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The Bus Should Be Free

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Mobility is freedom, but just as the slaveholders who founded this country never believed in liberty for all, today too one need only look at a map of Richmond’s bus system to see the limits of many folks’ freedom. Routes that end at the county line and buses that only run once an hour are two of the most visible boundaries that fence in Richmonders’ freedom. The most ubiquitous and all-too-often unquestioned limitation on our freedom, however, is the farebox. If we want to liberate ourselves from car-dependency, save the planet, and right the wrongs of the past, the bus should be free.

Public good, private payment

The bus doesn’t care if you can’t afford a car, if your disability disallows driving, or if you’ve just had one too many drinks. As long as you’re waiting at a stop, the bus will pick you up and carry you home — no questions asked. The bus epitomizes a public good: it’s available to all, and society is better off the more people use it. The problem is that we treat the bus like a private company (and in Richmond it actually is). Unlike other public services such as libraries and schools, we expect the bus to pay for itself, largely on the backs of the working poor who take it.

Most Richmonders don’t ride the bus regularly. Many residents of the surrounding suburbs never have. But whether you even know what GRTC stands for or not, you and your lifestyle are transit-reliant. The nurses in your hospital, the clerks at your local supermarket, and the custodians at your office or university represent just a fraction of the folks that rely upon the bus every day to get to work, to pick up their kids from school, and to shop or to seek out healthcare. Without access to fast, frequent, and reliable public transit, much of our economy and our society would come to a screeching halt.

Faith Walker and Wyatt Gordon

The crucial role high-quality transit plays in our daily lives is easily overlooked by those who don’t regularly ride the bus. When you’re passing a Pulse on Broad Street or waiting behind a bus stopped to let folks on and off, public transit feels like little more than another vehicle in your way — an inconvenience to your personal commute. From the outside, you can only vaguely make out the bodies of those on board. You know nothing of their lives and their stories. Take a trip with the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) and you begin to see, understand, and empathize with your fellow passengers.

A dollar and fifty cents to ride may not seem like a lot, but for Tarrance Bryant — a new GRTC rider — that amount is the difference between a reliable route to work and walking. It can take up to three weeks to get your first paycheck at a new job, and many people just starting their careers or rejoining the workforce don’t have money on hand to finance their commute in the meantime. That’s why Tarrence supports zero-fare transit: “I like that it’s free because at this time I just started working, and if it wasn’t for it being free I wouldn’t really have a ride to work. I would probably have to walk.”

No respect for riders

Politicians can always find funding to address the needs of the wealthy and well-connected. Issues important to those who take transit are often just as ignored as those who tend to ride the bus most: the working poor, the disabled, the elderly, teenagers, and people of color.  

Twenty-seven percent of bus riders in Richmond have a combined household income of less than $10,000 per year. Over half earn less than the federal poverty rate for Virginia of $26,500 for a family of four, and a full 89 percent of GRTC’s riders have household incomes below the state median. If bus riders’ lacking affluence weren’t already enough of a reason for the powers that be to ignore their plight, nearly three quarters of those who take transit are people of color.

In America, we all agree that talk is cheap. For all the verbal praise heaped upon our “essential workers” throughout the course of the pandemic, we didn’t do enough to keep folks on the frontline safe. Instead of introducing substantive policy changes in response to the racial reckoning that was the murder of George Floyd, our society settled on BLM book clubs and empty promises of equity.

The complexities of race, class, and poverty in the United States — much less in the former capital of the Confederacy — seldom allow for simple solutions. If our goal is to expand the freedom of our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors, then eliminating bus fares is one of the most straightforward and equitable actions we can take.

Fund our future

The cost of a year’s worth of access to GRTC adds up to $720. Scraping together the $60 needed for a monthly pass often proves so impossible for many poor riders that they end up spending roughly $1,000 a year on fares, paying $1.50 each time they ride. If the bus were free like many other public services we all rely upon, Central Virginia’s poorest would get to keep that cash to pay for other essential expenses like housing, food, and healthcare. Going fare-free functions as a backdoor boost to wages by allowing those who take transit to work to keep more of their money.

Eliminating fares may sound like an expensive endeavor, but in actuality the cost is minor. In fiscal year 2019, GRTC collected $4.5 million in revenue from local routes in the City of Richmond, the same routes which are primarily frequented by low-income people of color. That means for roughly five million dollars a year, we could all ride the bus for free whenever we want, as much as we want. Going fare-free would also allow GRTC to end fare enforcement, protecting passengers from over-policing and empowering bus operators to avoid conflict with riders who can’t afford their fare.

Five million dollars is a lot of money. However, compared to the $33 million the City of Richmond plans to spend on road repaving this year, the $170 million raised annually by the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, or the seven billion dollar budget the commonwealth gives VDOT each year, five million dollars is practically a rounding error. Any or all of these sources could easily eliminate bus fares in Greater Richmond, but we must demand it of our local leaders and state representatives.

The New York Times estimates that 100 cities around the world offer free public transit, with many of them in Europe. But recently, cities in the United States, Kansas City, Mo and Olympia, Washington have begun to implement fare free transit as well. Why can’t Richmond be the next city to embrace free public transit? It’s easy to tout an equity agenda or hire a diversity and inclusion officer, it’s much more meaningful to put your money where your mouth is. If we want to honor essential workers and invest in eliminating racial inequities, then we must prioritize the needs of our neediest neighbors and make the bus free permanently.  

