Storyline · 1973–1992
Chapel Hill voters approved bonds and a tax for town buses in 1973, and from 1974 the University bought bus passes to pay for campus service. In 1976 and 1977 the town and the University bargained over the price as night service was cut and partly restored, UNC stopped giving free passes with parking permits and the Faculty Council declined to back the system. In 1977 shared-ride taxis replaced the night buses, and the University signed its contract only after a dispute over them. The council raised fares or pass prices each year from 1980 to 1984, beginning with a 62.5 percent rise to meet fuel and operating costs, and student pass sales fell by almost half after the 1980 increase. In 1986, fearing federal cuts to the buses, the town raised its transportation tax to 7 cents. Fares rose again in 1990. In 1992, after a federal cut left the system about $600,000 short, the state gave it $400,000.
On February 20, 1973 Chapel Hill voters approved $350,000 in bonds for buses and facilities, 3,366 to 1,739, and a property tax of up to 10 cents per $100 to cover the system's expected losses, 3,242 to 1,856. On March 25, 1974 the Board of Aldermen voted 5 to 1 for a contract under which the University would pay $300,000 the first year for campus service and shuttles to commuter lots at Horace Williams Airport and University Mall, raised by selling bus passes to students and employees. On April 12 the trustees approved it for the system due to start August 1 and adopted a parking plan that roughly halved the permits sold and bundled a bus pass with each permit.
On March 22, 1976 the aldermen approved the principles of the next year's agreement: the University would buy $360,000 in passes instead of the $509,000 the town had asked and would stop giving a pass with each parking permit, and to cover an 11 percent rise in operating costs night service would end after 7 p.m. on all town routes but the U campus route, which would shut down at 11:30 p.m. instead of 1:30 a.m. After student leaders protested the earlier U shutdown as a danger to women, Vice Chancellor Claiborne Jones said on April 1 that the University would buy another $6,200 in passes to keep the route running to 1:30 a.m. With summer ridership down about 65 percent, the system dropped the S and A routes for the summer on May 15 and laid off 21 drivers on May 21. On June 14 the aldermen raised the bus tax from 7.5 cents to the full 10 cents, restoring rush-hour service on two routes, night service to 9:30 p.m. on most routes and more Sunday service. From July 1, after the town raised its price to the University for a pass from $30 to $40, UNC charged $18 for a bus pass bought with a parking permit and $36 without one.
That November, after Mayor James Wallace called the system's $500,000 yearly loss unacceptable, more than 50 student leaders backed keeping a high level of service even at higher parking fees, and a Student Government petition had about 2,000 signatures by November 30. The Faculty Council tabled chairman E. Maynard Adams's resolution for continuing the system on November 19, and on February 18, 1977 it defeated, 22 to 16, a resolution supporting the chancellor's efforts toward a full-service system. On June 13 the aldermen adopted a $946,125 bus budget. After a month-long dispute in which the town sought $400,000 and the University offered $338,000, the aldermen accepted Wallace's compromise 4 to 3, and on July 25 Vice Chancellor Claiborne S. Jones announced that the University would pay $366,000, the same as the year before, with the town paying the difference and promising not to cut service to University riders.
On August 22 the town replaced its night buses with shared-ride taxis for bus-pass holders, weeknights from 7 p.m. to midnight; they carried about 40 riders a night, against about 190 on the night buses the fall before. Vice Chancellor John Temple refused on September 6 to sign the contract because of the change, but on September 30 he signed a letter of agreement from Town Manager Kurt Jenne: the University would buy at least $366,200 in passes for Chapel Hill and $30,200 for Carrboro, and the taxis would be evaluated by October 31 and changed if they averaged fewer than 100 riders a night. With the taxis carrying about 50 to 75, the town said in November that pass holders would ride them free from November 16, the town paying the cab company's 25-cent surcharge.
