Open roads

Anne Snyder does not have depth perception, so she can't drive. That means that Snyder, who lives in the Orchard Glen community near Laburnum Avenue and Mechanicsville Turnpike, frequently relies upon public transportation.

But until last fall, her options and those of her neighbors were limited.

“You couldn’t go any place on the weekend, holidays," Snyder told a reporter aboard GRTC bus route 91 (the Laburnum Connector) on a recent Tuesday. "And what’s worse, people who perhaps did not have the means for a car and live out here along this corridor in particular couldn’t take jobs that required shift work."

That changed in September, when Henrico County expanded the operating hours of some GRTC routes in the county – including the Laburnum Connector – to include weeknights and weekends several months after it had expanded a number of routes themselves.

In total, the Board of Supervisors authorized about $7 million for the purchase of GRTC service during Fiscal Year 2018-19 – an increase of 20 percent from the previous year. The service expansions in the county were the largest in 25 years, according to the county's published budget last year.

Today, just more than a year after the initial route expansion took effect, ridership numbers in the county have increased dramatically overall – by about 56 percent from May 2018 to May of this year (from about 62,000 to about 96,000) – though not all routes reflect their capacity. And though county officials admit more changes are needed, they and riders mostly consider the first year of the new routes and hours a success.

'A great start'
Although the service expansion was most notable initially because of how far west it took GRTC buses – along West Broad Street all the way to Bon Secours Parkway near the Goochland line in Short Pump – its impact has been felt just as significantly through the extended hours on the other side of the county.

Board of Supervisors Chairman and Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson advocated for both forms of expansion and has been happy with the results.

“I think this was a great start for us. When we spent the money in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, we hadn’t spent that level of money in a couple of decades for transportation,” Nelson said.

In its current fiscal year budget, the Board of Supervisors added another $600,000 in GRTC funding (to cover a 3-percent increase in GRTC operating costs and full-year support of the increased hours on routes 7A and 7B (Nine Mile Road), 19 (West Broad Street) and 91.

The expanded evening and new weekend hours have alleviated many issues for those like Snyder, who felt essentially stranded at certain times previously, and she's glad about that. But she believes there is more to be done, too – such as establishing bus routes that connect rather than having two separate stops at Willow Lawn.

Ridership on routes 7A and B, which used to be route 7, increased by about 13,000 passengers from May 2018 (before the expansion), to May 2019, according to Todd Eure, the assistant director of Henrico’s Department of Public Works.

Ridership on route 91, the Laburnum Connector, increased by about 5,800 passengers during the same timeframe.

Jetaime Pointer rides route 91 to work and back home. The evening hours help, she said.

“I get off at like 8:30 [p.m.], and I don’t think the bus was running that late because it went to the airport, so it wasn’t running that far inland,” Pointer said. "So I'm happy about [the change]."

“That was one of the complaints that I heard [in years past]," Nelson said. "I had people who needed public transportation but the public transportation stopped in the evening, and they didn’t get off until the night, and they weren’t able to ride the bus home.”

Lamar Persone, who recently moved to the western part of the county and now rides route 19, said he used to live in the East End, and the expansion has made commuting more convenient.

Tweaks ahead?
Route 79 (Patterson/Parham) maintained the Henrico County part of the former routes 1 and 2, which ran from downtown Richmond to the West End, and extended the route to Gayton Crossing. The monthly ridership on route 79 is lower than it was before the changes, when the route ran into downtown Richmond, based on Henrico Public Works data.

“We still expect changes in the Regency area that is served by the 79, because that area kind of continues to redevelop,” Eure said. “We know there’s more development coming in that area that will help make that route more successful, so we have the route in place anticipating that development.”

Ridership numbers for route 19 show an increase, but buses seem to run nearly empty at times. Route 19 was called the Pemberton route before the changes, and is now known as the West Broad Street route. It runs from Willow Lawn to Short Pump, with Aldi and Bon Secours Parkway as the farthest westward stop.

In May of 2018, route 19 had a ridership of about 4,600. In October, after the extended weekend and evening hours were implemented on September 16, ridership was about 21,200 people, and in May of this year, ridership was about 23,200.

On a recent Tuesday evening at 6 p.m., the bus on route 19 emptied after the first few stops and had few riders heading farther west.

Richard Jones said he rode route 19 to work and to shop. The weekend hours are helpful, he said. He said he has not yet ridden route 19 to Short Pump but appreciated having the option.

Three Chopt District Supervisor Tommy Branin told the Citizen that route 19 needed to be analyzed.

“I think that that route must be reviewed and looked at,” Branin said, “not that it ever would need to be stopped, but there are a lot of empty buses every day. So I think that that route needs to be tweaked to make it more cost effective.”

Branin also has concerns about safety on that route.

“When the bus route was proposed, I said Broad Street is way too dangerous to have people crossing,” Branin said.

He fought the Virginia Department of Transportation to get a crosswalk at the Pouncey Tract intersection, he said, but VDOT will allow only elevated skywalks in the area because of the heavy traffic there, he said.

Seeking ‘a better experience’
The expansion has been positive so far, Nelson said.

“I think we’ve done a good job and we need to continue to get better, and continue to try to increase the time in between stops, expand the routes and the shelter and the seating and all the other things that will make the public transportation experience a better one,” he said.

Public Works officials are working to improve access to bus stops, Eure said.

“We know there’s more work to be done. In particular, we need to work on accessibility to the buses,” Eure said. “Better sidewalks, and benches and shelters at the stops, and all those considerations.”

Because those items are capital projects, they required planning and funding in advance, Eure said. The county began working on accessibility before the expansion occurred, he said.

Accessibility is a concern echoed by bus riders. Jones found the lack of seating at bus stops on some routes to be a problem, and a rider on route 19 who declined to give a name said the lack of shelter made waiting for the bus rough in the winter.

Snyder, a former senior records analyst for VDOT, is fighting for a walkable county, she said.

“I can walk to the library,” she said, “However, there are no sidewalks. There are no streetlights. There are no pedestrian-oriented lights.”

The county also needs to consider creating routes that provide access to hospitals and major medical clinics, Snyder said.

Henrico officials evaluate routes by ridership trends and needs, as well as during meetings with GRTC every few months, Eure said. GRTC tracks and compares routes, and industry guidelines exist for different types of routes, he said. But those standards are a secondary tool, Eure said, because route ridership differs for suburban and urban routes.

Henrico County, GRTC, the city of Richmond, Chesterfield County, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and the Richmond Regional Transportation Planning Organization are working to implement phase two of the regional transit vision plan, Eure said, which would plan extension or expansion of routes. That planning should be finished near the end of this year, he said.