Public transit

I spent the better part of my 20's sans car and I rocked GRTC back and forth to work at Tower for most of that time. Taking an hour to get up Broad St. every day was a real pain in the ass when it took less than 10 minutes by car or scooter. I'm almost certain that anyone who's relied on GRTC for their livelihood has developed a deep and abiding hatred for it. That's not really why I'm here. Bitching about a thing really does very little to end the problem. It does make you feel better though.

I've been thinking of ways to improve the public transit around here and I think there's a few ways to do it without creating tons of waste or costing obscene amounts of money, further indebting our municipal government to private investors. I think a lot of the problems in revitalizing Richmond city's economy can be traced back to the influx of private capital into public coffers and the kind of closed door meetings where public policy is dictated by private investors. Anyone want a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom? I thought not. So when we approach creating a functional public transit system that is affordable, scalable and sustainable the first thing we must do is keep investment interests the hell away from it. Public transit has never been, nor will it be, profitable. So why do people keep investing in it? I have no idea, perhaps political weight, perhaps a tax shelter, the methodology and reasoning of investors is beyond me. I'm certain of one thing, it's either fear or greed.

Reusing existing byways seems like the best way to get people around the city. We've done enough blowing holes through neighborhoods (read: Interstate system) in our history as a modern city. I'd say the best bet in getting light rail between the city and its suburbs is the abandoned rail lines and tramway paths that cover the entire area. Richmond is one of the biggest rail centers in the country and the very notion that we don't utilize it to move people around the area is laughable. I need to spend some time researching the existing right of way agreements between local municipalities and rail companies before I'm certain, but it seems like a good idea to lease access to the local lines for commuter traffic. Look at the map, CSX lines mirror 64 and 95 quite nicely.

Light rail has done incredible things for other cities, my favorite is Portland for its use of mixed service transportation. The real problem is getting Richmonders and Suburbinites interested, or dare I hope, excited about the prospect of getting to work on the train in the morning. So how do we approach that? Discuss.