Wyatt Gordon is a born-and-raised Richmonder with a master’s in urban planning from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a bachelor’s in international political economy from the American University in Washington, D.C. He currently covers transportation, housing, and land use for the Virginia Mercury.  He also works as a policy and campaigns manager for land use and transportation at the Virginia Conservation Network.  Wyatt is a proud Northsider you can find walking, biking, and taking the bus all over town.

Faith Walker grew up in Richmond’s East End and still calls the area home.  She currently serves as the Director of Community Engagement for RVA Rapid Transit—Virginia’s only public transportation non-profit, which represents transit riders. Faith has a long track record for using creative solutions to address systemic issues, community engagement and commitment to cultivating long-lasting partnerships.

This essay is part of the Richmond Racial Equity Essays series, exploring what racial equity looks like in Richmond, Virginia. It is reprinted here with permission. Check out the full project, the accompanying videos, and the podcast.

GRTC Connects: The Pulse – Scott’s Addition to Rockett’s Landing

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The twelfth and final installment in a monthly series in which a hometown Richmonder who has spent over a decade abroad explores the many different neighborhoods accessible by GRTC bus lines to discover the ways transit connects us all.

Scott’s Addition:

When out-of-towners tell you they had a great time in Richmond recently, they almost always mean they spent a day bouncing among the bustling breweries of Scott’s Addition.  Few corners of the city better encapsulate the rebranding of the former capital of the Confederacy into the hipster mecca of the South — a place where cold brew, BBQ, and coworking spaces comfortably cohabitate. As easy as it has become to lampoon Scott’s Addition for its status as frat boys’ drunken playground of choice, the area’s rapid transformation from an industrial wasteland into Richmond’s hottest neighborhood proves our city’s vast untapped potential and the ways we can all too easily squander it.

General Winfield Scott inherited the original 600-acre estate from his father-in-law and Confederate Richmond Mayor Joseph Mayo in 1818. The four-time failed presidential contender and presiding officer over the removal of the Cherokee sold off the parcel in 1890, triggering the neighborhood’s first residential development. The expansion of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad and its Acca yard along the area’s perimeter altered the course of Scott’s Addition in a decidedly industrial direction.

A 1927 zoning ordinance locked in the area’s industrial designation, leading to a proliferation of plants and factories done up in surprisingly chic architectural styles, including Mission Revival, International Style, and Art Deco. The Hofheimer Building is a prime example of the era’s surviving beauty, which earned the neighborhood a historic designation a decade and a half ago. The construction of I-95 and I-195 to the area’s north and west, respectively, isolated Scott’s Addition, leaving it largely forgotten for half a century.

The long-neglected nature of Scott’s Addition and its core location made the area a prime target for redevelopment as Richmond swung into its post-millennium renaissance. Upon that clean slate, developers have spent the last decade building breweries, apartments, breweries, offices, and breweries. The 2017 Pulse Corridor Plan and associated upzonings on Broad Street accelerated the growth, fostering Richmond’s best modern example of transit-oriented development — jargon to describe that people like to live where it’s easy to get around by bus. That’s not to say that developers aren’t still building parking decks as high as the apartment buildings they aim to serve.

This sometimes overwhelming infusion of new businesses, residents, and vitality reflects our region’s untapped potential; however, the growing pains have been pronounced. In a neighborhood teeming with people, Scott’s Addition is surprisingly dangerous to traverse on foot due to the one-way streets drivers speed down and the 60 stretches of missing or inadequate sidewalk. The fact that the area’s only parks are a private wine garden and two community–crowdsourced greenspaces is embarrassing.

Given the failings so far, especially the lack of a single affordable housing unit, it’s understandable that the plans to create a “Greater Scott’s Addition” were met with mixed emotions at their debut this summer. Under this vision everything north of Broad, west of Lombardy, south of I-95, and east of I-195 will be merged into an oasis of amenities, mixed-use development, and new destinations. The nods toward more housing, a new crescent park, and complete streets are all positive, but the devil will be in the details of implementation.

It’s far easier to cite the shortcomings of the Richmond 300 master planning process which produced the Greater Scott’s Addition Conceptual Plan than it is to demand the city do more to address our housing crisis over the coming years. Of the 53 parcels Mayor Stoney proposed be handed over to affordable housing developers during the recent election, not a single one lies within Greater Scott’s Addition.

If Richmond’s growth is to continue, then it must become more inclusive. A new state-level Lower Income Housing Tax Credit could help. Removing parking minimums on new housing would reduce the costs of new construction and produce more apartments with lower rents. The question is whether the city’s leaders are willing to make such minor changes, let alone the bigger items that need addressing if the rest of Richmond is to grow along with Scott’s Addition.

The Ride:

For this last installment of GRTC Connects, I offered readers the chance to ride along. Roughly twenty of us gathered in front of the Blanchard’s on Broad back in March — just a couple weeks before the pandemic pushed writing this series to a back burner. We took a tour of Scott’s Addition together, coffees in hand. Along our half-hour ride through the heart of the city to Rockett’s Landing, we enjoyed the best transit Central Virginia has to offer.

Richmond’s award-winning bus rapid transit (BRT) — a style of bus acting like a subway — serves as a glimpse into what the future of mobility in RVA could be. When the Pulse was first conceived in 2016, the plan was for not just one BRT line but six. Short Pump, Ashland, Mechanicsville, RIC Airport, Petersburg, and Midlothian would have all become termini on a truly regional BRT network, crisscrossing localities to boost connectivity and reduce congestion.