On May 26, 1980 the Town Council voted 8 to 1 to raise Chapel Hill Transit's pass prices and fares by 62.5 percent from July 1 to meet rising fuel and operating costs, setting a 12-month pass at $79, a nine-month pass at $65 and the adult fare at 35 cents; Joe Straley, who had proposed smaller increases, cast the only vote against, and Student Government protested that a bus pass would now cost more than a campus parking permit. That fall, with the students' price for an academic-year pass up from $36 to $60, students bought 47 percent fewer of them, and overall pass sales fell from about 4,400 in fall 1979 to 3,200, though ridership rose 4 percent from July to December; the University had paid the town $650,000 for bus service the year before. On June 22, 1981 the council voted 7 to 2 to raise the cash fare to 40 cents and the year pass to $90 from July 1, with route changes for August. Because the 1980 census put Chapel Hill and Carrboro in the Durham urbanized area, the towns were to move on April 1, 1982 from federal Section 18 transit aid for non-urban areas to Section 5 urban aid, with Durham receiving the money and sharing it through a metropolitan planning organization the two towns would join.
On July 16, 1982, under the council's 1982–83 budget, fares went from 40 cents for every ride to 40 cents in normal hours and 50 cents at peak hours, and the student bus pass rose from $95 to $112; in March 1983 transit staff told the Transportation Board that fares might rise again if federal aid fell short. The $12.7 million budget the council adopted on June 27, 1983, with no tax increase, raised the 12-month adult full-service pass from $112.50 to $135 and the nine-month pass to $109.75, while single fares stayed at 50 cents at peak hours and 40 cents off-peak. On May 29, 1984, on Town Manager David Taylor's recommendation, the council voted unanimously to raise off-peak fares from 40 to 50 cents for adults and from 20 to 25 cents for older riders, youths and people with disabilities; council members Marilyn Boulton and Jonathan Howes noted the transportation board's fear of lost riders, and Mayor Joe Nassif said the council had chosen to raise fares gradually. By August 1986, fearing federal cuts to Chapel Hill Transit, the town had raised its transportation tax 1.5 cents to 7 cents per $100 of valuation, which, with Congress blocking the cuts, left a surplus of about $140,000.
By July 1990 Chapel Hill Transit had raised its fare for trips around the University from 25 to 30 cents and on other town routes from 50 to 60 cents; ridership, more than 2.5 million the year before, still rose that July. By November 12, 1991 the commissioners of Orange, Durham and Wake counties had unanimously approved a $5 yearly tax on vehicle registrations to pay the operating costs of the two-year-old Triangle Transit Authority, expected to raise $2.8 million in 1992-93 for expanded bus service and, in the long run, perhaps light rail. Commissioner Verla Insko said a tax on rental cars, the original proposal, would have been fairer, and the Chapel Hill Town Council was asked to give $9,000 toward the authority's coming budget. On March 10, 1992, after the Federal Transit Administration cut its allocation on the reasoning that the growing urban area's fares should cover more of the cost, the Carrboro aldermen authorized town officials to ask the state for help with a $600,000 shortfall in the Chapel Hill transit system. Carrboro's share of the gap was $85,000, to be met otherwise by higher fares or property taxes or by cutting routes, hours or staff. By April 7 transportation director Bob Godding said the state would give the bus system $400,000 after the federal government moved Chapel Hill into a larger size class with less federal aid, leaving the budget about $120,000 short, and the council was weighing fare increases, among them raising trolley fares from 10 cents to 25 cents.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Update to the Town of Chapel Hill's transit development program, covering 1981 through 1986 and published by the town in 1981. It sets out local transit and transportation planning for those years.
The Town of Chapel Hill's transit development plan for 1979 through 1984, dated July 1979 on the cover and published by the town. It covers buses, Chapel Hill Transit and local transit planning.
Survey report on how riders and residents viewed the Chapel Hill bus system, prepared by Gorman Gilbert and James F. Foerster for the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina in 1975. The final report of a transit evaluation project, and it deals with public opinion on bus lines in Chapel Hill.
Feasibility study for public mass transportation in the Chapel Hill, Carrboro and University of North Carolina area, prepared in September 1972 by Kimley-Horn and Associates of Raleigh for the two towns, the joint transportation commission and the university student government. Seventy eight pages with illustrations. It records how bus service for the towns and the campus was first costed and planned.
