TAKE ACTION

Last week you had the opportunity learn about and support (pending a couple of amendments) HB 1541, a bill that would create a dedicated transit funding stream for the Richmond region. This week, take a gander at HB 1414 / SB 890, the Governor’s Transportation Omnibus package. The proposal will reorganize state transportation funding and create a new “Virginia Transportation Trust Fund,” of which 22.2% will be dedicated to mass transit and 5.72% dedicated to rail. It’ll also create a “Transit Incentive Program” that will help fund transit, bus-only lanes, and fare programs for folks with lower incomes. That program will be available to urban areas with populations over 200,000 (that’s us!). Having an increased state-level focus on local and regional transit only helps continue all of the transit progress we’ve got here in Richmond.

If more—and more straightforward—state-level transit funding sounds like something you would support, you can learn more and contact your legislators using this super easy form over on the Virginians for High Speed Rail website.

AROUND THE REGION

GRTC had their January board meeting last week and you can look through all of the presentations, documents, and assorted PDFs on their website. Three specific PDFs are worth your time:

• The Operating Performance Report includes a bunch of tables and charts describing ridership, on-time performance, safety, and a ton of other things. Of note: Ridership in 2019 was up 11.35% compared to 2018; August, September, and October of last year saw more ridership than any month in the previous couple of years; across the system, on-time performance is way below the goal of 80% of trips, hovering around 70%. That means a lot of late buses.
• There are a bunch of interesting tidbits in the 2019 GRTC On-board Survey Results. A few takeaways from the survey: 68.1% of riders live less than three blocks from their stop, about half of all riders do not make a transfer during their trip, and 87.1% of riders own a smart phone.
• GRTC has proposed several alignment changes to the West End routes this coming May. While the maps aren’t the easiest to understand, it looks like realignment will absorb the #75 bus into a handful of other routes and extend the #50 and #77 buses further east.

ELSEWHERE

Curbed has a good article about the benefits of bus-only lanes to everyone—drivers and people on bikes, not just bus riders. Watch this video of a GRTC #1 bus trying to make it down 14th Street during the evening rush hour, and you’ll see how giving dedicated space for buses (plus maybe some queue jumpers at specific lights) would speed up commutes for everyone.

—Ross Catrow