tuned, we shall see.

 

[tozmervo]

both of my 77x rides today ran out of seats, meaning standing room only all the way up 77. No, they have not restored the full pre-pandie schedule

[15895]

 

3 hours ago, Durhamite said:

The airlines will also quickly shut down/shift service in a heartbeat based on data/demand.  But how can CATs increase frequency if current conditions do not justify the risk?  They are trying to maintain operations and of course be proactive about possibly changing conditions for future growth.  The repercussions of the pandemic are still lingering and will so for years to come.....maybe 2025?, 2030? Hell, who knows, maybe we'll replace the whole thing with monorail, after all, this is the Charlotte way.  I think most of the problem is legislative headwinds (local, region, state and fed), they really determine the extent of the capability of a public transit system.  Not some glorified CEO or operations manager, the "machine" tells you exactly what to do and when to do it...better than the suits.  The suits that need to be kicked in the rear reside in Raleigh and DC.  Stay tuned, we shall see.

 

Speaking Of Raleigh, the Triangle (Go Raleigh/Triangle/Durham) has been consistently having higher ridership (in raw numbers) than Charlotte. And obviously way higher percentage of pre-pandemic ridership. 

Even with light rail & streetcar, Raleigh-Durham have more people Taking mass transit than Charlotte. 

Because Charlotte doesn’t have as much demand for mass transit as Raleigh-Durham, eh? 

[RANYC]

6 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

 

Speaking Of Raleigh, the Triangle (Go Raleigh/Triangle/Durham) has been consistently having higher ridership (in raw numbers) than Charlotte. And obviously way higher percentage of pre-pandemic ridership. 

Even with light rail & streetcar, Raleigh-Durham have more people Taking mass transit than Charlotte. 

Because Charlotte doesn’t have as much demand for mass transit as Raleigh-Durham, eh? 

Hi, what are your sources for that data?  Even with all its issues, I find that to be a shocking stat.  Also, are you comparing the GoTriangle system to CATS' coverage, i.e. transit system to transit system, or are you comparing the GoTriangle Coverage to ridership just within Charlotte city limits?  

Edited May 9, 2023 by RANYC

[15895]

27 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Hi, what are your sources for that data?  Even with all its issues, I find that to be a shocking stat.  Also, are you coming the GoTriangle system to the CATS coverage, so transit system to transit system, or are you comparing the GoTriangle Coverage to just ridership within Charlotte city limits?  

APTA. I always thought it was reliable because it’s associated with the DOT, but I trust it even more after APTA hosted most transit leaders in DC several weeks ago. 

It’s the entire transit agency of CATS and their services versus those of the 3 Go agencies. 

Charlotte Vs. Go Ral/Dur/Tri

Charlotte Vs. National Avg. And average based on agency size 

 

Tool to use yourself:
https://transitapp.com/APTA

About APTA 

https://www.apta.com/about/

CATS works heavily with APTA, received feedback from APTA on the silver line alignment and sends lots of data to APTA. That’s to say. It’s pretty reliable data and a pretty nice tool with tons of industry support. 

A take away is at the onset of the pandemic, Charlotte was in line with other agencies and faired better. The notable thing is, Charlotte (closely followed by Atlanta) has struggled to regain momentum. Lots of transit agencies are even hitting record riders. Seattle is getting near 100% ridership for example. 

One can excuse away the transit situation in Charlotte. But it’s kinda dead last in transit recovery. This is the same city who hasn’t yet scored much money from the historic infrastructure bill (even Raleigh just scored ~$90M for BRT the other month from the Feds) and the city that has brand new rail road tracks for a train station to a train station that doesn’t seem 100% certain that construction will start anytime soon. Which honestly is quite astonishing. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[RANYC]

1 hour ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

APTA. I always thought it was reliable because it’s associated with the DOT, but I trust it even more after APTA hosted most transit leaders in DC several weeks ago. 

It’s the entire transit agency of CATS and their services versus those of the 3 Go agencies. 

Charlotte Vs. Go Ral/Dur/Tri

Charlotte Vs. National Avg. And average based on agency size 

 

Tool to use yourself:
https://transitapp.com/APTA

About APTA 

https://www.apta.com/about/

CATS works heavily with APTA, received feedback from APTA on the silver line alignment and sends lots of data to APTA. That’s to say. It’s pretty reliable data and a pretty nice tool with tons of industry support. 

