TAKE ACTION

The Richmond Transit Network Plan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reconfigure the city's bus lines to work more efficiently and integrate seamlessly with the GRTC Pulse. Later this month, the City—in conjunction with the planners and GRTC—will release the draft version of this plan. That's incredibly exciting news!

It is critical that as many people as possible give the planners feedback on the draft plan and its proposed changes to GRTC lines. Please help us spread the word by doing two things:

1. Attend one of the public meetings hosted later this month. See a full list of meeting dates and times here, but the one at the DMV on January 18th seems particularly central.
2. Tell four people about these meetings! The Richmond Transit Network Plan will dramatically increase the efficiency and usefulness of the GRTC System. If your pals don't currently ride the bus, they will probably want to in the newly designed system. Get them in on the ground floor!

Public meetings will be held throughout the second half of January, so check out the full list of meeting dates and times and get one on your calendar.

AROUND THE REGION

Next City picked six transit launches to watch in 2017, and guess who makes the list? The GRTC Pulse!

FiveThirtyEight published a great article that includes a data set of the number of transit trips per capita per month for the 290 largest American cities with transit. Below, I pulled out all of the cities in Virginia. You'll see the number of transit trips per capita followed by that city's rank.

• Washington D.C.: 99.6 (3)
• Harrisonburg: 40.7 (24)
• Blacksburg: 40.0 (25)
• Williamsburg: 33.6 (35)
• Lynchburg: 20.8 (65)
• Virginia Beach: 12.5 (121)
• Roanoke: 11.6 (130)
• Richmond: 9.3 (155)
• Charlottesville: 3.2 (263)

Lots of work to do, Richmond. Time to get on the bus!

ELSEWHERE

Seattle's the next top transit town in American says this really well done video.

Sometimes it's useful to look around the country and see what other transit advocacy groups are up to. It seems like Cleveland's group has their hands full.

PREVIOUSLY, ON RVA RAPID TRANSIT...

• What makes a city great, a word from our president

—Ross Catrow