In this light, the Pulse’s detractors have a point. High-quality transit shouldn’t just serve the city’s busiest corridor. All corners of Greater Richmond deserve the fast, frequent, and reliable mobility that the Pulse provides. While ridership on the Pulse during the pandemic is 41 percent lower due to VCU going virtual and the drop in commuting, the rest of GRTC’s routes are at 94 percent capacity. One of the best ways we as a region can honor our essential workers is to invest in their connectivity and build out comfortable and convenient new BRT routes across the region.

The idea may sound unrealistic in an era of pandemic-induced budget cuts, but the money exists in the form of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA). The entire construction of the Pulse cost just $62 million. The CVTA is projected to bring in $170 million annually for Greater Richmond to spend on upgrading its transportation systems.

Improvement could start small but equitable. There’s no reason the Pulse ends in Rockett’s Landing and doesn’t continue the extra mile to serve Fulton — a transit-starved majority-Black community. The addition of a Sauer’s Garden stop between Scott’s Addition and Willow Lawn could help folks move to an up-and-coming area without having to buy a car to get around.  

A North-South Pulse route from Ashland to Petersburg would prove a tougher challenge, but tying together our region’s six most important localities (Hanover, Henrico, Richmond, Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, and Petersburg) would be a coup for residents’ mobility. If we pull it off, a decade from now folks could seamlessly live, work, and play in all corners of Central Virginia without having to worry about parking, insurance, or how to make their car payment.

The plans for a six-route regional BRT network have been sitting on the books for years. All we need to do is fund them.  With the CVTA’s as yet untapped millions already rolling in, it’s time for Central Virginia to double down on the vision of better mobility, less traffic, and a climate-friendly future made possible by robust public transportation. Everyone deserves a Pulse.

Rockett’s Landing:

At the opposite end of the Pulse lies an equally young and growing urban neighborhood, but that’s where the similarities cease. Scott’s Addition may often give off an exclusive air, but Rockett’s Landing feels like a gated community without the gates. After alighting from the Pulse, one must cross the city border via an overly large parking lot before reaching any homes, restaurants, or human life. Could there be a better metaphor for entering Henrico County?

Exactly 400 years before Varina’s first-ever New Urbanist community sprouted up here, Captain Christopher Newport ended his exploration of the James with a landing along these same shores. The area didn’t grow into a bustling trading town until 1730, when Robert Rockett began operating a ferry service across the James that was so well used, it was once considered the busiest inland port in America.

As the Civil War erupted, this riverfront community was converted into Richmond’s first line of defense against Union forces. After the Confederates torched and abandoned the Portsmouth Shipyard in 1861, both banks of the James transformed into the official Confederate Navy Yard, hosting ironclad warships and submarines alike. Just a few years later, however, Rockett’s Landing would suffer the same fate, as Southern soldiers burned its ships, shops, and homes before fleeing to Danville. When Lincoln came to the fallen capital following the defeat of the Confederacy, he docked in Rockett’s with the ruins of Richmond still smoldering in the background.

In the wake of the war, Rockett’s Landing reverted to serving as a sleepy port. By the 1920s, Virginia’s growing network of railroads had lured most freight shipping away from the area. The rise of the interstate sapped the last life out of the port, allowing for its conversion into an industrial zone in 1970. The decline of large-scale manufacturing over the following decades left this corner of Henrico empty and ready for redevelopment.

Walking through Rockett’s Landing today, one can tell the area was rebuilt according to a large-scale, developer-driven master plan — the result of a secretive effort to turn Richmond’s former dock into a gold mine. Each successive set of housing feels like a new row of massive Lego blocks, aesthetically crisp though lacking in architectural charm. The only historic structure left is the old water tower, anchoring the modern construction to the area’s past.

With just two restaurants, few public spaces, and no other storefronts or amenities, this community of nearly 37,000 can come across startlingly like a ghost town. While life in Rockett’s Landing may frequently feel more like a senior living community, that’s no reason to scoff at the dense development Henrico has fostered. Although each townhome and apartment comes with bountiful parking out front (the rows of parked cars somewhat detracting from the area’s charm), where else in Greater Richmond has so much transit-oriented housing been built in such a short period of time?

With countless further apartments, condos, and even $1 million townhomes in the works, that growth isn’t dying down anytime soon either. If anything, the rise of Rockett’s Landing will be roaring ahead throughout 2021 and beyond, thanks to the nearly 20-acre Fulton Yard development Richmond and Henrico jointly approved last year. With an average median household income of $57,066, the “village” isn’t even so far out of line with the rest of the region ($45,117), but it’s not exactly affordable to average folk either.

The astonishing growth of Scott’s Addition and Rockett’s Landing over the past decade proves Greater Richmond is ready to grow and shed off the shackles of its past. The question these two neighborhoods raise is: where is that growth inclusive of low-income people? Scott’s and Rockett’s have both mastered the art mixed-use development, but not mixed-income. From new low-income housing tax credits to community land trusts, we already know what tools we need to build our way out of our housing crisis. Do we have the political will to use them?

