AROUND THE REGION
If you somehow missed it, this past week Richmond's City Council unanimously approved RES. 2016-R092, the resolution supporting the Richmond Transit Network Plan. With the plan officially supported and funding for implementation secured, it looks like we're on track for a simaulteanous launch with the Pulse later this year. Make sure you fill out the online survey if you haven't already—this plan is currently a draft and the planners are busy making adjustments based on public feedback.
The Reverend Ben Campbell and was featured on the Selling Richmond: The Civic REALTOR podcast with Laura Lafayette and Jo Gehlbach. He talks transit, racism, housing, and regionalism. Listening to the Reverend speak on these subjects is always worth your time, and this is no exception! This quote really stuck with me: "When somebody says to me 'Why now will we succeed?,' I'm gonna say because you're going to help. Because it is the passivity of the populace that somehow expects some forces to make something happen. And we sit around and watch and wait for the forces to make it happen." Are you ready to help?
Fairfax is working on planning and building a new bus rapid transit line on Richmond Highway, and, as is commonplace with these sorts of things, it has attracted some (affordable) transit-oriented development.
Whoaaaaaa! This dataviz out of DC is beautiful. Click around a bit and check out some of the data on their bus system (which absolutely dwarfs Richmond's in number of riders).
ELSEWHERE
Y'all know we're getting 7.6 miles of bus rapid transit down Broad Street, but did you know that it's part of 250 miles of BRT being built this year across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico? It's really neat seeing Richmond show up on these lists of big-deal, national transit projects!
Here's a study of Cleveland's BRT (PDF), the HealthLine, and how it's impacted the area—including jobs. The numbers are pretty staggering: before the HealthLine opened there were 36,850 jobs on the corridor, six years later...there were 72,080! That a ton more jobs!
PREVIOUSLY, ON RVA RAPID TRANSIT...
—Ross Catrow