Jonathan Howes, a former mayor of Chapel Hill who served in Governor Hunt's cabinet and later worked in the UNC chancellor's office on urban planning, gave this illustrated talk on the past and future of the Chapel Hill campus. Cassette, 1998.
Stewart E. Dunaway's compilation of Orange County road and bridge papers concerning county bridges between 1787 and 1865. It reproduces documents in facsimile, with maps and partial transcriptions, and provides names useful for genealogical research. First compiled in two volumes in 2008, then combined and updated, this 2013 edition has 253 pages, 28 cm.
Mark Chilton's short history of transportation planning in the North Carolina Piedmont, drawing lessons from earlier projects. Subjects include the Cape Fear Navigation Company and river navigation, and the railroads of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, including the State University Railroad Company whose spur brought trains to the two towns. Chilton was mayor of Carrboro when the book appeared. Published by Hand Made Books, Carrboro, 2012, 92 pages with illustrations, maps and portraits.
Three volumes of historic Orange County road records compiled by Stewart E. Dunaway and self-published through Lulu.com in 2008, with maps. The documents, reproduced as facsimiles and sometimes transcribed, include petitions for new roads, requests for road upkeep, bridge records and papers explaining why roads were rerouted. Road petitions name the householders along a route. The third volume also gathers records connected with Cyrus Guy's lynching in Orange County in 1869.
Three volumes of Orange County road records assembled by Stewart E. Dunaway from the original petitions, orders and maps at the North Carolina State Archives, reproduced in facsimile with partial transcriptions. Volume 1 covers 1786 to 1820, volume 2 1820 to 1849 and volume 3 1850 to 1883. The papers document the laying out and upkeep of county roads and name the residents involved. June 2009 update, distributed through Lulu, 28 cm.
Stewart E. Dunaway's 2013 compilation of Orange County deed records outside the regular deed books, covering 1752 to 1769 and 1793. The loose papers include road petitions and cartway orders, providing material for county history, genealogy and the history of roads.
Stewart E. Dunaway's first volume of Orange County road records, reproducing documents and maps from the North Carolina State Archives for the years 1786 to 1820, with partial transcriptions, an index and a list of overseers. Road papers name the landowners along each route. Self-published in 2010, 348 pages.
Raymond Arsenault's history of the 1961 Freedom Rides and the campaign against segregated interstate travel in the South. Published by Oxford University Press in 2006. Its North Carolina material reaches Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro and Charlotte, which is where the Orange County connection lies, and the wider subject is African American civil rights work, segregation in transportation and race relations through the twentieth century.
Community cookbook from Cross Roads Baptist Church in Hillsborough, printed by Morris Press Cookbooks in 2005 in a three-ring binder. Recipes are credited to their contributors. The book includes Southern cooking, church history and material on the Family House of Chapel Hill. 124 pages of recipes plus front and back matter, with color illustrations.
Joe Liles's interviews with longtime residents of Fish Dam Road, an old rural road in Durham County, recorded in 2004, with subjects tied to both Durham and Orange counties. The interviewees are Charles Scott Harkey, Mary Scarlett Jones, Boyce Link and John Scarlett, all born between 1912 and 1920, and the topics include country life, the road's history and the Duke Power Company.
Franklin Street through two centuries, gathered in a 24 page illustrated supplement the Chapel Hill News published on April 10, 1994 for the town's bicentennial. Topics include the street itself, town history and social life and customs. It belongs with the other bicentennial publications of 1993 and 1994 that treat the commercial center of Chapel Hill.
Bernard Lee Bryant's compilation of who occupied each structure on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill at five-year intervals from 1793 to 1998, issued by the Chapel Hill Historical Society in 1999 as a photocopy of his original computer printout on cotton paper. 191 leaves.
Glenn Holder's 1931 profile of Captain Fred Smith, who spent forty-two years as skipper of the train known as the 'Carrboro Limited' between Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Detached from the March 1931 issue of the university's Alumni Review, the piece recounts Chapel Hill railroad history. Smith lived from 1858 to 1939.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “The town, the University and paying for the buses, 1973–1992.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/paying-for-the-buses-storyline-1973/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
