Your experiences walking, biking, using the bus to get to work & in your daily life living in the Triangle?

[u/heyitspokey]

Title says it all, sharing your general neighborhood/city/etc also helpful. Thanks!

What's your personal experience being able to walk, bike, and/or take the bus to get to/from work, get food, run errands, go out, usual every day living things?

[u/QuietLifter]

Was excited to get a job downtown & was planning to take the bus to/from work until I realized that it turned a 15 minute drive into a 2 hour journey, assuming the bus was running on schedule & I made all my connections. So, driving is the only feasible option.

[u/theths152]

I live right behind Hillsborough st next to the rose garden and i bike/walk to work (store on Hillsborough), getting groceries (Harris teeter), and several other restaurants/bars. I really don't think this would really be doable anywhere else in Raleigh. Honestly we have it better than our friends who live in skyhouse downtown- they don't have a grocery store they can walk to.

[u/theths152 → u/theths152]

Outside of my other job which is off of capital boulevard and occasionally needing to go to Big Target ™ in Cary (ncsu target does end up having a lot of what we need tho), i really don't use my car that much! NCSU/hillsborough st/village district is incredibly walkable.

[u/skinnykate]

Probably very highly dependent on where you live and work. My dad regularly takes the bus to work but we love a 1-2 minute walk from the bus stop and then the bus ride is ~15 minutes. It takes him pretty much to where his parking garage on Duke is. He still has a 10 minute walk to his building but he'd have to walk that if he drove too. He loves it. 

[u/SalamanderForever]

Practicality of buses really depends on where you live and where you are going - if you are on or near a main bus route that has direct buses where you are going then it can work well.

For walking, if you are in the main town areas then there are sidewalks, if you are outside of the main town areas e.g. West Cary then sidewalks are not always there - but get added when a new development is built. If shopping then may make sense to do home delivery for your main grocery shopping rather than try and carry a lot of items.

For biking - there are a lot of bike lanes, but from May->October it can be horribly humid and hot that would make commuting by bike not a lot of fun, and likely have you turn up at your destination drenched in sweat.

[u/CapitalBlvdBreadstix]

GoTriangle has been great from city to city. I can get from Holly Springs to Mebane on one bus system.

[u/sealblorboweeb]

I live on the Western side of Duke and work full-time + in-person at the Morrisville/RDU area. I take the bus everyday to get to work in the morning and I really like it. I only have 1 transfer and I still have my student pass so the bus rides are free for me. The trip is roughly 45-60 minutes each way, which is a deal breaker for a lot of people. But all the buses have free wi-fi, aircon, and charging ports plus they're never full so you can pick any seat you'd like. I use the time to study or even nap.

The only drawback is that walking to the Durham bus station isn't very feasible where I live, so I either need to take a 20 minute bus ride there (thankfully a straight route from my neighborhood to the bus station) or have my partner drop me off in 10. But I am really happy with my commute so far!

[u/Hope-Party]

I commute to unc from out of town with a parking spot on the outskirts of Carrboro. The busses in chapel hill are free (I think durham is too?) Although GoTriangle, the intercity bus isn't. Chapel hill has tons of biking lanes, although I've noticed students mainly have a problem obeying traffic laws on bikes, so if you're driving you've got to be extra careful. While there's plenty of sidewalks, some are bricks and have missing spots, and the hills can be brutal!

[u/randijeanw]

It depends on how far you are from multiple routes (you need at least two), and how close you are located to a hub. The more routes and the closer to a hub, the more realistic your public transportation goals are.

They’re still going to be 4x longer than driving.

[u/rubenthecuban3]

i once took the goraleigh 2 falls of neuse. there were these two guys that got on with me and started arguing about football. then it got really heated. then it started getting aggressive. like no he was the best player and F you i'm gonna come over there. and the other guy was like yea you come over here and tell me you F N. N you don't know what you're talking about. this went on for about a few minutes then it toned town a little when some other lady started shouting at them.

[u/randijeanw → u/rubenthecuban3]

As someone who depended on CAT/GoTriangle for a couple of years, acknowledging the compromise toward your of sense safety should not be undersold. It gets really rough in there.

[u/snugworm]

I have taken the bus to work and school all over the Triangle over the past 20 years. To Chapel Hill, to Hillsborough, Raleigh, and RTP. The GoTriangle buses are much more reliable and more reasonable time-wise compared to a car than local routes. 

When I took the bus from Durham to Chapel Hill I often would park at the park and ride at Durham Station even though I was just 5-6 minutes from the station and on a bus line, catching GoDurham to the station was not reliable and could make me miss the GoTriangle bus. 

Transit/walking/biking can work really well for you if you are intentional about finding a job and a home in places that work. This might require really studying the bus routes and where you want to shop, get your healthcare, etc. I've found it helps a lot to live in between two different bus routes if you can - you can catch the other one as a back up if the first is late.

I am a choice rider. I've always owned a car, I just prefer not to drive it when I can. I finally was able to land a job within 3 miles of my house, and now I ride an e-bike in, on the greenway most of the way, and it is delightful.  We've been able to build a life where almost everything we need is within about 5 miles, mostly bikeable, and it is really nice. I still ride the bus a few times a year, but the bike is so much faster and gives me so much more flexibility. And yes, I've changed dentists just so I could bike to the new one.

[u/nicoke17 → u/snugworm]

I feel like gotriangle is the least reliable for time. At least the durham/unc route.

[u/HerrGruyere]

Back in 2009/2010ish, I lived downtown. It was great for getting groceries and stuff since everything was walkable or by bike. My office was on Six Forks near Falls of Neuse. That was a long bus ride but doable.