Councilman’s ‘No Car November’ Challenge Informs Safer Streets Legislation

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Richmond’s First District City Councilman, Andreas Addison, spent all of November commuting throughout the city by foot and bus. What he learned has fueled a slate of new, pedestrian-friendly ordinances he wants City Council to pass.

If there’s one thing 1st District Councilman Andreas Addison noticed during his one month without a car, it’s that crosswalks can be a “conflict zone” for drivers trying to turn right on red and pedestrians trying to cross.

What he described is echoed by others, and the councilman said such encounters informed his latest set of proposed regulations.

“It was really kind of a reassuring observational challenge to see what needs to really be done to make our streets safer,” Addison said.

For all of November, he made his average seven-mile commute around City Hall, the Fan, and the Museum District without his car — barring three trips, according to his blog, to Ashland, to run errands and to prepare for Thanksgiving. 

He would often stop at nearby coffee shops for work and meetings, and he rode the GRTC Pulse, a 7.6-mile circuitous route traveling a wide swath of Richmond and parts of Henrico County, whenever possible.

“I’m fortunate enough to be able to work remotely, so I can work from pretty much anywhere that I have Wi-Fi access, which is helpful,” Addison said.

Photo by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service

He introduced the Streets for All omnibus package in November, in the midst of his carless month. Some key ideas in Addison’s five proposed resolutions and five ordinances included:

  • Banning right turns at red lights on city streets
  • Allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs
  • At least $1 million for the city’s Vision Zero traffic safety program
  • Reduced speed limits on Patterson Avenue and Libbie Avenue, from 35 mph to 25 mph
  • $60 fines for parking in bike lanes

On Monday, December 9, City Council adopted three of Addison’s resolutions: 

  • RES 2019-R065: To improve the city’s pedestrian infrastructure by giving pedestrians a head start at crosswalks with stoplights, creating sidewalks and bike lanes at new developments, installing pedestrian safety signs and considering ride-share loading zones along commercial routes.
  • RES 2019-R066: For the collection and analysis of certain data to be used to support the Vision Zero traffic safety plan, including continued installation of pedestrian crossing signals at high volume city intersections, expanding and funding the Safe Route to School program into all of the city’s public schools, and working with the Richmond School Board to incorporate Vision Zero principles into school transportation policies.
  • RES 2019-R067: To secure increased funding for Vision Zero
    • The impact statement from the Safe and Healthy Streets Commission attached to this resolution recommends approximately $3 million in funding to pay for creating two Richmond Police Department traffic enforcement units, as well as hiring eight senior construction inspectors at the Department of Public Works to monitor and enforce work-in-street permits, six parking officers to improve neighborhood safety, and five DPW technicians to maintain traffic safety assets.

Now, Addison is hoping his colleagues approve two resolutions that were continued to Jan. 27. One would create zones where right turns on red are banned, and allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. The other would confirm council’s support for goals in alignment with Vision Zero, such as reducing the use of vehicles as a primary transportation mode by 50 percent within 12 years of the adoption.

“One of the biggest observations I had was that most drivers don’t treat crosswalks as a place for pedestrians to be safe in,” Addison said. “That creates a lot of conflict for pedestrians when that is their time and their place to cross.”

Addison said illegal parking near intersections further impedes visibility for motorists, causing some to drive into crosswalks to look before turning.

“For me, that’s been a big thing … that I felt myself being victim to a lot,” Addison said. “Seeing that I was not treated as someone who should be walking here, even though it’s by crosswalk.”

Addison used the Pulse stops during his commute to reach meetings downtown.

“I found it really convenient being able to use Pulse for that,” he said. “However, I’m also lucky that I have access to Pulse, because that’s not how all the bus lines work. In Southside, it would be very difficult for me to do that.”

Photo by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service

The councilman said in a tweet that he missed more than one bus while trying to cross the street.

“For being touted as #RVA multi-modal transportation hub, crossing the street as a pedestrian to get to the Pulse stop at Main Street Station is near impossible,” Addison said in another tweet. “I watched as the bus drove by while I stood in the rain for three minutes trying to cross the street.”

RVA Rapid Transit Director Ross Catrow said in an email that one of the best ways to see positive change in transportation policy is to get elected leaders out of their vehicles and onto buses, bikes, and sidewalks.

“It’s great to see Councilmember Addison commit to a car-free November,” Catrow said, “and a lot of the things he experienced and tweeted about were issues that face Richmond’s bus riders every day.”

Social media challenges aren’t usually effective in raising awareness toward pedestrian safety, Catrow said, but Addison’s participation in the #NoCarNovember challenge “could have a larger impact,” since he is one of nine people in the city who can introduce new legislation.

More funding for GRTC and newer bike lanes are among things Catrow said he wants Addison and other elected officials to work toward, as well as laws that would prevent closing sidewalks and bike lanes without providing an additional path during the closure.

Addison said the needle moves slowly when it comes to solving the challenges that make Richmond’s streets unsafe, but that it starts with getting everyone involved in a conversation.

“I wanted to get away from the one-off, where the 1st District is advocating for what they want — high-visibility crosswalks and new traffic lights or whatever — versus Southside, who just needs sidewalks,” Addison said. “And so for me, it’s kind of elevating the conversation around not just what you and I need individually, but what we need as a city to truly get that done.”

Written by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Andrew Ringle.

New GRTC Chief Outlines Five Strategies to Grow Public Transportation

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Increasing overall reliability, creating partnerships, and making our public transit system truly regional are among the foremost goals of new GRTC CEO Julie Timm.

