Town voters approved a $350,000 bond referendum for local match for capital and a $.10/$100 valuation ad valorem tax to support transit operations.

Prior to Chapel Hill Transit, the UNC Student Government operated a campus shuttle system from 1968 until 1974.

[3] A plan adopted by the Town Council in 1977 included a set of transportation goals which specifically encourage transit over automobile use in the central areas of Chapel Hill.

[3] In 1992, Chapel Hill Transit teamed up with the Triangle Clean Cities Coalition and Ebus, a California company that manufactures electric buses, to demonstrate a 22-passenger bus that promised cleaner air and reduced dependence on foreign fuels.

In the earlier demonstration, a Transteq hybrid bus was transported from daily use in Denver, Colorado, and made available for test drives on the Chapel Hill Transit lot.

In February 2006, K. Stephen Spade, a former Des Moines Metropolitan Transit Authority employee, was hired as the transportation director for the Town of Chapel Hill.

The project was completed by NextBus Inc. Fourteen bus stops would also have digitized signs showing the estimated arrival times of buses.

In October 2006, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved the purchase of sixteen new Chapel Hill Transit buses at a cost of $5.8 million from Gillig Corp. Federal grants provided about $5.2 million, and the town provided approximately $600,000 in local funds.

The town had an additional $1.7 million in federal funding which was sufficient to purchase four 60-foot articulated buses, each with two sections that allow them to flex in the middle.

A Senior Shuttle route operates weekdays making 7 stops each hour, in a loop, to destinations in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

3 "Safe Ride" routes operate on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday late evenings when the university is in session.

The shuttles provide continuous and fully accessible service, running every 10 to 15 minutes between the park and rides and Kenan Memorial Stadium or Dean E. Smith Center.

[6] Chapel Hill Transit is planning to build an 8.2 mile North-South Bus Rapid Transit (NSBRT) to run from the Eubanks Road Park & Ride lot (a northern terminus) and Southern Village (the southern terminus) and points in between.