Busway Street Section

Background

The Street Plan, a component of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, identifies the street type for many roads in Raleigh. The design requirements (sidewalks, parking, lane width, etc.) of each street type is detailed in the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). These two documents help Raleigh prepare for growth and build the right type of road for a specific location. With new investments in transit, including the Bus Rapid Transit system, it is important to establish a street type that is specific to roads where dedicated bus lanes will be required in the future.

TC-4-2021 amended the UDO to add standard street cross-sections that include bus lanes and associated space to operate bus rapid transit or other transit service separated from the general traffic. The cross-sections include options with two, four, and six lanes of general traffic. The cross-sections are otherwise the same as the two, four, and six-lane divided avenue standards in the existing UDO. These standards were modified by TC-3-2021 on October 5, 2021, to include separated bikeways.

The text change was accompanied by a comprehensive plan amendment to apply the new standard cross-sections to the Eastern, Western, and Southern BRT corridors as determined through the Locally Preferred Alternatives of the transit planning process. The Comprehensive Plan amendment is called CP-14-21 “Busway Streets”. Application of busway cross-sections to the planned Northern BRT corridor may follow a Major Investment Study (MIS) for that corridor.

Timeline

The project started with a series of public meetings in November 2021. Those meetings were combined with introductory meetings for the Transit Overlay District (TOD) Mapping. The Busway Streets and TOD Mapping projects both apply to the Western and Southern BRT corridors. Videos of those meetings are linked on the TOD Mapping web page.

The text change and comprehensive plan amendment went through the respective processes defined in the UDO during the early part of 2022. They were both approved in the summer of 2022.