Looking for a ride? GoTransit is going free for a day

GoTransit will offer free rides Thursday as a part of Try Transit week — an initiative to increase ridership in the Triangle.  

GoTriangle, GoDurham, GoRaleigh and GoCary are all participating in the event. The U.S. Census Bureau released statistics showing GoTransit's ridership has remained stagnant despite the fact that less people are using cars to commute. 

According to U.S. Census Bureau, the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area has the third largest decline in the nation in automobile commuting between 2006 and 2013, but also saw decreases in transit ridership.

But Stephen Mancuso, executive director of the NC Public Transportation Association, said he is optimistic about the future of transit.

“Public transit is doing fantastic,” he said.

Only 2 percent of workers in the Triangle took public transit to work last year, which is below the national average of 5 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data. 

The percentage of people that worked at home in Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham increased in the past five years. In Chapel Hill, 12 percent of workers used public transportation to commute to work — but in Raleigh and Durham it was less than 5 percent.

Nikhil Kaza, a UNC city and regional planning professor, said commuting is not the only thing that matters when measuring transit use. 

"A vast majority of travel in the U.S. is non-work travel," he said. "Only 16 percent of the trips and 20 percent of the miles are for commuting.”

Kaza said the issues with public transit are that it is often inconvenient, destinations are not clustered enough and other options are more appealing.

“Alternatives are cheap, abundant and convenient," he said. "Gas prices are low.” 

Mike Charbonneau, spokesperson for GoTriangle, said the purpose of Try Transit Week is to introduce more members of the community to transportation options besides a car that are available to get to school, work or other places. 

“We want the community to know that their dollars are going to work right now in improving the buses that exist today, and putting more of them on the streets, connecting to more places,” he said. 

Charbonneau said there are big transit projects aside from the bus network that currently exists.

"In Durham and Orange County, we're building a 17.7 mile light rail," he said. "Transit services will continue to get better each year over the next 10 years with the culmination of those rail projects coming online to connect with our bus systems 10 years from now."

He said all three counties are growing rapidly and he wants GoTransit to match the growing population.

"We thought this was a great time to give that free sample — to give one more incentive to have people try it out for the first time," he said. 

@lucasrisinger

state@dailytarheel.com