Buried in an article about the move of GRTC headquarters is this exciting statement [emphasis mine]:
The bus company expects to complete a survey of the system, including all bus routes, later this year. The study will set the stage for a public debate over what localities in the region want from the bus system and how much they’re willing to pay to get it.
A debate about what the public wants from transit!
Okay- so the debate may be between localities and their government representatives and not between us regular non-elected folk. But maybe not. Maybe GRTC will solicit input from the general public. How exciting would that be? A charrette for transit!
So I’d like to get the ball rolling here- what do you want from transit in Richmond?
I’d like to see a downtown circular running from Carytown to Church Hill that runs so frequently you don’t need a schedule.
Urban Richmond~ 
September 13, 2007 at 9:57 am
Heck yes re. the circular from Cary to Church Hill!
More buses and coming to more stops with more frequency than at present would be helpful as a general thing.
I would also like to see at LEAST a commuter route that goes out from Richmond to Innsbrook and Short Pump, the current bus to the West End only goes to the 9000 block of Broad (I believe) which is about 5-6 miles short of the mark – and that’s a bit far to walk, especially with the lack of sidewalks in the area). Practically speaking, I know there are approximately 22,000 people that work in Innsbrook, and I’d guess there are a couple thousand that work in the vicinity of Short Pump mall and I am sure that SOME of them might be interested in taking the bus if it were available to them. In fact, I’d guess the some would almost certainly amount to enough people to make that route worth GRTC’s while. Moreover, if the route worked out, they could expand the times that it ran to pick up shoppers from other parts of the Metro Richmond area if they really wanted to … so there would be potential for expansion.
Any kind of route from the burbs that would get people back downtown and save them having to worry their heads about parking. Park the SUV at a park & ride type place in the ‘burbs and come on in to shop. (Yes, I know there’s a park & ride in Henrico already, but there should be MORE such facilities in the counties, imho). More interplay between the city and the counties (along with – one hopes – more development and shopping coming back to downtown) would be a good thing for all parties involved if thought through carefully.
Bus lanes and or adequate sidewalks and decent places to wait for said buses would all be helpful as well.
More bike lanes wouldn’t hurt either.
I just typed a lot there … needless to say, I know I will be watching developments in this area with much interest!
September 13, 2007 at 11:03 am
A route from Chppenham and Forest Hill to the West End, without going downtown.
September 13, 2007 at 11:13 am
To further Jim’s comment: A route from the Forest Hill corridor to ANYWHERE north of the river without going downtown. We’d do more weekend Carytown shopping and/or Fan dining if we could jump on a 10-15 minute bus ride (compared to the nearly hour trip-plus-transfer via downtown).
Another side effect that people don’t think about: With RPS ending transportation for out-of-zone students, a lot of poorer students rely on GRTC to get to school. There are some kids in my neighborhood who go to Hill, Binford, TJ, etc- they have to get on the earliest bus, ride all the way downtown, transfer, then come back up west. By the time they get to school, they’re exhausted. Then they get to repeat it that evening.
September 13, 2007 at 11:36 am
The buses should be FREE. If we want to promote an alternative to cars, cut down on traffic, and conserve gas/reduce polution, then we need to create incentives and remove barriers. Although the cost of a bus ride isn’t much, removing the fee (or reducing it to $0.50) would make it more appealing. Of course, then you might have people just sitting on it all day for lack of anything better to do or in need of a/c or heat. But that just figures into other economic development issues that the City should do more to address.
Lastly, Richmond’s buses are about as integrated as the public schools. Does any body have ideas on how to change this reality?
September 13, 2007 at 11:50 am
Thanks for the great comments. I hope there will be more.
I used to get my car fixed just off Forest Hill when I lived in Carytown. I rode the bus once- then I started bringing my bike. It was a 5 minute drive using the Powhite, and over an hour on the bus. Biking took 20 min.
Ridiculous. And thanks for pointing out its effect on students.
And I agree with RVA Foodie- cheap or free buses would be a huge incentive- other cities have done that. I would regularly take the bus to Carytown from Church Hill, but if I go with a friend it’s going to cost us $5 round trip. At that rate, it’s cheaper to drive or bike.
September 13, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Hmm, I’m all for cheap public transit, but to make it that cheap or free is impossible without a huge tax hike somewhere. Especially for all the ideas everyone has been conguring up. Also, in the long run, is it really that much cheaper to drive or bike? I mean, the wear and tear on your mode of transportation, the stress of driving in traffic, and finding parking…I don’t mind paying two bucks for fare or even a 6-7 buck all-day pass.
