Recommended Service - Microtransit

The North Harnett Transit Study has concluded. Microtransit is the recommended transit service. The study team thanks everyone who participated and provided feedback.

To learn more about the North Harnett Transit Study, review the summary reports below.

Executive Summary with Technical Memoranda
- This document is a summary of the North Harnett Transit Study.
Public Engagement Summary
- This document outlines the public engagement process for the North Harnett Transit Study.
Stakeholder Engagement Summary
- This document lists the stakeholder engagement meetings and activities.

Study Overview

The North Harnett Transit Study evaluated the need and support for transit in the northern half of Harnett County. During the first half of the study, it was determined that there is both a need and community support for public transit in this area of the County.

Based on community feedback and transit/demographic data, the study's proposed recommendation is a hybrid model: Microtransit within a proposed service area combined with connections to or from a set of nearby regional destination options.

Microtransit combines traditional bus service with ridesharing, allowing riders to travel anywhere within the service area. Riders can also request to go to or from the service area to a specific regional destination. Users request a ride in real time using a smartphone app, website, or phone call. It's flexible, convenient, reliable, and open to everyone!

The proposed microtransit service area is shown with a dotted line in the map below. The nearby regional destinations outside of the service area include three Park & Rides north of Harnett County that provide connections to existing transit services in Wake County, as well as popular services and shopping centers to the south. To learn more about microtransit, visit the Learn webpage.

Phasing

The Study is being conducted in two phases. The initial phase focused on identifying the local desire for transit among officials, local government staff, and the public, and assessing the suitability of transit in the study area. The Core Technical Team (CTT), composed of staff from local jurisdictions and relevant stakeholders in the region, was formed to guide the development, collection, and analysis of geographic and socio-economic data, development of a land use and policies summary, and stakeholder and public engagement. For more details on public engagement during the initial phase, please visit the Engage section of the study website.

In the final phase, we are developing an implementation plan based on the transit demand and input from the public, officials, and other stakeholders. After exploring various options for short- and long-term transit service, this study’s recommendations will identify a near-term transit service area, and provide future steps for implementing transit solutions in Harnett County. Ultimately, the expectation is that, over time, the County can further explore expanding transit beyond the initial microtransit service based on community response and need. For a detailed schedule for this feasibility study, please visit the Schedule section of the study website.

Once this plan is complete, some additional planning steps will still be necessary by local officials and stakeholders to get the initial microtransit services up and running. These include identifying funding, and further refining how the service will operate.

Study Purpose

The North Harnett Transit Study aims to:

Learn what residents and stakeholders think about transit service and various transit options in North Harnett County,
Work with the community to develop a vision for transit,
Review data on how people travel and how the area might grow to determine if there is enough demand for transit, and at what level, and
Combine the local transit demand and community desires with available transit service options to develop a strategy for how to make it happen.