A take away is at the onset of the pandemic, Charlotte was in line with other agencies and faired better. The notable thing is, Charlotte (closely followed by Atlanta) has struggled to regain momentum. Lots of transit agencies are even hitting record riders. Seattle is getting near 100% ridership for example. 

One can excuse away the transit situation in Charlotte. But it’s kinda dead last in transit recovery. This is the same city who hasn’t yet scored much money from the historic infrastructure bill (even Raleigh just scored ~$90M for BRT the other month from the Feds) and the city that has brand new rail road tracks for a train station to a train station that doesn’t seem 100% certain that construction will start anytime soon. Which honestly is quite astonishing. 

The US DOT's National Transit Database appears to paint a very different picture of this, putting CATS service consumption far above that of the Triangle, at least as measured by annual passenger miles, annual unlinked trips, and average weekday unlinked trips.  The database's data is updated through 2021.   https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/transit-agency-profiles?field_geography_target_id=2456&field_address_administrative_area=NC&combine=

It appears APTA has partnered with a transit app provider to estimate ridership and suggest trends in ridership demand, which is what I believe your table is showing.  I don't think it's actual ridership data.

 

The percentages displayed in this dashboard represent the percent difference between actual pre-pandemic ridership and estimated ridership for a given period during the pandemic.

Estimated ridership values for each week are extrapolated values from the most recent quarterly actual ridership figures reported by transit agencies. The most recent quarter with available figures ended December 2022. Estimated ridership values are modeled based on measures of Transit app usage to provide a current measure of demand for public transit. These estimates do not represent actual reported ridership counts from agencies.

Transit app usage is attributed to a particular transit agency if that agency’s service appears as a nearby option for the user when they open the app, or if a user taps on a line operated by a particular transit agency.

Surveys of Transit app users since the onset of the pandemic have shown that the app’s user demographics generally match those of public transit riders overall, both compared to other common survey methods and available U.S. Census data.

Edited May 10, 2023 by RANYC

[15895]

12 hours ago, RANYC said:

The US DOT's National Transit Database appears to paint a very different picture of this, putting CATS service consumption far above that of the Triangle, at least as measured by annual passenger miles, annual unlinked trips, and average weekday unlinked trips.  The database's data is updated through 2021.   https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/transit-agency-profiles?field_geography_target_id=2456&field_address_administrative_area=NC&combine=

It appears APTA has partnered with a transit app provider to estimate ridership and suggest trends in ridership demand, which is what I believe your table is showing.  I don't think it's actual ridership data.

 

The percentages displayed in this dashboard represent the percent difference between actual pre-pandemic ridership and estimated ridership for a given period during the pandemic.

Estimated ridership values for each week are extrapolated values from the most recent quarterly actual ridership figures reported by transit agencies. The most recent quarter with available figures ended December 2022. Estimated ridership values are modeled based on measures of Transit app usage to provide a current measure of demand for public transit. These estimates do not represent actual reported ridership counts from agencies.

Transit app usage is attributed to a particular transit agency if that agency’s service appears as a nearby option for the user when they open the app, or if a user taps on a line operated by a particular transit agency.

Surveys of Transit app users since the onset of the pandemic have shown that the app’s user demographics generally match those of public transit riders overall, both compared to other common survey methods and available U.S. Census data.

The dashboard matches up pretty on point with CATS monthly reports from what I remember (seems they don’t report that publicly anymore and having hard time finding the old reports) and WMATA’s from what I’ve checked in the past. 

& Not sure what you’re looking at on the link you sent but I see data points for Charlotte, Raleigh & Durham for full year 2021. Charlotte having higher ridership in 2021 IMO wouldn’t have been surprising - it hasn’t recovered as well as most all other agencies and you can look at the monthly CATS for more specifics. DC had lockdowns in early 2021 for example, so. Very different dynamics. And WMATA is on the weaker side of recovery (given the federal government hasn’t returned to work yet.) also, you can see NYC, Richmond, Seattle and a several others who are very closed to recovered with Richmond hitting ridership records. Which too matches APTA. 

WMATA has a data point for themselves and it is reflective of the recovery of most transit agencies. 2021 March ridership for WMATA peaks at 600k daily ridership vs. around 220k for 2021. 

Charlotte, again, hasn’t seemingly recovered as well & I’ve seen data & local Charlotte articles that have raised the questions before. 

