TAKE ACTION

If you're one of the people who've come up to me over the past year and said "Whoa! I love that regional transit map! How do I get it on a shirt?," I now have an answer!

You can buy your sweet regional transit map T-shirt here!

AROUND THE REGION

GRTC has released a newly updated route map (PDF) which incorporates some more public feedback on the Richmond Transit Network Plan. A couple of interesting changes to note (pull up the map and follow along!):

• The biggest changes are in Fulton. Both the 4a and 4b terminate at the 25th Street Pulse station instead of the Rocketts Landing station. This gets folks further into town without needing a transfer. That area around 25th is now super connected by: a Pulse station, two 15-minute buses, and three 30-minute buses. That's a lot of transit options!
• Shout out to the 64x riders! It looks like GRTC may have found a way to accommodate five trips in the morning and evening on that route. This route serves many folks living in Chesterfield, and getting the County to chip in to maintain the current level of service of that route is something I've talked about before (if you'd like, you can contact Supervisor Haley and let her know that Chesterfield should contribute their share!)
• The #87, aka the River Route, will stop on 2nd Street for easier access down to Bell Isle and Brown's Island.
• The #78 now heads further south into the Maymont area (past Colorado Street) and includes a stop at actual Maymont.
• Also shown on this map, but not mentioned in the press release from GRTC, is a 30-minute #19. The current #19 is an infrequent Henrico bus (which costs $2 instead of $1.50) that heads all the way out to Gaskins. I'm interested in learning more about what changes are in store for Henrico!

GRTC expects to finalize routes by August.

P.S. If you head down to Dominion Riverrock this weekend you can check out one of the Pulse buses in person and pick up a Pulse sticker.

ELSEWHERE

For the next couple of weeks, this section of our wonderful weekly email will be provided by our new intern Zac. He'll be helping us with some research, planning, and writing—including, among other things, this!

After months of debating, London decides against light rail in favor of allocating $440 million towards a BRT system. Business owners feared the multi-year process of building light rail—including digging a tunnel—would harm their businesses.

One of the problems some BRT systems face is drivers not being aware of the bus-only designation of particular lanes. Baltimore has solved this issue by painting their BRT lanes red, speeding up trips for riders. How cool will it be to see bus-only lanes clearly marked on Broad when the Pulse opens later this year?

In an effort to solve the first/last-mile issue facing transit riders who live outside the system, Uber just launched an update in select markets which shows public transit options to its customers.

—Ross Catrow