The new CEO of Greater Richmond Transit Co. has a vision of how to build on its recent breakthrough success of increased ridership, and it involves boosting regional commitment.

CEO Julie Timm, a Hampton Roads native, returned to Virginia after serving three years as the chief development officer for Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority and Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee. On September 23, she turned her focus toward continuing the growth of public transportation in the Richmond area. GRTC is increasing its numbers of passengers, dodging a national trend of declining ridership. 

From 2014 to 2017 bus ridership nationally dropped by more than half a billion riders, according to a 2017 report by the National Transit Database. But GRTC reported over 16 percent growth in the past fiscal year, according to its ridership trends report.

Timm wants the regional network to become more dynamic and target cluttered streets.

“We definitely have traffic issues here. But I think this is the right time to be addressing them,” she said. “If you wait until you have gridlocked traffic to try and address where the cars go, the cars are already here, and you can’t address it anymore.”

In an interview with Capital News Service, Timm detailed five key components that she thinks will help the region build its public transportation and offset vehicle congestion: partnerships, developing a true regional transportation system, investment from local governments, improving service reliability, and transit-centered development.

Julie Timm, new CEO of GRTC. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS

Forming Partnerships

Timm acknowledged Richmond’s recent double-digit population growth and its impact on traffic. She believes it is vital that GRTC connects with local and state government, educational institutions, public services, and private businesses to ensure that as the city grows, so does the accessibility to transportation services. 

“If we don’t address how to move in an integrated way of all the different modes and how they share our limited infrastructure we can find ourselves gridlocked,” Timm said. “When you have the city or the state, or you have agencies who provide benefits to people for transportation, it reduces their barriers to be able to work, live, and play.”

For instance, with the partnership between GRTC and Virginia Commonwealth University, VCU students, faculty, and staff can ride the bus for free through a three-year deal. The university sealed the negotiation in June for $4.6 million, paid to GRTC in three annual, increasing payments.

According to VCU, over 95 percent of students and employees expressed support for continuing the GRTC service. The VCU community accounts for approximately 12 percent of GRTC’s total ridership, averaging 87,400 trips a month, the university said. 

Partnerships like this help with vehicle congestion and also provide economic relief to citizens, Timm said. 

“To be able to provide those benefits to people, it supports their ability to maintain their housing and their jobs and their education,” she said. “I just can’t speak highly enough about how important it is for people to come on board and provide those benefits to the community in partnership with GRTC.”

VCU/VUU Pulse Station. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS

Regional Transportation System

GRTC serves the city of Richmond, and Henrico and Chesterfield counties. The organization is “handcuffed” because it is not an independent authority, Timm said. It operates under policies set by its Board of Directors, which consists of six members who serve one-year terms but are eligible for annual reappointment. Three are appointed by Richmond City Council; three are appointed by the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors. 

The organization’s internal structure restrains its expansion, Timm said, and those issues have to be addressed in order to become a true regional transportation authority — or to partner with one.

“How we do that and how we move forward is something that needs to be established by the board and by our partners and by the state legislature in combination,” she said.

Timm said the groundwork must begin soon. “I’m hoping that we can have an answer over the next year in the development of a regional system that we can all embrace, we can all buy into and that everyone’s voice can be heard in it,” she said.

Investment from Local Government

GRTC generates revenue from bus fares and through advertising. The agency also receives money from federal, state, and local government entities such as the Federal Transit Administration, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. In some cases, money that comes from these sources can only be used for certain purposes.

But it is local funding from the districts covered by GRTC that is so vital for the company’s growth.  

“We can’t function without that local funding because the money that we receive from state and federal sources requires a local match,” she said.

Timm pointed to Henrico as an example of how impactful local funding can be. Henrico recently budgeted its largest transit investment in 25 years, resulting in a 400 percent increase in the county’s ridership across all routes, according to GRTC’s 2018 annual report.

Bus Stop for GRTC Buses. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS

Reliability of the Service

A big challenge Timm believes GRTC faces is the perception of public transportation.  The organization is working to change those views.

“People, sometimes, when they think about public transit, they think about the buses from 50 years ago,” she said.  “They think about the school buses they rode that used a lot of diesel.”

Providing a reliable service that offers accessibility, safety, and consistency is the key Timm believes will help change the culture of public transportation. 

“To have that level of frequency, that level of reliability, you will see people respond to it and people will start using it,” she said.

Rider Marina Williams said she celebrates the efficiency of the Pulse line, which runs every 10 minutes in the day over a 7.6-mile loop through Richmond and parts of Henrico. Williams said the other lines aren’t as convenient. 

“I wish they had more buses on some routes,” Williams said. “It is very inconvenient to rely on buses every 30 minutes.”

Church Hill resident Marcel Cheatham agreed that the Pulse is a good service and that other lines are plagued by too many delays. “It takes me two hours to get to work and two hours to get back; the buses don’t stop frequently enough,” he said. “They need more buses.”

Timm agreed that many routes need to run more frequently and for longer hours.

 “Of course, we can only provide as much service as we have funding for and for which we can show there is good demand to serve our current and future riders,” she said. 

She said they are looking for opportunities to increase service to help passengers access a variety of resources.

Inside Pulse. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS

Timely Planning of City Development

As the city population grows, so do its businesses, services, housing and infrastructure. Timm urges local leaders and developers to include and prioritize transportation access in their planning. Timm hopes development will target high density corridors where GRTC already has infrastructure in place or can connect to it.

