What if the bus were free?
Would anyone in Richmond ride it ?
Apparently, if you’re a U of R employee, the answer is no.
I heartily applaud the new president’s efforts to green the campus and hand out free bus passes to employees. However, only 97 of 1500 employees had accepted the offer when the TD published their story on Saturday. That’s just over 6% of folks taking a FREE bus pass- never mind how many actually ride the bus.
30-40 employees were regular bus riders before the program began. So about 60 people may be enticed onto the bus. Which, don’t get me wrong, is fabulous. I’d just hope for more.
April 29, 2008 at 6:29 am
I feel like the bus is difficult to ride around here. Maybe I just don’t have my head around it yet, but the routes and schedule seem too complex and not nearly accessible enough. Anyone else feel that way?
April 29, 2008 at 7:24 am
I’d consider taking the bus. If my workplace was on one of the routes…
April 29, 2008 at 7:54 am
I wonder how many UofR employees live along the one bus route that leads to campus? That route, #16, goes from campus to downtown following Grove Ave and Franklin St. I would expect (but don’t know) that most live in the suburbs where GRTC does not run, or at least does not run directly to campus. GRTC’s routes still follow many of the old trolley car routes which were designed to link neighborhoods to downtown. Since VCU is close to the center of this transit design, If VCU offered free bus passes to its employees it would help solve many of the parking problems on both VCU campuses, and also reduce the amount of fuel it takes to get those employees to work.
April 29, 2008 at 8:35 am
2 Things:
GRTC needs big, clear maps at their stops. Citizens have been aksing for this for years.
Tell Trani to lead or retire already. VCU has to come on board with mass transit.
April 29, 2008 at 9:01 am
I agree Daniel - too complex. I would certainly take the bus in order to save gas money and toll money. The park and ride GRTC has on the southside is close to our house. However, it only goes to the downtown area. Great if I worked downtown. Not so good WOTB. I would have to ride 2 more buses to get to work and over an hour travel time. Just not worth it.
Not sure if their is a difference between staff at UR and staff at VCU. No matter who you give passes to if you don’t live near the bus line - it’s simply not convenient to use.
April 29, 2008 at 9:12 am
I work for VCU, and I’ve been using the GRTC system as my primary mode of transit for years. I can say that if I had free access to all the bus routes it would be pretty amazing.
While GRTC has its drawbacks, I feel like they’re trying to make it more appealing to the urban workforce. (A friend of mine who works in transportation told me they have talked about free WiFi access on the buses).
April 29, 2008 at 10:26 am
Bill Pantele discussed the archaic route structure of the GRTC at his last 2nd district meeting. Some bus stops were created for people who either moved or died 40 years ago. Many follow old street car tracks.
April 29, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Would I ride the bus if it was free? YES! My caveat is that I live near a major hub downtown so getting almost anywhere (even to the airport) is fairly easy.
Figuring out the maps sucks, I gave up and instead use their trip calculator to figure out how to get somewhere. It’s like mapquest for the bus. I didn’t notice it on GRTC’s site until my wife pointed it out when she rode the bus up to Carytown one day while I had the car. If you haven’t already played around with it, I suggest you do, it’s a real eye-opening experience as to where they go, and what’s the easiest way to get there via the bus.
There are lots of things I like about the bus, however I personally am hindered by one thing: tardiness. Both times I’ve ridden the bus, it was late. Once by just under 15 minutes, the other by almost 30. I can understand stuff goes wrong, really, thats fine, it just means that I now have to plan to be somewhere well ahead of schedule as I’m not working with factors that I can control anymore. If it was free, I’d probably discount the late factor as an offset.
April 30, 2008 at 7:46 am
In today’s RTD
Cuts in number of Fan stops part of plans for faster service
http://www.inrich.com/content/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-04-30-0119.html
May 1, 2008 at 10:45 am
As a UR employee, I’d be happy to take the bus if I lived on a bus route. I know many employees are in a similar predicament.
May 20, 2008 at 12:52 pm
FWIW: VCU (and Trani) signed a green compact this past semester and should be promoting bus ridership among faculty, staff and students. My guess is there’s a learning curve for many people in terms of riding the bus, I’ve had to check schedules and maps to figure it out for myself. I’ve taken the 16 to U of R for events.
At GRTC’s public meeting the other week, CEO Lewis acknowledged that the signs are not informative, and showed examples with route identification and maps on the signs themselves. He mentioned a gradual roll-out of more information, which is critical. Also, he previewed early concepts for a downtown transfer station, behind the Main Street depot, with a frequent downtown circulator. It was presented as a priority, and under active development to get funding.