[Durham INC] Ending the cycle of poverty transportation

Thu Aug 16 17:17:14 EDT 2012

I ride the Chapel Hill bus about 4/5th of the time I go that way. Saturday, there was a mother with her 5-year-old twins who were practicing to be on the school bus.  There are poor and crazy people on the Chapel Hill buses, but it obviously feels safe enough that parents let middle-school kids ride to mall on their own.  What drives up the ridership is limited parking on campus, fare-free, reasonably efficient time-wise and yes, enough people like me being on the bus.  
I have also taken the bus from out here to downtown Durham, which goes thru Duke and was mostly being used by Duke employees (I think quite a few Duke employees started taking the bus when Duke started subsidizing their ride).  

From: cpalenchar at hotmail.com
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org; inc-list at rtpnet.org
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:27:23 +0000
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Ending the cycle of poverty transportation

I don't ride the bus in Durham-- so you can take my comments with the appropriate grains of salt. My experience with public transportation near here is within Raleigh and to RTP, and was all more than 6 years ago.

I am one of those strongly motivated environmental people who puts an enormous amount of energy into making personal choices that reduce my impact on the planet. But, I have *never* regularly ridden the bus since I finally made the move to buy a car and get a driver's license. (I did move to Durham, and now do many of my commutes by bike, but that's another topic.) Why have I never ridden the buses since then? I just plain could not justify the significant inconvenience and (time) cost of doing it-- it took me an hour to get to work by bus/bike and 20 minutes in my car (when I lived in Raleigh). The difference in time was only part of the equation; much more frustrating was the unreliability of the buses to run on time. Having the homeward bound trip run 30 minutes late (50% longer than usual) was *not* rare! And then there was the less frequent, but more serious issue of how difficult is was to get home if I needed to stay and work later and the buses dropped to running once an hour or less. There were 2-3 people of my apparent social class that rode the bus from Raleigh to RTP; *everyone* else was, apparently, from the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Carl's point remains valid-- why are (nearly) the only people on the bus the ones that *don't have any other option*?! 

Ponder this-- I live in East Durham, in a very high poverty neighborhood. The other day, I was trying to help a friend without a car figure out a public transportation route to Duke (one of the larger employers in the area). This is a route that you can drive in 10-15 minutes, bike in probably 20-30 minutes. The two public transportation options are significantly less convenient and both require a significant amount of walking. Option a) Time = 40 minutes, Fare = $2 Walking = .64 miles. Bus = take Data bus 2, transfer to Data bus 
6. Or option b) Time = 47 minutes, Fare = Free, Walking = 1.64 miles. Bus =  Bull City 
Connector (it starts .85 miles from my 
house). I was talking to a neighbor about this the other day; she has a car and works for Duke. She said she could get free bus passes from Duke but would never take the bus to work because it's simply too inconvenient. (If you're interested in looking up what I'm talking about, go to gotriangle.org and use from: "e main st @ s driver st, Durham" and to: "faber st, Durham")

I'll emphasize-- this is my disappointing experience with public transportation, *even though* I have choosen both in Raleigh and in Durham to live in the urban core, which is relatively well serviced by buses.  In both places, I actually lived on streets that had bus service running on that street. In Raleigh I lived approx 1 mile from the downtown transfer hub, and my house in Durham is maybe 1.5 miles from the hub. 

Finally, I have much respect to Darius's point that many African-American's in Durham are doing well-- and we should *not* assume that race is the ticket into or out of poverty. However, I think we should also recognize that racism (or the legacy thereof) is playing a role in keeping African Americans and Hispanics in poverty overall. You can't get median wealth for white families to be > $100,000 and median wealth for Hispanics and African-American <= $10,000 without there being a systemic issue that is affecting people's outcomes according to their race. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/07/26/wealth-gaps-rise-to-record-highs-between-whites-blacks-hispanics/.

Calling attention to race and class when you're looking at an institution that is largely segregated by race and class often helps to understand more about that institution. I would encourage everyone to not so quickly bat away the fact that Carl has put race, class, and a barely functioning institution all in one essay. Again, I think we should all really question what it means to have a system that *so few* people *choose* to use.

-chloe

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:08:02 -0700
From: christinebbd at yahoo.com
To: revcwkii at hotmail.com
CC: inc-list at rtpnet.org; inc-list at durhaminc.org
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Ending the cycle of poverty transportation

Carl, you stated "the reason this is important is related to the need to change the culture of the bus system to encourage people to ride the bus".    
When I read that a man angrily vents his frustration that he can't make it in this world, I have to say it encourages me to drive my daughter to Durham Tech instead of letting her ride the bus.  It is inappropriate to vent anger towards a "captive audience". The man's emotional instability is likely a reason he can't make it in this world.  
Darius wrote of his 
observations of the success of black men in Durham county, more 
eloquently than I could, and it's my sincere hope that you can focus on 
the truth of his words.  Thank you Darius.

I recall comments you made a month ago.  Your schedule was interrupted due to unforeseen problems with the bus system that day.  You made it home a few hours later than you planned.  You burst into tears over it, as you admitted in your writings about that day.  You went on and on and on, giving reasons for your tears.   My daughter rode the bus that same day.  She came home later than expected, but she didn't burst into tears over it.  Life happens. 

If you're trying to encourage people to ride the bus, you're going about it the wrong way.  I'll be driving my daughter to school for the next few months.

Christine Chamberlain
        From: Carl Kenney <revcwkii at hotmail.com>
 To: mmr121570 at yahoo.com; darius.m.little at alumni.unc.edu; Intern Neighborhood Council <inc-list at rtpnet.org> 
 Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:35 AM
 Subject: Re: [Durham INC] New from the Rev-elution: Ending the cycle of poverty transportation

My piece is not about race relations, it's about the feelings of some on the bus.  The reason this is important is related to the need to change the culture of the bus system to encourage people to ride the bus, not because they have to, but because they want to save the globe.  We can't minimize public transportation as a system for black, brown and poor people. So, why haven't I seen people who fight for the environment on the bus?  Why aren't they riding the bus?  It's a critical question that I want to address.  I'm not done riding and writing, and I won't until I see more of you on the bus.  Our globe deserves better than this!

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