TAKE ACTION
Here’s a quick reminder to sign up for the Pulse Pedal Pursuit, an all-day, all-modes-of-transportation scavenger hunt across the Pulse Corridor. Walk, bike, or bus your way to glory on July 21st!
AROUND THE REGION
The final Free Ride Week ridership numbers for the Pulse are in and folks took 56,952 trips, which GRTC CEO David Green says is 2.5x their goal. Whoa, that’s great! I’m still looking forward to seeing the numbers from the first non-free week (keeping in mind the mid-week federal holiday) and the overall ridership numbers for the entire system since the launch of the redesign.
D.C. might be getting in on the bus network redesign game, too, and has kicked off a study to see whether or not their future holds a “ground-up redesign”—including a rejiggering of how the system is owned and organized. Speaking of redesigns of major transportation systems, here’s Jarrett Walker on what it would take to redo the entirety of New York’s bus network.
Unlike Richmond, Northern Virginia has a regional transportation authority (the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority) that distributes funding for regional transportation projects. A lot of these projects are road-based, too many, really, but some of them are public transportation projects like the bus rapid transit planned for Richmond Highway. If and when the Richmond region gets around to putting together regional funding for transportation, we should think hard about how much of that funding ends up widening roads and constructing interchanges and how much of it goes to building a truly regional public transportation system.
ELSEWHERE
StreetsBlog has a good piece about the performance of microtransit programs throughout the country. These on-demand, low-volume services consistently serve fewer passengers at more cost than a regular ol’ bus. If you’ve got a major corridor that lacks public transportation—Jefferson Davis Highway in Chesterfield County and Route 360 out to Mechanicsville come to mind—microtransit will most likely not be the most efficient or cost effective solution to move folks around!
If you'd like to support RVA Rapid Transit's work to bring a truly regional transit system to Richmond, consider making a tax-deductible donation.
—Ross Catrow