“As we look to grow, and as we look to provide that access, think about mobility first, think about it as part of an integral part of the process. Not later,” she said.

Timm appreciated that Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney factored in public transportation in the Navy Hill redevelopment project with the proposed GRTC Transit Center. The project is still under review by Richmond City Council, but it includes a 65,000-square-foot connection hub for bus passengers that would replace the current temporary transfer center on 9th Street. GRTC was already seeking a large space to build a “multi-modal transportation hub” that could help streamline and coordinate scheduling and provide a secure place for waiting passengers. 

“I think it is amazing and exciting that it is part of the conversation,” Timm said. “Too many times you see development and infrastructure and cities grow without having the conversation for how to embrace transit.”

GRTC has concluded the first stage of the Greater RVA Transit Vision Plan and is now under consultant review before the second stage starts, according to spokesperson Carrie Rose Pace. Part of the review is identifying incremental goals that can be implemented in the next five to six years over current service areas in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond, Rose Pace said. 

Timm’s watch is just beginning, but she is optimistic that GRTC can provide the public transportation Richmond wants and needs.

“It’s important to show that when you provide good, frequent, reliable transit … people will use it,” she said. “Slowingly reducing the barriers of how public transportation is perceived will help the growth of ridership.”

Written by Mario Sequeira Quesada, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Pulse arriving at Willow Lawn Station, by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS

GRTC Connects: Route 75 – Willow Lawn to University of Richmond

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The sixth installment in a monthly series in which a hometown Richmonder who has spent over a decade abroad explores the many different neighborhoods accessible by GRTC bus lines to discover the ways transit connects us all.

Willow Lawn:

If the city dwellers of Richmond and the suburbanites of Henrico sometimes seem so distinct as to be entirely different species, then Willow Lawn is the brackish water where the two intermingle. During the day, VCU students ride the Pulse out to meet their needs at the closest thing the city has to a traditional mall. In the evenings, the commuters of Henrico’s many bedroom communities stop off to pick up last-minute items on their way home. On weekends, the ebbs and flows of city and county residents transform into a full-on whirlpool of shoppers, indistinguishable in their consumerist flurry.

From the very beginning of Willow Lawn’s existence, the appeal of this place has always been as a halfway point between two worlds. When the shopping center was first opened in 1956, this collection of strip malls was on the cutting edge of retail. Americans no longer wanted mom-and-pop-shops along a walkable main street. They wanted to drive, park, and buy all the latest national brands.

This model worked for a generation; however, the 1980’s brought the dawn of a new way to spend, see, and be seen: the mall. After a decade of shop closings and dwindling retail options at Willow Lawn, in 1986 the Federal Realty Trust acquired the property, enclosed the middle, and added in a food court to complete the shopping center’s transformation into a mall.

Photo via WillowLawn.com

Willow Lawn’s sales began to sag again at the turn of the century as the malls of the 1980s lost their appeal. In response, the shopping center reinvented itself in 2012 by returning to its open-air model of yesteryear (today branded an “outdoor mall”) and assumed a new name for a new era: The Shops at Willow Lawn. 

This adherence to the evolution of the shopping experience is the lifeblood of Willow Lawn; the website even boasts, “Since its grand opening in 1956, both the landscape and structure of Willow Lawn has evolved to keep consumers happy and stay current with shopping center trends.”

Perhaps it was the stale Hanson song playing over the loudspeakers — no, not “MMMBop,” which may have actually been refreshingly vintage — but as your correspondent walked around The Shops, it was hard not to feel as if the outdoor mall is just the latest iteration of the shopping experience that’s slowly falling out of favor. With one rival, Stony Point, struggling as another, Short Pump Town Center, rapidly urbanizes, what works about Willow Lawn today are all the things the shopping center was designed to eschew.

The 2012 renovation infused the area with an air of astroturfed urbanism. Apartments now sit atop many of the shops. A central plaza features a variety of seating, a canopy, and even a water feature to mimic what people love about public parks. Almost being run down by a car while walking from shop to shop, though, reminds one of what does not work about Willow Lawn: it’s hard to walk, bike, or just be a human that’s not in a car or store here.

All across our region, urban spaces are enjoying a revival. From Main Street Ashland to downtown Hopewell, Virginians are increasingly choosing places with a walkable, bikeable vibe in which to live, work, and play. Perhaps the next redesign of Willow Lawn will reflect the latest model shoppers favor: authentic city streets.

The Ride:

After checking the Transit App for the arrival of the Route 75 bus, the five minute delay provided the perfect amount of time to buy a GRTC mobile pass. The $3.50 day pass wasn’t a bad option for a person like myself that planned on taking a ride somewhere and back, but the absence of a single-ride option proves perplexing.

The lack of a reloadable card system similar to WMATA’s SmarTrip cards makes it unnecessarily hard for the casual rider to catch the bus without exact change on hand. Drivers’ inability to give people change is good for saving time and keeping the buses moving quickly, but the frustration of having to give up a larger bill for a ride valued at $1.50 is especially punitive to low-income riders.  

The addition of a one-way trip to GRTC’s mobile pass options, and/or the introduction of reloadable tap cards, should be priorities as the system innovates to attract more casual riders.

