TAKE ACTION
Below, you’ll find two local events—ways to get involved and get educated—to put on your calendar.
The Partnership for Smarter Growth will host a Richmond Region Roundup on Tuesday, December 11th from 6:00–8:00 PM at the Virginia War Memorial (621 S. Belvedere Street). The event will cover a wide range of topics and feature an interesting group of speakers including: Burt Pinnock from the Richmond 300 Advisory Council; Mike Sawyer, the City’s transportation engineer; Greta Harris, president and CEO of Better Housing Coalition; Steve Haasch, Chesterfield’s planning manager; Nicole Anderson Ellis, Chair of the Route 5 Corridor Coalition in Henrico; and Patti Bland, president of Hanover’s Future Committee. That’s about as regional as a group of folks can get! The event is free to attend, but you should RSVP to help give the organizers an accurate headcount. Also, a big thanks to PSG for including transit directions to the event on their website!
On Saturday, December 8th at 10:00 AM, teachers, parents, students, community organizations, and elected officials will gather at MLK Jr. Middle School (1000 Mosby Street) for the March for More to ask state legislators for more education funding. Safe and reliable transportation is one of the core underfunded needs of school districts locally and across the state. In town, Mayor Stoney has addressed a small portion of that need by funding unlimited GRTC bus passes for high school students. All students, however, deserve a safe and reliable way to get to school and to after-school programs. Again, it’s wonderful to see that this event has also included transit directions on its website.
AROUND THE REGION
The Richmond Times-Dispatch published two articles this week about the region’s public transportation momentum. First, Michael Martz writes about a new report from the folks at the Greater Washington Partnership highlighting the disparities in access to opportunity via public transportation. The article includes this surprising quote from Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell: “The bus system has got to get into Chesterfield County.” Having the region’s business leaders advocate for bus service, especially bus service into the counties, is new, different, and exciting.
Second, Mel Leonor focuses in on Chesterfield’s historical aversion to public transportation and a possible change of tune in the form of a recent study suggesting bus service on the Route 1 corridor. That particular study (PDF) recommends choosing between two options: regular ol’ fixed-route bus service that connects to the rest of GRTC’s regional bus network or a deviated-route service provided by a private company that would be limited to the immediate area. Joe McAndrew, from the aforementioned Greater Washington Partnership, explains why the latter is a bad choice for the region: “A concern that we should look out for is that those [options] are equally accessible to all residents of the region...If they don’t benefit a Richmond or Henrico resident to access jobs in Chesterfield, then it makes it challenging for employers to access the full labor pool of the region. Or, for individuals in the city or the county to access retail or other kinds of destinations.”
You can read and download the Greater Washington Partnership’s report here.
ELSEWHERE
Brendan Bartholomew, a bus driver for San Francisco’s Muni, writes a first-hand account of what it’s like to drive a bus. It’s a challenging job requiring a bunch of different skills—both “driving enormous vehicle skills” and “interacting with all sorts of people all day long” skills.