I’ve been at GRTC for a little over three years now and some common themes have emerged from my conversations and correspondence with transit riders and non transit riders. Such as, “I would take the bus but it doesn’t go where I need to go or when I need to get there” or “it’s so difficult to understand your schedules and bus stop locations”. I’ve taken each of these comments and others to heart and we have endeavored at GRTC to “demystify” transit. We implemented our Trip Planner a little over a year ago to make it easier to try transit. We continue to fine tune the system as we hear from our patrons and your comments are helpful. I apologize for the malfunction of the system when you attempted to use it but when you try again you will find that many of our express routes such as our 27 Gaskins Express and 26 Parham Express serve the intersection of 14th and Main. However, small things like typing “14th & Main St” rather than “14th and Main St” continue to make a difference in our system and we will continue our fine tuning.

Just as important, you pointed out what I consider to be a fatal flaw in our transit system and that is the frequency of service and the need to make multiple transfers in order to reach your final destination. Our goal at GRTC is make public transit a mode of choice rather than a mode of last resort. If we are going to achieve that goal than our system must be efficient, effective and convenient. Offering bus service that does not get you to your destination within a reasonable time frame will not incent new riders to leave their single occupancy vehicles no matter what the price of gas.

That is why we recently redesigned our route system placing greater emphasis on express service, eliminating underutlized routes and stops and using the cost savings to provide more frequent bus service. We also proposed eliminating inefficient on street transfers and replacing it with a state of the art transfer center at Main St. Station and connecting those customers to their final downtown destinations with a fast operating and free downtown shuttle.

Finally, our study identified Broad St. as a prime corridor for rapid transit options. We currently operate over 700 buses each weekday along this corridor. Our plan is to take the vast majority of these buses off of Broad St. and replace them with a high tech high capacity bus rapid transit system. BRT utilizes bus only lanes, traffic signal preemption, bus stations rather than bus stops and high capacity vehicles to gain efficiency, reduce congestion along that corridor and lay the groundwork for future investment in light rail.

This is an ambitious plan but one which I believe will transform public transit in the Richmond region. At a time when gas prices have reached $4.00 per gallon and likely to continue to rise people are looking for viable alternatives. With the support of transit riders and local government, GRTC can fill that role.

Thank you again for your comments. I invite you to give transit one more try.