Another fairly quiet week in the region as far as transit goes. Things in the near future to keep an eye on: Richmond City's budget process, how Henrico tweaks their GRTC service to match up with the Richmond Transit Network Plan, and the last couple of meetings of Chesterfield's Committee on the Future.
ELSEWHERE
The MARTA Army is the all-volunteer citizen group helping to make transit a little better in Atlanta. This piece in Atlanta Magazine will give you a look into how they got started and probably make you want to start your own citizen group (if you do, shoot me an email!). Richmond Riders has a nice ring to it...
Cleveland's health systems already provide support for that city's first bus rapid transit line, the HealthLine. Now they've got a new BRT line launching in October, and it's sponsored by the MetroHealth System. As CEO Akram Boutros says, "One of the biggest barriers to primary care and preventive services is the length of time and the amount of effort it takes a person to access that." We've got a lot of big plans for transit in the Richmond region, and we also have a lot of big health systems! Sounds like a perfect match!
The Kansas City streetcar needs more vehicles because more and more people keep riding the thing! Kansas City has created an interesting tax district, the "Kansas City Downtown Streetcar Transportation Development District," that will help fund these super expensive vehicles. It's hard for me not think about how many buses you get for the cost of one $12 million streetcar (more than 15 of them!).
What ever happened with all of those transit referendums passed by voters this past November? Transit Center has an update! Some places are seeing better service already (Atlanta), other places (Seattle) still have some advocacy work to do.
A cautionary tale from Tampa: If you build a novelty transit line, folks won't use it as a real transportation option. Luckily for Tampa riders, their elected officials (with the help of a $1 million from the Florida DOT) are looking for ways to expand and the existing line into something that actually connects neighborhoods.
Speaking of novelty transit....
—Ross Catrow