On March 5, 2017 Chapel Hill Town Council member Sally Greene gave me her opinions on the Durham-Orange Light project.  [She's a member of my gym and overheard me talk about the DOLRT to another gym member, Pat Heinrich, a school board member.]

1. Sally is a strong supporter of the DOLRT. 

2. Sally says DOLRT will get cars off the road and reduce traffic on 15-501.  She offered no proof.

3. She dismissed my arguments about the at-grade crossings.  She said they won't increase car traffic [my assertion], because people will be in the trains ... not in cars on the road.  She offered no proof for her assertions but demanded proof of mine.

4. She said light rail is better than BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), because it will do a better job of focusing development along a single corridor.  Developers are more inclined to build along a light rail route, because it's fixed.  A bus route can be moved.  Developers don't like that.  This underscores my assertion that DOLRT is all about lining the pockets of developers.

5. When I told Sally that GoTriangle has been lying about the numbers they submitted to the Federal Government, she defended GoTriangle.  I cited GoTriangle's assertion of 4% per year sales tax growth.  Sally saw nothing implausible in that number.  [If the population of Chapel Hill (population of 57,233 in 2016) grew at that rate, it would reach a population of 1 million in just 73 years!]

6. Sally says Denver has done a good job of incentivizing affordable housing along its light rail routes.

7. Sally says RDU Airport doesn't want a light rail route that goes to the airport.  Such a line would siphon money away its park and ride lots.  They make a lot of money off of those lots.