Urbanist Book Club: Straphanger, Chapter 1

Five takeaways from Chapter 1 (and the Introduction) of Taras Grescoe's Straphanger:

1. 2012 was a long time ago. Many of the things Grescoe talks about from way back in 2012 would have seemed strangely out of place in 2019—doubly so during this current moment of 2020. This bit about gas prices especially stood out: "In the summer of 2008, the price of a barrel of crude oil spiked to $147 a historic high. Since then, a gallon of gas, which could be had for under a dollar for most of the 1990s, has routined retailed for $4.50 at some pumps." With current gas prices under $2 and expected uncertainty around oil prices, if anything, gas prices have encouraged more driving.
2. These two sentences are great: "While I love the gritty allure of a great metropolitan subway, and consider a rail trip one of life's great pleasures, my interest in transportation technology runs a distant second to my love of cities. Simply put, I like subways, buses, and trains because I believe they make better places than cars and freeways."
3. If you want to get really, really into why the cost of building public transportation in the United State is so high ("The price tag for extending New York's subway network by just one mile in the early years of the twenty-first century? Just over two billion dollars"), you should subscribe to Alon Levy's blog.
4. Grescoe has a whole section about the history of transit in New York, including a bunch of stuff about horses: "By 1860, when fourteen horse-railway companies were carrying 38 million passengers a year..." If that blows your mind, read this long piece about America's shift from horse-based transportation to motorized vehicles.
5. Maybe, at some point, we should read the Robert Moses biography, _The Power Broker_

If you're following along, we'll be reading chapters two and three next week and posting thoughts / comments on Twitter.

Urbanist Book Club: “Straphanger” by Taras Grescoe

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt routines and systems across the world and in Richmond, we're looking for ways to continue thinking about public transportation while still allowing time to focus on adapting to the rapidly changing world around us.

With that in mind, we thought we'd start a low-pressure, online-only, entirely-remote, asynchronous Urbanist Book Club. Each week we'll read a section from a transit or transit-adjacent book, post some notes on our Twitter account, and end the week with a short blog post collecting our thoughts and feelings. We encourage you to pick up a copy, follow along, and join in.

We'll kick things off this week with the first chapter of Straphanger by Taras Grescoe.

Hope you can join us!

This week in transit: Public transit in Richmond and COVID-19

COVID-19

In response to COVID-19, GRTC has set up an informational page highlighting the status of the system (as of right now they're operating service normally) and any procedure updates. An important one: "GRTC is currently working to increase the frequency of fleet cleaning, prioritizing CARE vehicles and Pulse buses. CARE vehicles are used by many at-risk passengers and Pulse buses carry more passengers than any other vehicle consistently."

While the new Route #111 in Chesterfield wil launch tomorrow (route information available here), the planned celebration has been canceled. That's certainly the right call, but it's still disappointing. In lieu of celebrating in person, take a minute to read this excellent piece by Rich Griset about the future of public transit in the County.

Additionally, all GRTC public meetings have been canceled, including March's board meeting and the Title VI informational meeting. Also, the first Transit*Talk at Gallery5, which looked really interesting, has also been canceled.

Other than canceling public meetings, the virus will most certainly have an impact on public transportation across the country. Jarrett Walker writes about what happens to our transit agencies if they start running short on revenue. The key takeaway: Maintain service as much as possible, but, if faced with making cuts start with expensive peak-only commuter service. Drastically reduced ridership is not a hypothetical, either. King County Metro reports a 45% drop in ridership over this time last year.

Finally, while there are more pressing and immediate concerns, City Council still plans to discuss the Mayor's proposed budget in the coming weeks. Both Richmond City and Henrico County cut their contribution to GRTC by 50% and look to the yet-to-be-stood-up Central Virginia Transit Authority to replace that funding. As they deliberate, regional legislators should consider the impact of lower ridership, reduced farebox revenue, and an uncertain economy when finalizing the amount of funding available for GRTC. Critically, the region must maintain the existing bus service through the rest of this year and into 2021.

—Ross Catrow

This week in transit: Public transit, the CVTA, and Richmond's new budget

AROUND THE REGION

This past Friday, Mayor Levar Stoney introduced his budget for FY2021, which you can look through here (PDF). It's a big document, so, if you're looking for a place to start, read the Mayor's Message portion to get a handle on the focus of this year's new investments—one of which is transportation.

HB 1541, which has almost finished working its way through the General Assembly, will create a new Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA) to fund local and regional transportation projects. The Mayor's FY2021 budget relies on these new funds in a couple of ways:

• First, some of that new CVTA money will go towards $30 million of road paving alongside several million dollars for building and maintaining sidewalks.
• Second, the Mayor's budget cuts the City's contribution to GRTC by 50%, from $15,915,367 to $7,957,683. It then looks to the CVTA to fill that gap, allowing GRTC to maintain their current level of bus service within Richmond.

As noted above, the Governor has not yet signed HB 1541 into law, and the CVTA has not yet been created or staffed. GRTC is also required by HB 1541 to create a regional transportation plan for approval by the Authority. These things will take time, and it's incredibly important that GRTC have enough funding from the region's localities to maintain existing bus service while the logistics of the new Authority are worked out. Further, any regional transportation plan created by GRTC and approved by the region must be centered around bus rider voices with high-quality community engagement.

Regional cooperation around public transportation is brand new for Central Virginia! As such, the region needs to be diligent with the details, take the time to get it right, and, most importantly, protect the bus service we have today.

—Ross Catrow