I have a bunch of friends that live in DC and I go up there every chance I get and I love it, I just drive in, park and leave my truck there for the weekend and get back to it when I am ready to go home. I can walk anywhere or I take the metro. I also decided to take the train up the last time I went and it was amazing. A little less than 50 bucks round trip, no traffic, no stress, no wear and tear, no trying to find a space…just I sit down and a little over 2 hours later I am there…ahhhh. Oh the possibilities for this city.
September 13, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I’d be a happy man if they would change the schedule for the #19. The route and price suits my commute perfectly. Unfortunately, the schedule leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, if GRTC would add one or two runs around rush hour, I wouldn’t need a car at all.
I have a 12-mile (one way) commute each day. The #19 offers one bus that I can take in the morning and still be on time. Same deal coming home.
If I take the bus, I have to leave the house around 6:40am to get to the bust stop on time and I don’t get home until after 7:00pm.
Contrast that with my current schedule, which is a 20-minute (one way) commute down I64 or Broad Street. I get 40 minutes of additional family time by driving – and that’s worth a lot to me.
If GRTC is going to gain me as a rider, they’ll have to work hard to come close to the time benefits gained by owning a car. I don’t expect them to match it — that’s not practical — but they need to do better than they are now.
I’m willing to compromise some time in exchange for relaxing on the bus, reading, decompressing, etc but not as much as they’re asking me to do right now.
September 13, 2007 at 2:38 pm
In regards to family that is totally understandable, I am just speaking of the price issue, hoping that many of the transit ideas and desires do come into play, I’d be willing to spend the price.
I think most of us think of the economical impact by just how much WE save in gas, but if we look at it with more of a big-picture scope, we are saving so much energy and resources by having to prepare a little more ahead of time. It also would open back up our worlds a bit seeing all sorts of people. Sorry, getting on my little hippie tangents, but I only have a few years left of being an idealist I hear…
September 14, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I’d be willing to pay a little bit higher taxes if it would give me a public transit service worth having. But then I am a loony person who wouldn’t mind paying a bit more tax for useful government services generally – it’s when my tax money gets wasted on various idiocies that I have a problem.
It would be nice to see more of a “we” mentality as opposed to the prevailing “me” mentality (which I certainly understand) when it comes to stuff like public transit. (Or other things, but I shall refrain from digressing too much!)
It would be great to have public transit from an environmental perspective as well as from a decreasing traffic congestion one. Less cars on the roads due to more people using public transit would mean less CO2 emissions, etc.
And re. long long commute times, I think if they added more routes (perhaps some express ones for example), ability to transfer between different routes and more frequent arrivals of buses, that could help mitigate some of those difficulties. Not all and obviously this would involve much planning and having funds to operate, but it would be worth looking into what was feasible!
Another thing it would be great to see (at least in a downtown/circular route context) would be a return of the electric street cars – Richmond was, after all, the first city to have these. We love our history and try to trade on it and said street cars, if revived, could not only provide transit for residents, but could constitute an attraction for tourists (as well as a way for them to easily access other attractions)!
September 15, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Hey, just wanted to stop in and say thanks for covering this and other transportation related issues! My name is Galen Pierce-Gardner and I’m the Deputy Director for External Affairs under the executive branch of VCU’s Student Government Association. We’re currently raising support for Pantele’s Circulator to be completely and functionally implemented with full service from Church Hill or Shockoe Bottom to Carytown. The study currently being undertaken which you mention above is a Comprehensive Operations Analysis(COA) and is a system wide overview of routing and service. It’s the first one in five years with implementation of approved changes scheduled to begin as early as December. As you stated in an early post, councilman Pantele is still very much behind the full service Circulator. It’s time Richmond had functional mass transit!I’d like to ask all of you to take a few minutes to email GRTC in support of this plan.
jlewis@ridegrtc.com(due to a high volume of mail from students on this issue, some emails to this address have recently been bouncing back, alternate internal GRTC addresses below)
gbrown@ridegrtc.com
ecoles@ridegrtc.com
cmitchell@ridegrtc.com
kmathis@ridegrtc.com
September 17, 2007 at 11:01 am
[…] recently posted about the prospect of public involvement in reshaping Richmond’s public transi…. Several folks chimed in with helpful comments about desperately needed changes. Please add your […]
March 11, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Hi, I live in short pump and I actually would not like an expansion of bus routes into this area. I realize that a certain amount of the urban Richmond population sees this as an advantage. This portion is most likely comprised of mainly college students or what I would refer to as the “new urbaners”, or those who have entered into the new trend of Richmond which is overpriced apartments or condos that have been converted from old wharehouses and the like. Another cross-section are the young 20 somethings that may have started off as VCU students but either flunked out or dropped out and still reside in the urban community, i.e the fan district. Now, with that being said, the groups that I have just mentioned would only be making up a small amount of the actual number of users of the GRTC routes if they were to be extended to Short Pump. I believe that the vast majority of those who would be using these routes would the Black urban community. Now, before you go calling me a racist automatically, I realize that some of these people would be using the routes for work purposes which in turn helps the community and keeps business thriving. But, on the downside, we all know the statistics and we all know that black males make up a majority of the incarcerated population in Virginia. Is it really necessary to risk the spread of crime to areas that are otherwise safe environments? I believe that if they start extending these routes, then Short Pump and similar ares will only have a short life expectancy before they turn into crime ridden impoverished areas like Gilpen Court. I don’t want to see my tax dollars go to something I don’t agree with and will never use. I also would like my community to continue to be a somewhat safe one because I have a family to worry about. If there is a public vote on this then I will most definitely be voting no.
