One of the first questions my international exchange student advisor asked when I informed them about my decision to study in the United States puzzled me: Am I planning on buying or renting a car for the semester?
In my hometown of Vienna, Austria, it is very uncommon for people to own a car. Parking spaces are very limited and costly, and the public transport system is phenomenal. It wasn’t until I arrived at NC State and lived here for several weeks that I realized how different Raleigh and Vienna are in terms of public transportation.
Erik Rodriguez, a fourth year studying business at NC State who studied abroad in Vienna, shared his experiences with the public transportation system there.
“In Vienna, you have the tram lines, you have buses and you have trains,” Rodriguez said. “They are, for the most part, very punctual, and there are a lot more stops within and outside of the city and even outside of the country.”
It only takes about an hour to commute from the north to the south of Vienna using the city’s underground lines and buses, whereas getting around in Raleigh can be a tedious, nearly impossible endeavor.
The same is true for long distance travel. While the train is a good option if you want to go on a weekend trip from Vienna to Amsterdam, it’s certainly not the best choice if you want to travel from Raleigh to Chicago.
Even though the distance between these American and European cities is almost identical, the duration of the trip is vastly different. A trip to Amsterdam from Vienna via train takes up to 15 hours whereas one from Raleigh to Chicago via train will take at least an entire day.
“The Amtrak, which is the United States train line, is slow and it’s constantly delayed,” Rodriguez said. “And it’s not as comfortable as riding a lot of European lines throughout different countries.”
Adit Chitale, a fourth-year studying economics, grew up in Raleigh’s suburbs and studied abroad in Prague.
“It is impossible to get out of here without a car — you can’t walk anywhere,” Chitale said. “So, you basically have to own a car to live here.”
Apparently, the city of Raleigh is lagging behind in terms of offering effective public, in-state and out-of-state transportation options. The big question is: Why?
Connor Jones, transit manager of NC State’s Wolfline, said the Wolfline has recently faced challenges due to driver shortages.
“When you have, for example, four buses on a route but you can’t staff one of the buses, there’s still the same amount of people who want to use the bus,” Jones said. “More people on three buses require them to stop more frequently to let people on, which results in delays.”
Another reason Raleigh’s transit system doesn’t perform as well as other U.S. and European cities can be traced back to the rapid growth Raleigh has experienced in recent years.
“Twenty years ago, Raleigh’s metro area was only a third of the size it is now,” Jones said. “With that rapid growth, infrastructure and transit systems need to catch up to the upcoming development.”
Chitale and Rodriguez said they believe the layout of the city makes the establishment of public transportation more difficult in Raleigh than most cities in Europe.
“It is definitely because of how widespread everyone lives,” Rodriguez said. “In Vienna and most other European cities, most people live within the city. And that city is very compact as opposed to here where most people live in the suburbs.”
So, what can we do to implement effective and reliable public transportation in Raleigh?
Andrea Epstein, community relations manager at the City of Raleigh Transportation Department, shared the department’s plans for improving the transit system.
“Over the next ten years, we want to triple countywide bus service, increase the number of routes — so that buses are running every 15 minutes or less — and add bus rapid transit and commuter rail systems,” Epstein said.
The transportation department further intends to establish a transit stop within half a mile of 50% of homes and 70% of jobs in Wake County.
Having grown up in Vienna, I am used to going wherever I want to without thinking twice about how to get there. In Raleigh, I need to plan ahead a lot more. The differences in public transportation between Raleigh and my hometown are enormous and made me aware of how important a well-functioning public transportation system is.
It is not just going to make our lives a lot easier, but will also reduce the usage of cars, which benefits the environment. That is a big step in the right direction — at the end of the day, we only have one planet, and we would be well-advised to treat it with care and respect.
