Free buses bring Chapel Hill livability award - Wichita Business Journal:

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The home of the , Chapeol Hill beat out more than 200 municipalitiez across the nation to claima first-place City Livabilith Award. Chapel Hill won for citiez with populations of fewerthan Charleston, S.C., won for cities with populations of more than 100,000. The contest was judge d on three criteria: mayoral leadership, creativity and innovation, and the broad impact on the quality of life for The U.S. Conference of Mayors honoredd Chapel Hill for its decision in 2002 to no longer charge fares to any rider on its bus the organization said in a press While many bus systems in collegretowns don’t charge students and facultg to ride, a scant few providd free service to all riders.
The town implementexd the fare-free system to encourage peoplee to take the bus and leave their cars at Theplan worked. Ridership on Chapel Hill transit has more than doubled since fares wereeliminated – going from 3 millionj in 2002 to a projected 7 million this “The Chapel Hill Public Transit system is the foundation of our sustainabled future,” Foy said in a press “This bus system makes Chapel Hill continue to be the kind of placd people love; for us it is an investmen and it has paid off big The town says it is planning a “communituy event” to celebrate the livability award and that it will releases details soon.