This week in transit: Public transportation candidate questionnaires

TAKE ACTION

A while back, we sent out a public transportation questionnaire to candidates for both Chesterfield and Henrico Board of Supervisors. We wanted to know how each candidate planned to deal with the unique transportation issues facing their particular county.

In Chesterfield, we were concerned about the ability for folks to age in place; how the County can encourage productive development along its major corridors; where Chesterfield should look to expand public transportation next; and if the candidates supported a dedicated, regional transit funding stream.

In Henrico, we wanted to hear more about pedestrian access to transit; the next place to expand the County’s growing portion of the regional bus network; the candidates’ vision for transit-oriented development; and, again, if they supported a dedicated, regional transit funding stream.

You can read all of the responses to both questionnaires here:

• 2019 Chesterfield Candidate transportation questionnaire
• 2019 Henrico Candidate transportation questionnaire

If you are a candidate in either one of these races and do not see your responses, please contact info@rvarapidtransit.org. If you are resident of Henrico or Chesterfield and don’t see your favorite candidates’ responses, maybe shoot them an email and let them know that public transportation is a priority.

AROUND THE REGION

Henricoans! On Monday, September 23rd, the County, the National Complete Streets Coalition, Smart Growth America, PlanRVA, and Michael Baker will host a Complete Streets Open House at the Tuckahoe Library from 4:00–7:00 PM. They’ll look at the Town of Ashland as a case study for building a regional complete streets policy toolkit. This event is an excellent opportunity to hear about how to build a complete regional transportation network for all folks—whether they’re walking, riding a bike, or taking the bus. It’s an open house format, so don’t feel like you need to show up for the entire three hours.

PARK(ing) Day, an annual opportunity to convert parking spaces into temporary parks, was a complete and total success! C. Suarez Rojas has a write up in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and you can check out a handful of pictures from throughout the city over on StreetsCred.

ELSEWHERE

When you think of progressive parking policy, you don’t typically think about Houston. But maybe you should! The city recently removed “mandatory parking requirements from new developments in two of the city’s more walkable neighborhoods” and is already seeing some cool results. For example, one new development is using space that would have been parking to build a plaza for actual humans. This, let-the-market-decide strategy is a good first step which can and should be followed by implementing maximums on parking as well.

—Ross Catrow

This week in transit: Fill! That! Bus!

TAKE ACTION

This coming Saturday, September 7th, GRTC will host a food drive benefiting Feed More at the Willow Lawn Kroger. Stop by between 12:00–4:00 PM and fill the bus with the sorts of shelf-stable food items for which Feed More is always on the hunt. Conveniently, since the food drive is literally at a Kroger, you can buy all of the most-needed items right on the spot. And, of course, Willow Lawn is easily accessible from most parts of town via GRTC’s bus network.

AROUND THE REGION

The Henrico CitIzen has a good piece looking back on the past year of newly expanded bus service in Henrico County. Rider stories support what we already know from the data: Adding nights and weekends to Henrico’s major routes made public transportation more useful to more people. Here’s one rider talking about Route #91: “And what’s worse, people who perhaps did not have the means for a car and live out here along [the Laburnum] corridor in particular couldn’t take jobs that required shift work.”

Two other things to note:

1. While ridership on Route #79 (which runs by Regency) has decreased, a proposed mixed-used development in the area will ultimately drive a lot of bus ridership. Henrico’s assistant director of Public Works says “We know there’s more development coming in that area that will help make that route more successful, so we have the route in place anticipating that development.” Smart. Also, looking into the future a bit, when the Pulse gets extended further west, the Regency area will need a frequent route connecting it, via Parham Road, to Broad Street. With VCU buying a 234,000-square-foot building out that way and the County hinting at denser development around the intersection, there is a possibility we could see westward Pulse expansion in the not-too-distant future.
2. One of the major complication with extending public transportation into a county dominated by decades of suburban landuse patterns is the lack of safe ways to walk to that improved bus service. Currently, it’s incredibly unsafe to cross Broad Street in the western parts of Henrico County, and it’s disappointing to read that VDOT will only consider building elevated pedestrian bridges in that area because of the heavy car traffic. That kind of infrastructure sounds expensive and, unfortunately, unlikely. By doing nothing at all, though, the message to bus riders here is that their safety is less important than car drivers’ convenience.

ELSEWHERE

Two big transit success stories from across the country:

Today, Indianapolis will launch the Red Line, a 13-mile Bus Rapid Transit line with 10-minute headways and an all-electric bus fleet. Richmond’s BRT was the new hotness for the last year or so, but, there’s no doubt Indianapolis’s new system will now be all anyone’s talking about (well, anyone who spends time thinking and talking about cool transit infrastructure). Back in Richmond, we should ask ourselves what the next surprising, bold thing we could do as a mid-sized city with a lot of transportation momentum?

From Streetsblog: “Voters in Phoenix have soundly rejected a proposal that would have halted the expansion of the city’s light rail system—a proposition that had the backing of dark money linked to the notorious anti-transit Koch brothers.” Most transit referendums in recent memory, but not all (see Nashville), have passed in a big way, and it’s nice to see an anti-transit referendum fail similarly.

—Ross Catrow