Downtown Raleigh at night

Downtown Raleigh at night (courtesy of NCDOT)


Earlier this year I actually found a photograph of downtown Raleigh that like better than my own. The NCDOT took this beautiful photo in December 2011 and tagged it with a Creative Commons license. This allows the photo to appear freely just about everywhere. If that wasn’t enough, its Flickr page also lists the exposure information used to take it. Thus, I can go out and take a photograph just like it, which I might do Friday or Saturday afternoon.

Trading parking fees for tolls?

This week a new section of the Triangle Expressway (TriEx) opened, leading to Holly Springs and Fuquay Varina. The tolls for a ride on the TriEx are a few bucks each way.

I got to wondering today if one of the attractions for a company locating in RTP is the abundant free parking. Companies might think that amounts to a better deal but then someone has to build bigger roads to serve RTP commuters and someone has to pay for those roads. Up until the TriEx, all of us taxpayers paid for roads. Now those who use the TriEx will pay for it, and those tolls add up.

It seems to me that it’s all around cheaper to locate in an urban setting, where the infrastructure is already equipped to handle things. Sure, no one likes to pay parking fees but what about the time wasted sitting in traffic, and the tolls that accumulate? Aren’t RTP commuters trading their parking fees for tolls and wasted time?

World didn’t end?

So it looks like the Mayan calendar is going to come up short and the world isn’t going to end today after all. I’m kinda glad.