Year-over-year bus ridership continues to increase in the Richmond region

According to the Trend Analysis (PDF) and Monthly Motor Bus Ridership data (PDF) presented at GRTC’s March 19th board meeting, year-over-year ridership in February is up an astonishing 23.8%. Elsewhere, across the nation, bus ridership continues to decline—but not in Richmond.

After years of disinvestment, the region is unlocking tons of latent public transportation demand simply by expanding and extending service—and we’re not finished. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to build a frequent, far-reaching, and equitable regional transit system.

It’s about more than proximity

Mallory Noe-Payne at WVTF has a new story up about our regional public transportation system and asks Who is Public Transportation For?. If you asked me, I’d argue it’s for folks trying to get to work—especially those who can’t afford a car or can no longer drive.

If you then asked me how I’d measure whether or not a person had access to useful public transportation, I’d talk to you about a lot of things—frequency, span, land use, and proximity to a bus stop. All of those things matter, and, often, we only talk about the very last one.

Consider, do you have access to useful public transportation if:

• Your bus only comes once an hour so you must leave your house two hours ahead of your shift or risk being late?
• You work nights but your bus stops running at 7:00 PM?
• Your bus route stops at the county line, two miles from your job, forcing you to walk the rest of the way?
• Your neighborhood lacks the sidewalks necessary to safely walk to the bus stop with your family?
• The short walk to your bus stop involves crossing a major highway without a safe pedestrian crossing?
• The nearest bus stops is a mile from your house?

I’d say if any of those are true, no, you do not have access to useful public transportation.

Richmond has a long history of strategically disinvesting in communities of color and lower-income communities—specifically when it comes to transportation. The entire region must do better (by funding transit at a humane level) and work to provide access to useful public transportation to all Richmonders. We absolutely should do this equitably—with a focus on restoring the connections in to and out of communities of color and lower-income communities. But as we think about, talk about, and plan how to equitably expand our regional public transportation system we need to consider more than folks’ proximity to a bus stop.

This week in transit: Contact your local legislators

TAKE ACTION

If you’re a Richmond City or Henrico County resident, please take two minutes of your day and email your representative in support of the funding for public transportation included in each locality’s budget. To recap:

• In Richmond, the Mayor has proposed $965,000 in new funding for GRTC for “increased service and route frequency to those communities that need it the most.”
• In Henrico, the County Manager has proposed $465,000 to preserve and continue the new service that they launched this past September.

Both of these are worthy investments by our region and should be encouraged! You can find contact information for the Richmond City Council here and contact information for the Henrico Board of Supervisors here. If you’re stuck on what your email should say, keep it simple! Something along the lines of: “I’m a constituent, and I’m happy to see more funding for GRTC in this year’s budget. Please support this much needed investment in our regional public transportation system.”

AROUND THE REGION

At a recent meeting, the GRTC Board of Directors voted to restore some of the frequent, 15-minute service to Fulton’s #4A and #4B bus routes. This peak-only restoration of service will allow folks to get in and out of Fulton—on the way to and from work—much more efficiently and will cut the average wait for folks transferring from the Pulse in half. As our region scrapes together the pieces of the skeletal beginnings of a regional public transportation system, it’s important to remember that even with the influx of funding mentioned above, the Richmond region still spends less on transit per capita than almost any of its peer cities.

ELSEWHERE

This past week, Gwinnett County voters went to the polls and, unfortunately, rejected a 1% sales tax increase to expand public transportation into their region. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editorial board says that “the changing politics and demographics of Gwinnett seem to guarantee that MARTA will eventually arrive.” Also in the AJC, a demographic breakdown of the vote and five takeaways from their quick analysis of the turnout.

—Ross Catrow

This week in transit: More money for public transportation!

TAKE ACTION

Monday March 17th is Transit Driver Appreciation Day! Without the operators, none of this works, so take a second to thank your driver when you hop aboard on Monday.

AROUND THE REGION

The City’s Office of Community Wealth Building released their annual performance report (PDF) which contains this bit about the connection between high-quality public transit and employment: “Transportation continues to be one of the major barriers to individuals gaining and retaining employment. Although, the OCWB strives to ensure all participants are able to get to employment and training through our direct services we understand that the Richmond Area needs a comprehensive regional transit system that effectively and efficiently connects residents to employment opportunities. The development of a strong regional transit system continues to be a systemic goal of OCWB’s.” This, of course, is our goal as well, and we’re lucky that a plan for just such an effective and efficient regional transit system exists. While the recent and continued investment in public transportation by some of the region’s jurisdictions is definitely a start, to build a truly regional system we will need some bold leadership and movement towards creating a dedicated bucket of funding for just such a thing.

Henrico County released their budget (warning: huge PDF) and joins Richmond City in increasing their funding for GRTC. They’ll chip in an additional $465,000 to pay for “a 3.0 percent increase in GRTC operating costs, and for a full-year of support of the mid-September 2017 service enhancement.” So while Richmond’s money goes towards new service, Henrico’s money will go to preserving the existing service (which is still pretty dang new). Between the two jurisdictions, GRTC will see about a $1.4 million increase in funding.

Did you see this ridership trends PDF from GRTC? It’s kind of incredible. This past January saw a 26% ridership increase as compared to the previous January! After some back-of-the-napkin math that you should definitely take with a grain of salt, all of the recent investments in public transportation total a less than 10% increase in GRTC’s budget, but have kicked ridership up by 26%. That’s a significant return on investment.

ELSEWHERE

Gwinnette County, an Atlanta suburb, will hold a referendum this coming Tuesday to approve a one-cent sales tax to expand public transportation into the County. This would raise $5 billion to build and run heavy rail, Bus Rapid Transit, and more local service. Fingers crossed for those folks!

Also in Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has decided to create a dedicated Department of Transportation for the City—something Richmond lacks but was one of the transportation-related priorities from Mayorathon.

—Ross Catrow