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APPENDIX B – WAKE COUNTY PROGRAMS TO MITIGATE SECONDARY AND CUMULATIVE IMPACTS
B-22
Transportation Alliance, and the City of Raleigh’s Capital Area Transit. The Plan
provides a dual approach to meeting expanding transit demands as the County
continues to grow: (1) a core transit plan that broadens local and commuter bus service
and includes a rush-hour commuter rail service from the Town of Garner to the City of
Durham; and (2) an enhanced transit plan that involves building a regional light rail
service from downtown Cary through downtown Raleigh, up to Millbrook Road (Wake
County, 2012). Many of the projects identified in the Wake County Draft Transit Plan
are included in the CAMPO 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP), discussed in
the following section.
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared for the regional light rail project
indicates that affiliated parking areas will not impact levels of carbon monoxide. The
document also indicates that the light rail system will result in lower levels of vehicle
pollutant emissions (USDOT, 2002).
In 2009, the County appointed a sustainability task force to address conservation and
reduction goals related to solid waste, water, and energy related to air quality within the
region. The 2011 sustainability task force report identified several strategies and
performance measures for each of those goals related to air quality (Wake County, 2011).
Open space, trees, and vegetation are integral to the improvement of air quality. Voters
in Wake County passed bond referendums in 2000, 2004, and 2007, totaling $91 million
to provide funds for parks and open space. The County continues to use these funds to
purchase and preserve significant tracts of open space.
Regional Efforts
Triangle Transit, formerly Triangle Transit Authority, is expanding bus and shuttle
services that link the Cities of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh with RTP and RDU.
Triangle Transit is working to develop plans to expand the system to include rail transit
operations. Triangle Transit and also coordinates a ride-sharing program for regional
commuters and is exploring the possibility of running some of its van-pool vehicles on
compressed natural gas.
CAMPO and the Durham –Chapel Hill-Carrboro MPO coordinated with the Triangle J
Council of Governments (TJCOG) to develop a 2040 MTP, which involved an air quality
conformity analysis for 2012 to 2018. The 2040 MTP incorporates the recommendations
of the 2035 Long Range Transit Plan released by CAMPO, including proposed bus
service expansion and enhancement as well as a light rail system, linking the Cities of
Raleigh and Durham with RTP and the Towns of Cary and Morrisville. The project
explored and analyzed regional growth scenarios for associated trade-offs and impacts
on the transportation network. The recommendations in these plans for appropriate
sizing of roads are incorporated into North Carolina Department of Transportation’s
(NCDOT’s) Transportation Improvement Program (TJCOG, 2013).
In 2006/2007, Triangle Transit brought together the Triangle organizations that were
working on and/or funding Transportation Demand Management (TDM) projects with
the goal of creating a long-term plan for improving TDM efforts. The result was the
Triangle Region 7-Year Long Range Travel Demand Management Plan. The purpose of
the Triangle TDM Program is to reduce regional growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMT)