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GREENSBORO — Commuters in northern High Point will get a new “park and ride” lot this spring for car- and van-poolers, with express bus service to Winston-Salem likely arriving there later next year.

Leaders of the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation voted unanimously Wednesday to spend $327,500 on the 2-acre lot at Old Plank Road and North Main Street that will hold about 200 cars.

The lot will be available immediately after completion to people who commute in groups by van or car. But it’s not clear when bus service will begin.

The goal is sometime next summer, but that is dependent on the timing of other projects and on having sufficient buses, said PART Executive Director Brent McKinney.

“We know there is a market for this service,” McKinney said. “It’s a market not only for business (commuting) but also for connecting to the hospitals and the schools.”

Express service would use U.S. 311 and save High Point commuters a trip by either bus or car up N.C. 68 to PART’s airport-area hub, required now to connect with an express bus bound for Winston-Salem.

Within High Point, the lot also could help cut congestion during the twice-yearly furniture market by giving visitors a convenient place to park, said Scott Rhine, PART’s programs manager.

PART is building the lot with money from the federal economic stimulus program in partnership with High Point’s metropolitan planning organization, Rhine said.

PART gave the job to the low bidder, M&M Builders of High Point, despite the firm’s initial failure to include documents showing how it planned to meet the transit agency’s goal for 10 percent of the work going to minority subcontractors.

The company later provided information showing it should meet the goal handily, Rhine told PART’s board of directors.
Out on the streets, PART’s ridership across 10 counties has not been hurt by falling gas prices, McKinney said.

In fact, September’s passenger tally of 45,553 was 18 percent above the same period in 2008, when fuel cost more.
“People are wanting to be more green and, in this economy, they are looking to save money, too,” McKinney said.

In other action, the board heard a report from its safety-programs manager, Phil Wylie, showing the region has relatively high rates of traffic fatalities.

An average of 238 people die each year in wrecks across PART’s region. The area’s teen drivers and those older than 65 account for a disproportionate numbers of crashes compared with statewide averages, Wylie said.

PART is increasing efforts to educate drivers about the dangers of driving too fast, under the influence of alcohol or while distracted, Wylie said,

The PART board also recognized Greensboro’s Doug Galyon for his help in developing the regional program as chairman of the state Board of Transportation. “You see his handiwork wherever you drive around the Triad,” PART Chairman Darrell Frye said of Galyon, who plans to leave the state board later this year.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com