TAKE ACTION

This Tuesday, November 5th, is Election Day! Set a reminder, mark it on your calendar, put a sticky note on your fridge—just remember to get out there and vote. To help you literally get to your polling place, the City and GRTC will offer free bus rides all day long.

Remember: Every seat in Virginia’s General Assembly is up for grabs on Tuesday, but some folks also have local candidates to vote for. Henrico and Chesterfield will elect new Boards of Supervisors, and Richmond City’s 5th District will pick a new representative for City Council in a special election. If you live in either of those counties or the 5th District, make sure you check out these transportation-related questionnaires to help inform your vote on Tuesday:

• Chesterfield County Board of Supervisor candidate questionnaire
• Henrico County Board of Supervisor candidate questionnaire
• Richmond City 5th District candidate questionnaire

Also, Wyatt Gordon at Greater Greater Washington has a nice piece about how the City’s 5th District special election has centered, in part, around better transit and safer streets.

AROUND THE REGION

You’ve probably read about the Mayor’s proposed North of Broad redevelopment project—it’s almost all anyone can talk about lately. Part of that project includes a new GRTC Transit Center, and, while RVA Rapid Transit is thankful for the Mayor’s centering of public transit in such a landmark project, we have serious concerns about the proposed location and design of that transit center. Specifically:

• In 2018, Richmond redesigned its old hub-and-spoke bus network to a more modern, grid-like system that does not require a central transfer point. Before the network redesign, almost every bus route ended up at the Transfer Plaza. Today, very few routes do. A large, centralized location to make transfers is no longer needed.
• Additionally, the proposed Transit Center is too far from the nearest Pulse station, requiring a two- to three-block walk to make transfers to local bus service. For those with mobility impairments—or any who are walking in extreme heat, cold, or precipitation—this distance is a deterrent to using transit. Any future Transit Center must be adjacent to a Pulse Station.
• The proposed 12-bay Transit Center is larger than the existing 10-bay Transfer Plaza. The size and scale of this investment does not align with GRTC’s new streamlined bus network where fewer routes require a centralized transfer point. As such, a large capital investment in a Transit Center may be less valuable to increasing ridership and improving rider experience. A similar capital investment—one that would align with Richmond’s new bus network—could be made by building a handful of smaller transfer stations at critical points throughout the city.

RVA Rapid Transit believes that the transit-related investments in the North of Broad proposal can be made in a more efficient and effective manner. You can read our full statement over on our website.

ELSEWHERE

Indianapolis continues to show the rest of America how to do rapid transit. After the successful launch of their new BRT, the Red Line, they’ve increased their transit agency’s operating budget by $6 million to fund fare inspectors, bus stop improvements, increased service hours, and planning for their second BRT (the Blue Line). Something to keep in mind: IndyGo, Indianapolis’s bus company, has about a third of their budget come from “a tranist income tax voters approved in 2016.” Virginia localities don’t have access to that type of funding, but, with state approval, they can create a regional sales tax to fund public transportation.

Just look at this beautiful new red bus-only lane in Portland! Look at it!

—Ross Catrow