Support for transit in the Triangle

Over at Talking About Politics yesterday, Carter Wrenn referred to possible spending recommendations by the Special Transit Advisory Commission as a 'boondoggle' and suggested that paying for it wouldn't be particularly popular with voters.

At the Under the Dome blog, Gerry Cohen pointed out that just last week in Mecklenburg County 70% of the voters chose to continue a special tax used just for mass transit.

What level of support is there for transit in the Triangle? Last April PPP did a poll that gives some clues to the answer of that question.

In it, 51% of respondents said that congestion was a major problem and 69% saw it becoming a much worse problem in the next five to ten years.

When asked whether the solution to the problem was just to build more roads or to develop a broader set of public transportation options besides roads, 70% of respondents expressed support for developing a variety of options.

We'll probably ask a question in an upcoming poll about whether local voters would be willing to approve a tax similar to the Mecklenburg one for transit projects in the Triangle.