Blogs

As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 3rd:

Do you use public transportation very often? If not, what would you encourage you to use it more? Wireless Internet? More comfortable buses?

The Triangle Transit Authority is asking those questions in a creative web survey currently available on its site at ridetta.org. Folks are given twenty “pennies” to spend on a variety of possible upgrades to buses as the agency makes replacements in its fleet.

Some of the items are pretty cheap. One-penny upgrades include things like expanding the front-of-bus rack to accommodate three bikes rather than the current two or to install 10 bike lockers per year at various stops around the Triangle.

Others are so expensive they will use up almost your entire “budget.”

For instance, putting a rear window on the back of the bus would cost 16 pennies and implementing Sunday service would require all of your money.

I take the bus every day to work in Raleigh at the Sierra Club so I devoted my greatest expenditure of six pennies to fuel the buses using B20 biodiesel.

Well do ya, punk?

In past there has been some discussion of doing an NCAA pool for OP participants.

Are y'all interested? If so, do you recommend an online service to manage it? Some that I've found include: Yahoo, Facebook (requires registration), ESPN, and a variety of others sites that are more expensive and less well-known.

I wonder if any of these include the women's bracket? That could be a problem for me 'cause I always pick UNC to win.

I'll admit, I don't find finances very captivating. but it's through budgets that our local governments set priorities and dedicate the resources needed to get things done.

Chapel Hill held a budget hearing last night and heard requests from several advisory board including the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board asking for a road map for cyclists, the Chapel Hill Public Library for moderate staff increases, the Historic District Commission to reduce fees to homeowners, and the Public Arts Commission (which is actually independent of the Town) to hire additional staff and give raises to current staff. Also, I happen to know that the Planning Board made a request to hire a consultant to assist in implementing the new Tree ordinance, and for additional planning staff to handle the load of impending development including Carolina North.

Carrboro's recent budget hearing elicited only one public speaker: Robert Dowling to ask for additional money for Orange Community Housing and Land Trust.