Information and community input opportunities for BRT/Pulse

A million (maybe literally) pages of information for you now exist, as a bunch of reports just became available. Also, there’s a meeting tomorrow night that you should go to, if you find yourself spending at least half your waking moments arguing with someone for/against bus rapid transit in Richmond.

July 27, 2015; 1:51 PM • by Susan Howson

This week is a big one in Pulseville. We’re now 30% into the GRTC process (view the entire project schedule here (PDF)), which means that we have completed the “Preliminary Engineering” stage (i.e. “Hello, professional traffic engineer, please assess our city and make recommendations so that we may come up with a plan.”) and are moving into the “Semi-Final Design” stage (i.e. “Get your comments in, people, because we are now shifting around all the negotiable aspects.”)

Real live resources

GRTC is hosting two meetings that will provide citizens with information as well as a dedicated time and space to listen to their feedback. One hopes that the citizens will use this time wisely.

One of these meetings has already passed, but there’s another one on Tuesday, July 28th from 6:00 – 7:30 PM at UR Downtown (626 E. Broad Street).

To get to the meeting, just take Pulse to…oh wait. UR Downtown is, however, close to the Downtown Transfer Plaza for regular ol’ bus riders.

Here’s more info on the meetings, including what they’ll be covering, why they chose the times, how to get CARE transport if you’re disabled, and how to get an ASL interpreter. It’s a lot of information.

The important paragraph:

Based on positive feedback received from the April Public Meetings, GRTC will follow a similar meeting format to include a presentation and topical breakout sessions followed by a meeting summary. Meeting topics will include, but are not limited to, how the new spine of GRTC Pulse service will interface with the local fixed route service and also a preview of construction.

Online informational resources

Late last week and over the weekend, GRTC uploaded enormous documents for your perusal, and you better have a lot of time to peruse. These are massive PDFs, but should answer most questions if you have the time and disk space.

But many interesting questions can be answered. For instance, did you know that the number of parking spots that will remain after the corresponds to the maximum number of parking spots actually used throughout the day?¹

Reports include (and can all be found on GRTC’s Documents and Reports section:

• Urban Design Committee Report on Conceptual 30% Design: GRTC Rapid Transit (BRT) Project Narrative
• Broad Street Roadway Concept: Museum District/The Fan
• BRT Parking Analysis Report and Appendix
• BRT Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP)
• BRT Geotechnical and Pavement Modifications Report
• BRT Traffic Analysis Report
• BRT Urban Design and Landscaping Basis of Design Report
• BRT Final Station Location Report
• BRT Stations Basis of Design Report

Could you keep it down for a bit? We’re reading.

July 27, 2015 1:51 PM · in Fan of the Fan, Shockoe News, and more 0