A couple weeks back, Chesterfield County released the results of their Blueprint Chesterfield survey. I encourage you to download the big spreadsheet of responses and poke around for yourself.

When asked about the results, Assistant Budget Director Matt Harris said:

“Public safety and education have been the county’s hallmark for some time. The third area was transportation with a particular emphasis on roads, such as maintenance and providing infrastructure,” Harris said.

I disagree! If you take some time and look through the data, you'll see that respondents mention public transportation, sidewalks, and bike infrastructure 27% more than they do things like road widening and maintenance. Some form of public transportation, biking, and walking are mentioned 684 times across the survey. Maintaining and improving roads is mentioned 538 times. If anything, the county's transportation concerns are focused on expanding access through alternatives to roads with a particular emphasis on buses, bike lanes, and sidewalks.

Chesterfieldians are thinking about helping seniors get around, relieving congestion, and creating meaningful bus service in the county through regional cooperation. We should be excited about this clear-stated desire of residents for public transportation, more sidewalks, access for seniors and lower income people, transportation for teenagers, and more bike lanes, paths, and parks.

Connecting Chesterfield to the rest of the region through rapid transit along its major corridors will be a huge part of the impending Richmond Regional Transit Vision Plan. And through these responses, although not explicitly stated, you can see there's already a desire in Chesterfield for this very thing!

Around the region

The Richmond Transit Network folks have put together a very snazzy video about why the plan is super important for RVA. Watch the video, and then take their survey and let them know your priorities for Richmond's transit network.

Tonight (September 2nd), a new transportation-themed exhibit opens up at UR Downtown. Called "Transportation Today and Tomorrow: Envisioning a Greater Richmond," the exhibit features quotes and thoughts from transportationy people from across the region. The exhibit will run through January 13th, so there's plenty of time if you can't make it out tonight.

Elsewhere

Connecticut's CTfastrak, a BRT that connects New Britain to Hartford, has seen 4 million riders since opening in 2015. They're way ahead of their ridership projections—like, 14 years ahead—and are providing about 10,000 more rides a day than the old bus system that covered the same route. Hooray for BRT success!

A couple of national parks are using transit to relieve some of the congestion that comes with attracting millions of people to our country's natural wonders.

Here's a kind of nerdy article about transit company associations. Sounds boring, right? It kind of is! But the National Association of City Transportation Officials is group of local department of transportations with a bit more of a multi-modal vibe—and that's not boring at all. New York's MTA just joined, which, as you can imagine, is a big deal. Maybe our city's transportation officials will want to join?

Previously, on RVA Rapid Transit...

Connecting to high-speed rail — High-sped rail is coming, but how will you get to it?
Equine Tyranny — Like cars, but horses.

—Ross Catrow