KNIGHTDALE - Town Council voted to lease 50 parking spaces at Duke Medical Plaza where residents can park their cars to ride the new commuter bus service to Raleigh expected to start in early 2010.

Assistant Town Manager Seth Lawless said Knightdale is later than Wendell and Zebulon starting the service because the town had difficulty finding a willing partner for a park and ride lot. Wendell and Zebulon's service started Oct. 26. Duke Medical Plaza is located at 162 Legacy Oaks Drive.

According to the lease, Knightdale will pay Duke Health Care Systems $10 per parking space for 50 spaces at an annual cost of $6,000. During the second year of the lease, the spaces will go up in price to $12.50 per space, and in the third year, $15 per space or $9,000 annually.

The town has agreed to install a sidewalk from the Duke parking lot to the public right of way along Legacy Oaks Drive. The town also will build a passenger shelter, and install a bike rack and trash can at the site. Costs for those improvements are estimated at $6,000. Lawless said the money will be applied to the $23,000 the town agrees to pay to Triangle Transit Authority each year for its share of the service's cost.

Lawless said there will be an additional stop on Village Park Drive behind the Rex Health Care facility. The stop will provide easy access for residents of Widewaters, Planters Walk and Parkside neighborhoods.

The bus route will begin at Village Park Drive then stop at Duke Medical Plaza. It will travel on to Raleigh and stop behind WakeMed at Falstaff and Swinburne. The route continues to downtown Raleigh to a stop at Wilmington and Edenton Streets before ending on Blount Street at the Moore Square bus terminal. From Moore Square, riders can catch a Capital Area Transit bus throughout the city of Raleigh or take a TTA bus to RTP, Durham or Chapel Hill.

Knightdale is planning a circulator bus service in the future to help people get to the commuter bus stops to Raleigh. It has applied for a grant to pay for natural gas conversion of passenger van and will consider budgeting for the service for 2011.

Council member Jeff Eddins asked why someone would drive to a park and ride location and ride a bus eight miles to Raleigh.

Lawless said some employers pay for fares to encourage commuting. He said a little known benefit of the service is that TTA will get a car and take you home because of a sick child or some other unavoidable circumstances between the morning and evening commutes.