A kind driver welcomed us onto her empty bus as the first afternoon run of the 75 got underway at 4:00pm on a weekday. Route 75 may be the least frequent bus in the entirety of GRTC’s system. Its schedule reveals just twelve westbound trips to the University of Richmond, and oddly only ten eastbound trips to Willow Lawn, per day. As of this past Spring, the 75 runs every half hour, up from just once per hour, during the morning and evening rushes — roughly 6 to 9am and 4 to 6pm, respectively.

A few people hopped aboard at the Libbie Place Shopping Center. A couple passengers got off at Saint Mary’s, apparently to begin evening shifts, based on their scrubs and uniforms. Libbie and York, along the cheery strip of businesses which divide Westhampton and Three Chopt, proved to be the stop with the most people to board or alight the bus. The relatively few points of attraction along Route 75 mean the line has an incredibly high on-time arrival record.

We actually arrived on the UR campus ahead of schedule, and departed the bus with a handful of  students and staff. After helping one other rider with Transit App’s live-tracking GO feature, I instantly became the route’s top rider. With school now back in session, hopefully my reign won’t last long.

The University of Richmond:

The majestic Collegiate Gothic structures of the University of Richmond campus belie a long and often sordid institutional history. The stains upon UR’s legacy reach far into the university’s past and even into the ground upon which it stands; at least one building on campus was built atop a slave burial site.

In 1830, Virginia Baptists founded the precursor to UR, a manual labor college in which men did agricultural work in exchange for training to become ministers. At the start of the Civil War, the entire student body formed a regiment and went to war to preserve slavery. During the fighting, Richmond College — as it was called back then — served as a hospital for Confederate troops. After investing all of its funds into Confederate war bonds, the college was left bankrupt when Robert E. Lee capitulated in 1865. Today, the Thomas Hall building on campus is named after the man who donated $5,000 to reopen Richmond College.

Serving as its president from 1894 to 1945, Dr. Frederic W. Boatwright oversaw sweeping changes in order to chart a new course for the struggling college. In 1914, he raised a small fortune to move the campus from downtown to Westhampton, and in the process opened the Westhampton College for Women. In 1920, the institution was renamed the University of Richmond, with the men’s college assuming the title of Richmond College.  

Photo via University of Richmond/memory.richmond.edu

The school’s dedication to missionary work brought the first non-white students to campus in the early 1920s; however, the coterie of Chinese who matriculated into UR were still “subject to racial stereotyping and endured racist language.” Black students, on the other hand, weren’t allowed on campus until over four decades later in 1968, but according to UR’s website, “integration was half-hearted and incomplete at best. In 1969, there were still only 6 black students. Even through the early 1970s, the majority of the black students on campus would be recruited track athletes.”

During this year’s Black History Month, the blackface admissions of Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring reopened the wounds left by UR’s own blackface scandals in the 1980s. In a picture in the 1980 yearbook, a black student stands on a table with a noose around his next, a drink in his hand, and a smile on his face as five white students hooded in Ku Klux Klan uniforms surround him. Such terrifying pictures have been the subject of much debate on campus and “bring into question the comfort of public racism at the University.” 

Photo via University of Richmond/memory.richmond.edu

The separation of the sexes — underscored by Westhampton Lake as a barrier between the two sides — endured even longer. As UR staff member Kim Catley explains, “It wasn’t until 2002 that men and women began living on both sides of the lake and 2006 before residence halls went co-ed.” Even today, men and women at UR are still pointlessly sorted into Richmond and Westhampton Colleges, based on their gender.

While the history of UR suggests the institutional culture of Richmond’s top private university to be stodgy and traditionalist, student life and campus policies present a different picture. UR’s two gendered colleges readily work with transgender and non-binary students to help them switch to the college in which they feel most comfortable. Today, UR even produces Common Ground, a campus-wide inclusion effort, and has designated a point person to help trans students. This enlightened culture arose out the work of Joh Gehlbach and Jon Henry — leaders of UR’s Student Alliance for Sexual Diversity — who in 2011 gathered over 1,000 signatures in support of updating the university’s non-discrimination policy to include gender identity and expression. The change made UR only the third school in Virginia to do so.

Although much of the visible diversity on campus comes from international students, recently UR changed its admission policy to encourage low-income Virginians to apply. Leveraging its $2 billion endowment (among the 40 largest in the country), UR now provides in-state students with a family income under $60,000 financial aid packages without loans that cover full-tuition and room and board. Also, the children of all UR staff — not just faculty and administration — receive free tuition if accepted.

Although VCU earned a lot of press for its collaboration with GRTC to give its students, faculty, and staff unlimited access to the bus system, UR was already offering this. To get a free GRTC bus pass through UR, students only have to fill out this simple online form. UR actually fought to add Route 75 into the redesign, and later to increase its frequency, as many faculty and staff rely on it to get to and from campus.  

Why the university continues to pay hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to maintain its six private shuttle routes instead of investing that money into increased frequency for the 75 or new GRTC routes is a question for students, faculty, and the board of trustees. Ridership of Henrico’s lines nearly doubled after they expanded coverage of three lines to nights and weekends.

Willow Lawn and the University of Richmond long prided themselves on being places away from the rest of the city — somewhat suburban enclaves of refined retail and higher education. Today, they are discovering newfound strength thanks to their increasing relationship with the city of Richmond, its creative people, and its vibrant culture. If Willow Lawn and UR continue to lean into their connection with the rest of the River City, the whole region will be stronger for it.