March 13, 2009 at 7:47 pm
That’s a more common point of view than you might think, but rarely expressed in public. I’ve heard similar comments by both black, white, and immigrant suburbanites. Sadly, though overstated, there is a grain of truth behind it.
April 11, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Travis,
Thanks for taking a break from your KKK activities to comment. We REALLY appreciate it.
Asshole.
May 25, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Kelly, glad to see you can pull your head out of the sand to comment. Do some homework and eliminate your ignorance. Thanks
June 3, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Travis,
Your racist comments are boring me. Why don’t you move your lilly-white family (that sooooo needs your manly protection from black people) to a compound out in the sticks. You can have your own personal Waco!
June 12, 2009 at 3:16 pm
John, you too are ignorant to the truth. I really don’t understand it when someone points out the simple FACT that the majority of the incarcerated are of the african american persuasion, people start throwing racism into it. How in the hell does pointing out crime related statistics equate to racism? People like you always react this way to the cold, harsh, “politically incorrect” truth. You label it as something that it isn’t (in this case, racism), you use the label to discredit, and then you end up right back where you began: with your head in the sand. Frankly John, your ignorance and your apparent willingness to not only maintain but propagate your ignorance astounds me (and like you, bores me a little bit as well). Stop being such an oblivious drone with replies that lack complete and total substance like “..uhh you racist”. “Political correctness” has brain washed you into being a mindless puppet. Seriously John, the internet is a vast expanse of knowledge…use it to inform yourself before you make an uneducated comment like that. Thanks. Best of luck to you.
June 16, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Travis,
I feel sorry for you. You make blanket statements about a large segment of the population and shout Political Correctness at anyone who challenges you narrow views. It must be a very sad, paranoid world you live in.
As for the internet, there are loads of actual studies out there explaining why African American males are disproportionally incarcerated. I would be more than happy to send you some links so you can educate yourself. If you are so concerned, may I ask what you are doing to alleviate the problem?
June 17, 2009 at 6:11 am
Basically, John, you are sadly mistaken on all points. African Americans are not disproportionately incarcerated. Facts are facts and numbers don’t lie. Punishments are given where crimes are committed. You are ignorant. Thanks.
June 17, 2009 at 6:28 am
Also, pointing out political correctness on my part was to show how stupid the notion really is. Why don’t you actually read what I have written for a change. I said basically that throwing the “racism” card at what I have said is just another example of how “political correctness” is ridiculous. It’s become a catch-all for halfwits like you who cower in fear when faced with a truth they don’t want to admit to themselves. You just sweep it under a rug with you claim that my remarks are racist in content, all the while not taking one second to respond or react to the comments made with logic and a non emotionally driven retort. Please show me these “studies”. But be prepared for fact laden replies on my end. Let’s do this.
June 17, 2009 at 9:35 am
Everyone–just ignore Travis, he’s obviously a troll looking for a fight. This is a discussion about Urban Richmond, a subject that Travis is obviously not very familiar with. Perhaps if we have a discussion about Short Pump he can offer us his insights. Otherwise, ignore the troll.
June 17, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Kingston, I commented on this transit discussion because of it’s potential effect on the part of RICHMOND that I live in. I’ve done nothing but state my case with factual data and all you people have done is call me a racist troll. If that is how “urban Richmond” wants to be represented then so be it. Please read a little bit and you’ll see that I was the one who was attacked, slandered and called an “asshole”. Once again, you too have scored one for ignorance. What is wrong with people like you? Geez, can someone have a logical discussion with me about this subject, addressing my concerns on this matter in a factual, honest, adult manner? You know, I used to be an urban Richmonder. I lived in Jackson Ward. I know full well what urban Richmond is like. Probably more so than alot of people adding their two cents on this. From speaking to just a few of you, I kind of glad I don’t live in the city anymore. Speak your mind and get called racist asshole! Man, thats tolerance! Great job!