This week in transit: New day dawning—transit needs you

First, a word from RVA Rapid Transit’s outgoing Board President, Nelson Reveley:

Greetings RVA Rapid Transit friends,

I am interrupting your regularly scheduled email for two reasons:

First, as many of you know, the incomparable Ross Catrow moved into his role as Executive Director of RVA Rapid Transit almost a year ago at this point, and, ever since, he has been diligently and dynamically spearheading advocacy initiatives for public transit throughout the Richmond region.

Now, it is with great honor that I announce the new RVA Rapid Transit Board leadership team that will be coming alongside Ross: Kendra Norrell as President, Brantley Tyndall as Vice President, Sheryl Johnson as Treasurer, and Joh Gehlbach as Secretary. The rest of the Board and I are immensely grateful and deeply excited for what lies ahead with this powerfully skilled team driving forward the push for frequent, far-reaching public transit.

Second, as you also know, over the past few years we have witnessed previously unimaginable growth in transit in the Richmond region. With Chesterfield adding a bus line along Route 1 to John Tyler Community College in 2020 and the City and Henrico each considering their next steps toward the Regional Transit Vision Plan, we are poised to continue making great strides. To keep that momentum rolling, though, we need your continued support. Please feel overwhelmingly excited to make your tax-deductible donation to RVA Rapid Transit right this red hot second. Donations can be made faster than a flying Pulse through our website.

Suggestions for a donation amount, whether one-time or sustaining, include:

* $41 for the 41 bus lines in GRTC's network

* $22 for the 22 miles of bus rapid transit that, if built, would provide a public transit backbone from the airport to Short Pump

* $7.60 for the 7.6 miles of the Pulse currently

As always, thank you for your dedication! Your support makes the difference.

— Nelson Reveley, RVA Rapid Transit Board Member

AROUND THE REGION

Now, two time-sensitive transit things for you to be aware of:

On October 10th, from 6:00–8:30 PM at the Randolph Community Center, RVA Rapid Transit will join a bunch of other area nonprofits and organizations in hosting Mayorathon: A Focus on the 5th—a candidate forum for the 5th District City Council special election. We’ve put together questionnaires featuring a handful of topics and will be asking the participating candidates the types of policy-oriented questions you’ve come to expect from the Mayorathon team. Please register over on the Eventbrite, which will help us get a handle on the headcount. Also, keep an eye out for the questionnaire responses as we get closer to the event.

Do you want to be on TV (and, presumably, YouTube and streaming services)? GRTC needs volunteers to appear in commercials promoting the new bus service coming to the Route 1 corridor in Chesterfield County. They’re filming on October 14th–23rd from 7:00 AM–5:00 PM, so it’s a long day, but you get fed and immortalized in video. If you’re interested, you can contact Ashley Mason over at GRTC (ashley.mason@ridegrtc.com.

—Ross Catrow

This week in transit: Public transportation candidate questionnaires

TAKE ACTION

A while back, we sent out a public transportation questionnaire to candidates for both Chesterfield and Henrico Board of Supervisors. We wanted to know how each candidate planned to deal with the unique transportation issues facing their particular county.

In Chesterfield, we were concerned about the ability for folks to age in place; how the County can encourage productive development along its major corridors; where Chesterfield should look to expand public transportation next; and if the candidates supported a dedicated, regional transit funding stream.

In Henrico, we wanted to hear more about pedestrian access to transit; the next place to expand the County’s growing portion of the regional bus network; the candidates’ vision for transit-oriented development; and, again, if they supported a dedicated, regional transit funding stream.

You can read all of the responses to both questionnaires here:

• 2019 Chesterfield Candidate transportation questionnaire
• 2019 Henrico Candidate transportation questionnaire

If you are a candidate in either one of these races and do not see your responses, please contact info@rvarapidtransit.org. If you are resident of Henrico or Chesterfield and don’t see your favorite candidates’ responses, maybe shoot them an email and let them know that public transportation is a priority.

AROUND THE REGION

Henricoans! On Monday, September 23rd, the County, the National Complete Streets Coalition, Smart Growth America, PlanRVA, and Michael Baker will host a Complete Streets Open House at the Tuckahoe Library from 4:00–7:00 PM. They’ll look at the Town of Ashland as a case study for building a regional complete streets policy toolkit. This event is an excellent opportunity to hear about how to build a complete regional transportation network for all folks—whether they’re walking, riding a bike, or taking the bus. It’s an open house format, so don’t feel like you need to show up for the entire three hours.

PARK(ing) Day, an annual opportunity to convert parking spaces into temporary parks, was a complete and total success! C. Suarez Rojas has a write up in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and you can check out a handful of pictures from throughout the city over on StreetsCred.

ELSEWHERE

When you think of progressive parking policy, you don’t typically think about Houston. But maybe you should! The city recently removed “mandatory parking requirements from new developments in two of the city’s more walkable neighborhoods” and is already seeing some cool results. For example, one new development is using space that would have been parking to build a plaza for actual humans. This, let-the-market-decide strategy is a good first step which can and should be followed by implementing maximums on parking as well.

—Ross Catrow

RVA Transit Week starts September 16th!

TAKE ACTION

This week is RVA Transit Week! We’ve put together a handful of events to help celebrate regular use of public transportation and also encourage the first-timers out there to give the bus a try. You can see the full list of events over on our website, but make sure you mark tomorrow, Monday the 16th, on your calendar as Bus to Work Day! It doesn’t matter if you’re a regular commuter or a bus newbie, plan your commute using the Transit app and then, if you don’t mind, do three things:

1. Take a bus selfie!
2. Answer the question, “Why does public transportation matter?”
3. Share both with us on Twitter (@rvarapidtransit).

It’s a small thing, but seeing folks we know using the bus helps grow and show support for our public transportation system. It makes the regional conversations we need to have about continuing to extend and expand our bus network all the easier.

P.S. RVA Transit Week coincides with the Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s Try Transit Week. You can head over to that website and enter to win a one year of free public transportation.

AROUND THE REGION

Here’s another post in our ongoing series of pieces analyzing some of GRTC’s most current bus ridership data. This time we look at bus routes in the western part of the region that have some of the lowest rides per revenue service hour and what could be done to make those buses more useful to more folks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, by increasing the frequency—and doing some creative rejiggering—these routes could start to shine.

ELSEWHERE

A quick check in on two BRTs from elsewhere in America:

First, after its initial week of operation, Indianapolis’s BRT ridership numbers are in! The Red Line, which covers about twice the distances as the Pulse, saw between 7,985 and 10,551 rides per day. For some context, Richmond’s BRT pulled an average of 6,671 rides per weekday during this past July (PDF). While the Pulse’s ridership goal was just 3,500 rides per weekday, Indy’s goal is 11,000. They’ve yet to hit that, but, just like in Richmond, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the ridership grow over the next several months as folks begin to work the Red Line into their daily transportation lifestyles.

Second, from Twitter, here’s an interesting thread about how an increase in fare enforcement in Cleveland has led to a 19% decline in ridership on their BRT, the Healthline. The Healthline, which scored a silver ranking from ITDP when it opened (the Pulse in Richmond scored a bronze ranking), would have its ranking dropped if rescored today.

—Ross Catrow