Community engagement is hard

From this post, Coming to Racial Terms with Trickle-Down Urbanism: A personal TOD journey (Part II), on Mariia Zimmerman’s blog:

We fall into the trap of trying to convince the community that transit and TOD are the answer, and then asking them to help us tweak the explanation and buy into the argument. The irony is that improved transit and greater housing choices are most likely what the community wants as well, but it’s the process of engagement, trust and partnership with local residents and business owners where we often fall short.

Read the whole thing, but the above quote is especially pertinent to Richmond. We can do better, and, I believe, we (RVA Rapid Transit, GRTC, the region) are taking steps in the right direction.

This week in transit: The Richmond region lacks dedicated transportation funding

AROUND THE REGION

With the end of the 2019 General Assembly session, Richmond is now Virginia’s only major metro area without dedicated transportation funding, says Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury. Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia, and, now, Southwest Virginia have regional funding sources available for transportation projects—with Northern Virginia using some of that to build and pay for public transportation. Oliver gets into a bit of the history behind why the Richmond region lacks a similar bucket of funding and how we can get it. Senator McClellan underscores the importance of if/when Richmond has a similar funding mechanism that we use a portion of it to start building a truly regional public transportation system.

Richmond Magazine’s Sarah King has a small update on bringing public transportation to Route 1 in Chesterfield County. The County has applied for a state grant that could pay for some sort of transportation service for up to three years. They’ll find out the status of their application later this spring.

ELSEWHERE

A constant question: How can we use the tools and resources we have on hand to improve bus service now without spending a ton of money? The answer is usually surprisingly simple: Bus lanes, transit signal priority, and other small changes to infrastructure that prioritize giving street space to buses. It’s not always about building a huge new transportation project, but, sometimes, it’s just about small, quick, and cheap improvements.

Chicago has elected a new mayor, and her transportation platform has a bunch of smart ideas that we should steal in Richmond. This one in particular is big and something to strive for: “Work to ensure every Chicagoan lives within a 15 minute walk of reliable 24-hour transit service.”

Now this is neat and depressing: The Guardian has some maps of public transit systems in different cities comparing the street-car era to present day. Spoiler: We used to have lots more public transportation before the car ate America.

—Ross Catrow

This week in transit: More than proximity

AROUND THE REGION

If you live next to a bus stop, do you necessarily have access to useful public transportation? No! While proximity to a bus stop is an important factor in access, it’s certainly not the only thing that matters. Go read some more over on the RVA Rapid Transit blog about the other factors we should consider when we think about, talk about, and plan how to equitably expand our regional public transportation system..

Year-over-year bus ridership numbers for last month are out, and, whoa: Since last February, ridership has increased 23.8%! That’s incredible.

The Mayor’s proposed budget contains $965,300 for GRTC to provide new and more frequent service, but what are the details? Who gets what new service? Well, wonder no longer, because, earlier this week, the Mayor tweeted out his plans for that new funding: A new route serving the new, under-construction grocery store at 25th & Nine Mile; extending the span of the #86 and #87 on the Southside to 11:30 PM; and adding Sunday service on the #2B.

ELSEWHERE

It’s been a while since I’ve linked to a deeply nerdy transportation article, but consider reading this piece about the details of electric bus batteries. It sounds like battery and charging technology still has some kinks to work out before we start seeing widespread, successful adoption in America.

In battling climate change, electrification is important! But so is providing better transit service to shift trips away from single-occupancy vehicles. TransitCenter has a great piece about how public transportation can and should be a big part of the Green New Deal.

A couple weeks ago, a referendum to fund and expand public transportation in Atlanta suburb Gwinnett failed. Now, just a handful of days later, Republican lawmakers have “crafted a last-minute amendment to an unrelated transportation bill on the penultimate day of the legislative session” to delay future MARTA referendums for seven years. Yikes.

—Ross Catrow

Year-over-year bus ridership continues to increase in the Richmond region

According to the Trend Analysis (PDF) and Monthly Motor Bus Ridership data (PDF) presented at GRTC’s March 19th board meeting, year-over-year ridership in February is up an astonishing 23.8%. Elsewhere, across the nation, bus ridership continues to decline—but not in Richmond.

After years of disinvestment, the region is unlocking tons of latent public transportation demand simply by expanding and extending service—and we’re not finished. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to build a frequent, far-reaching, and equitable regional transit system.