Photos by Wyatt Gordon, except where otherwise noted. Top Photo: Wyatt’s friend Que (far right) takes in the seating arrangement at Willow Lawn.

Exploring The Richmond Arts District Car-Free

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From its highly walkable layout to easy access by bus and bike, the Richmond Arts District makes it easy to leave your car at home.

Finding parking and navigating one-way streets downtown can seem daunting and inconvenient to even the most experienced Richmond drivers. Luckily, the Richmond Arts District is easily accessible without the use of a car. With its own bus station, multiple bike share locations nearby, and a multitude of activities in one space, it’ll leave people questioning why they ever bought a car to begin with.

Even if cost and ease of parking are not concerns for the prospective Arts District visitor, there is another important factor to keep in mind when making transportation choices: carbon. Cars release harmful air pollutants like carbon dioxide, which can contribute to global warming. Having less vehicles on the road will alleviate some of the pressure put on the environment.

“Transportation is Virginia’s largest source of carbon pollution; about 45% of all of Virginia’s carbon emissions come from transportation,” said David Oglethorpe, Communications Manager for Virginia Conservation Network. 

Public transportation offers a way to get from place to place quickly and reduce the carbon footprint of transportation. GRTC offers public transportation for the City of Richmond, including the GRTC Pulse, which was introduced the summer of 2018. 

“Our [Pulse] buses are fueled by compressed natural gas, CNG for short, and that has lower emissions than of course gasoline would,” said Carrie Rose Pace, GRTC Pulse Director of Communications. “It’s a shared ride, which means you are taking advantage of sharing a ride with a vehicle deliberately placed to mitigate your footprint.” 

The GRTC Pulse is a modern, high quality, high capacity rapid transit system that serves a 7.6-mile route along Broad Street and Main Street, from Rocketts Landing in the City of Richmond to Willow Lawn in Henrico County. It’s straight up and down Broad — just make sure to get on the bus going the correct direction and you’ll soon arrive at your destination.

“The Pulse is definitely the easiest route if you’re not used to using [mass] transit,” said Pace. “All of the stations were intentionally selected to connect with what are called activity centers” — parts of Richmond that offer a lot of things to do within a small area. The Arts District has its own station located right beside Tarrant’s Cafe, Max’s on Broad, the Maggie Walker statue, and The Mix Gallery.

Each ride costs only $1.50 for standard customers and there are opportunities for seniors, minors, and people with disabilities to qualify for a reduced fare ride. Tickets can be purchased from kiosks at any Pulse station. “You can get a day pass for $3.50 to use to hop on and off whenever you want, which is great if you’re trying to explore Richmond,” Pace said. The GRTC even has an app that tracks the busses, shows stations, and can help with purchasing a bus pass.  

To get some extra exercise, there is also the option of walking or biking through the Arts District. “If you can bike, if you can walk, think about that first,” Oglethorpe said. “It’s going to be more cost effective and significantly cut down and reduce your carbon footprint.” 

Richmond is making strides to becoming a more bike-friendly city. On Franklin Street there is a two-way protected bike lane. Louise Lockett Gordon, the director of Bike Walk RVA, suggests that new bikers try a cycling class with the Richmond Area Bicycling Association to help them get used to biking in the city. 

Bikes are available for rent all over Richmond through RVA Bike Share. They have two stations in or near the Arts District. There is a station beside Abner Clay Park in Jackson Ward, one by the Dominion Energy Center at the corner of Grace and Sixth Street, and one at City Hall. RVA Bike Share offers memberships, daily and weekly passes, or just a one-way trip. With 20 stations, the bike share service allows you to bike into the Arts District all the way from Scott’s Addition or Church Hill. 

“Being out of a car and walking or biking, you’re not in a sedentary position,” said Gordon. “We’re using our cardiovascular system, we’re using our muscles, all of our systems are being used if we’re walking or biking, as opposed to just sitting in our car.”

Walking and running isn’t easy everywhere in Richmond — there are lots of uneven sidewalks and busy roads. However, the Arts District has wide shady sidewalks on Broad and Grace Street, as well as wide open areas around the Virginia Capitol. You can also visit Abner Clay Park in Jackson Ward. 

Once you make it to the Arts District, there is plenty to do and see. True to its name, the Arts District is packed full of art galleries, including the 1708 Gallery, Gallery 5, Quirk Gallery, The Mix Gallery and more. At the beginning of every month all of the galleries stay open late for First Fridays, which is a great way to see all that the galleries have to offer. However, for those looking to avoid crowds, the galleries are open during normal business hours as well. In additional to visual art, there are opportunities to see performing arts at the Virginia Repertory Theatre and the National Theater.

For history buffs, there are museums such as the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, and the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site. Both of these are located in the Jackson Ward neighborhood which is a National Historic Landmark district. 

In between all of the art galleries and museums there are plenty of places to eat. The Arts District is home to a variety of restaurants including classics like Tarrant’s Cafe and Perly’s, fine dining like Max’s on Broad and Bistro 27, and fun spots like Bar Solita.  

If all of this seems like too much to do in a day there are plenty of hotels including the boutique hotel Quirk, where visitors can stay overnight.

Regardless of how you make the trip, the Richmond Arts District is always worth a visit. And that visit will be easier, more pleasant, and way better for the environment if you go car-free.