#AskNicholas: Only 14 stops?

Question: Did I hear correctly that there are only 14 stops for all of Broad Street?

Nicholas: There Pulse has 10 stops on Broad Street, with the remaining four stops on or just off of E. Main Street. Stopping less often, with wider stop spacing, means more time that the bus is in motion, so quicker trips—just like a subway. When GRTC implements it's network redesign, a combination of routes will still provide local service—with more frequent stops—along the majority of Broad Street.

P.S. I'm happy to help anyone with specific questions about their routes!

#AskNicholas: Parking???

Question: What will this do to parking on Broad?

Nicholas: To answer this question, GRTC commissioned an incredibly detailed parking study (PDF). 315 parking spaces on Broad, between Thompson and 14th Street, will be removed to create the bus lanes. Before the removal, there were 5,000 on-street parking spaces on or within one block of Broad, as well as 6,500 off-street spaces. Over 97% of spaces will be retained. Further, those spaces are often not used even close to capacity. Certainly there are some cases where at some time of day a block may have no available parking spaces, but that is true today and won't change much. Most of the time, people will still be able to find a spot within a block fairly quickly. And even then, if we ask bus riders to walk a few blocks to get where they're going, it seems fair to ask people driving to do the same.

#AskNicholas: Getting the Pulse out to Short Pump

Question: When will the Pulse go out to Short Pump?

Nicholas: We want the Pulse will go to Short Pump soon, but, as an advocacy group, we can't put a date on it. However, starting when the Pulse opens, Henrico will run its Broad Street bus, the #19, from Willow Lawn to Gaskins every 30 minutes (but not on evenings and weekends).

Henrico's portion of the Transit Development Plan, while not yet finalized, is almost sure to extend that route to Short Pump and expand the hours of operation. When that plan is implemented depends on when funds are available. So, especially if you live, work, or shop in Henrico, let your supervisor know that transit funding is important to you!