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Planning is underway for the Carolina Hurricanes victory parade and rally in downtown Raleigh this weekend.
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The route is mapped. A start time is scheduled. Street closures and detours have been announced.
Now the only thing left to do is plan your trip to the Saturday events.
Downtown Raleigh has several city-owned parking decks that offer free parking on weekends. There’s also street parking and paid decks.
But some fans may want to pass on navigating what’s bound to be significant vehicular and foot traffic. Folks unfamiliar with the grid of one-way streets downtown may hesitate to fight that particular battle on such a high-stakes occasion, especially when there will also be multiple road closures and detours to negotiate.
And some fans may be planning to turn the parade and rally into an all-day extravaganza. No judgment. It has been 20 years since any of us had this opportunity.
But let’s party responsibly. This is where Uber, Lyft and buses come in.
Scheduling a ride in advance can help save money, avoiding price hikes when demand inevitably goes up. We saw this last year, when the North Carolina State Fair coincided with Billie Eilish’s concerts at the nearby Lenovo Center.
Uber calls this situation surge pricing. When there is more demand than there are drivers, Uber increases its prices “to help ensure that those who need a ride can get one,” it says on its website. Riders can wait a bit to see if prices will fall, or pay the higher rates.
Lyft also says its prices depend on ride type and time, along with traffic and driver availability.
On Wednesday morning, The News & Observer priced out trips to the North Carolina State Capitol, which is on the parade route, using an UberX vehicle, which carries up to four riders.
We “scheduled” (all but hit the button to confirm) rides from places around the Triangle to arrive downtown by 10:30 a.m. Saturday, a half-hour before the parade will start. Here are the quoted prices:
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We modeled the same scenarios using Lyft and found similar pricing. Here’s the breakdown:
Traveling to downtown Raleigh by bus can take much longer than by car, depending on where you’re coming from.
Raleigh residents get the benefit of a little extra sleep time. With GoRaleigh’s Route 1, a rider could board a bus near Triangle Town Center at 9:58 a.m. and get to downtown Raleigh by 10:29 a.m., about a 30-minute trip. A Route 6 bus will leave Crabtree Valley Mall at 9:55 a.m. and arrive downtown at 10:22 a.m.
Fans from out of town are not so lucky. From downtown Durham, for example, a rider would have to take a 40-minute ride to the Regional Transit Center before switching buses for another 35-minute ride to downtown Raleigh. That means to be in Raleigh at 10:20 a.m., riders would need to board their first bus in downtown Durham at 8:45 a.m.
Fans coming from Chapel Hill would need to catch the 9 a.m. bus to be at the Regional Transit Center in time to get the 9:45 a.m. bus to Raleigh.
It would be an early start for those fans, but what they’re sacrificing in time they’re making up for in savings.
Riders can get a GoRaleigh day pass for $2.50, which would cover unlimited bus rides on Saturday. There are a bunch of routes that take riders downtown.
GoTriangle operates a few routes that take riders around the Triangle to downtown Raleigh on weekends, including Route 300, which leaves from Cary, and Route 305, which leaves from Apex.
A GoTriangle ride costs $2.50, and the daily fee is capped at $5. Children, teens and adults aged 65 and older qualify for free fare.
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Download the Umo mobile app to pay for fares.