This week in transit: Zero fare and new OETM
AROUND THE REGION
Never a dull moment in public transit these days (hold onto your seats)...
Just this past Tuesday, Mayor Stoney announced the creation of the Office of Equitable Transit and Mobility, which will be under the city's Department of Public Works. You can see some more coverage at VPM. As we know, a ton about transit funding and governance remains TBD given our new Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA), but the City's OETM has a new key role to play.
For instance, a very live question for our public transit system in the months and year ahead is whether GRTC should and could adopt a zero-fare policy as standard operating procedure. As you'll recall GRTC began suspending fare collection in response to the pandemic last spring, and at present GRTC has the potential to continue that suspension through spring 2021 via support from the CARES Act.
On this front, you can watch an extremely helpful presentation from GRTC's Board meeting earlier this week laying out fare policy alternatives moving forward: "Fare Policy Considerations" (just jump to minutes 23:00-46:00, or you can check out the pdf slides (pgs 15-28) from the Board packet). Three Richmond mayoral candidates support finding a way to fund a standing zero-fare policy for GRTC (i.e., post-pandemic), and we as a region more broadly would not be alone in exploring this move (New York Times, "Should Public Transit Be Free? More Cities Say, Why Not?"). Needless to say, we'll be diving into this issue more deeply in the weeks and months ahead.
As a reminder, GRTC kicked off a new set of service updates on September 13 and is still operating under COVID precautions (wear your mask, only ride for essential trips, zero fares, and social distance).
TAKE ACTION & UPCOMING DATES
Transportation for America has a Tweet Storm underway right this red hot second (Sept 17). #savetransit is calling for Congress's support for transit agencies across the nation in a new relief package. Join in through the links above.
The CVTA has its first Finance Committee meeting bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:30 am (Fri, Sept 18). You can check out the agenda packet (updated revenue forecasts, pg. 5) and get more details on watching/generally public-participating here. The next full CVTA meeting date is still TBA.
As a friendly neighborhood 501(c)(3), you will see no candidate endorsements here, but you can check out candidates' respective views on public transit and a host of other key policy issues at Mayorathon forums over the weeks ahead.
Nelson Reveley
Director of Operations, RVA Rapid Transit