2021 data is going to paint a different picture of s time of lock downs, for some regions, driver shortages etc so the dynamics/context are a little different than in the past year. Per your link, I saw the following 

Durham Annual unLinked Trips 2021: 4,518,999

Raleigh Annual unLinked Trips 2021: 3,882,532

Research Triangle unlinked Trips 2021: 1,219,613

Charlotte Annual unLinked Trips 2021: 8,723,635.

I don’t know exactly how to interpret the NCDOT data given it’s not clear on the agency, so I’d be more than interested in how you found Charlotte to be much higher than the triangle.

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[kayman]

On 5/10/2023 at 7:51 AM, AirNostrumMAD said:

The dashboard matches up pretty on point with CATS monthly reports from what I remember (seems they don’t report that publicly anymore and having hard time finding the old reports) and WMATA’s from what I’ve checked in the past. 

& Not sure what you’re looking at on the link you sent but I see data points for Charlotte, Raleigh & Durham for full year 2021. Charlotte having higher ridership in 2021 IMO wouldn’t have been surprising - it hasn’t recovered as well as most all other agencies and you can look at the monthly CATS for more specifics. DC had lockdowns in early 2021 for example, so. Very different dynamics. And WMATA is on the weaker side of recovery (given the federal government hasn’t returned to work yet.) also, you can see NYC, Richmond, Seattle and a several others who are very closed to recovered with Richmond hitting ridership records. Which too matches APTA. 

WMATA has a data point for themselves and it is reflective of the recovery of most transit agencies. 2021 March ridership for WMATA peaks at 600k daily ridership vs. around 220k for 2021. 

Charlotte, again, hasn’t seemingly recovered as well & I’ve seen data & local Charlotte articles that have raised the questions before. 

2021 data is going to paint a different picture of s time of lock downs, for some regions, driver shortages etc so the dynamics/context are a little different than in the past year. Per your link, I saw the following 

Durham Annual unLinked Trips 2021: 4,518,999

Raleigh Annual unLinked Trips 2021: 3,882,532

Research Triangle unlinked Trips 2021: 1,219,613

Charlotte Annual unLinked Trips 2021: 8,723,635.

I don’t know exactly how to interpret the NCDOT data given it’s not clear on the agency, so I’d be more than interested in how you found Charlotte to be much higher than the triangle.

 

The National Transit Database (NTD) is the most accurate information and federally designated public transportation repository by the USDOT.  Its annual reports are federally required of all public transportation entities that receive federal funds. That's the information that is utilized by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) & USDOT in the federal grants annual appropriations (Sections 5307, 5339, 5340, etc.).  CATS is known for repetitively correcting or changing their information released to APTA versus what is the official federal reports such as the FTA & NTD. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by kayman

[15895]

2 hours ago, kayman said:

The National Transit Database (NTD) is the most accurate information and federally designated public transportation repository by the USDOT.  Its annual reports are federally required of all public transportation entities that receive federal funds. That's the information that is utilized by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) & USDOT in the federal grants annual appropriations (Sections 5307, 5339, 5340, etc.).  CATS is known for repetitively correcting or changing their information released to APTA versus what is the official federal reports such as the FTA & NTD. 

Excluding Cary, Chapel Hill, etc. I see Go Durham/Raleigh/Triangle having higher ridership than Charlotte more so than any other source using the NTD. 

Dunno the exact figures, And the data is becoming less transparent for CATS - but my opinion is most things seem to make CATS look like a laggard. And unless the people demand their politicians do something about it, or people are apathetic to it. Meh, who really cares then. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLT2014]

22 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Excluding Cary, Chapel Hill, etc. I see Go Durham/Raleigh/Triangle having higher ridership than Charlotte more so than any other source using the NTD. 

Dunno the exact figures, And the data is becoming less transparent for CATS - but my opinion is most things seem to make CATS look like a laggard. And unless the people demand their politicians do something about it, or people are apathetic to it. Meh, who really cares then. 

90% of the city is probably apathetic to CATS because they aren't customers, don't use it, and care more about free parking for their Chevy Tahoe and Jeep Wrangler. Look at the average Axios comment section about a new development in South End.... "OMG where are we going to park! This is going to make it harder for me to drive to Publix." It isn't "wow, this is great for adding to the urban vitality of the neighborhood." 

Edited May 11, 2023 by CLT2014

[videtur quam contuor]

How much has the light rail been affected by the reduction in private garage space use (and expense?) with offices less populated post pandemic? For those who work there, have you paid less with the reduction of vehicles daily? Easier garage access, more garages available? Will this make a difference in the rider/driver ratio for uptown bound commuters?