BRT FAQ #002: Where will the BRT go?
Now you know what it is, let’s talk about where it will take you (literally, not figuratively).
Every day, our readers, our friends, and our countrymen ask questions-to us, to each other, to the City, to the Internet-about Richmond’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit system. A couple times a week, we’re examining one small piece of the BRT with a microscope. As we go, we’ll be compiling an easy-to-read resource for any interested party.
If something new comes up, you think we’ve missed an important component, or you have more data for us, feel free to let us know in the comments or submit a correction (see the options at the bottom of this post). We want to have a complete a picture as possible.
The full list of BRT FAQs will always be available for you to leaf through.
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So now that you know what even is a BRT, you’re probably wondering where does our specific BRT go and where it can take you. Allow me to present The Map:
If you’ve spent any time reading the one million public documents on the GRTC Pulse website, you’re already plenty familiar with this guy.
The GRTC Pulse route will stretch 7.6 miles, beginning (or ending, depending on how you look at it) at Willow lawn and ending (or beginning!) at Rocketts Landing by way of Broad Street and E. Main Street. While a single route, the buses will operate in three different modes:
- Median running — The preferred method of travel for a BRT: a dedicated lane set right in the middle of the street.
- Curb Running — Still a dedicated lane, but these run next to the curb and are delayed by turning vehicles.
- Mixed trafic operations — Just like how the buses work now (suboptimal for speed), but with some additional traffic signals and signal priority sprinkled in.
As you take the GRTC Pulse from one end of town to the other, you’ll zip along at various speeds as the bus moves in and out of different modes. Despite the whole route not running through the median–its optimal, rapid home–you’ll still be able to make the whole trip, from end to end, in about a half an hour.1 That same trek would take you slightly longer in a car of your own and over an hour on a GRTC local bus.
But why Broad Street, anyway? Well, it’s the major east-west corridor in Richmond!
All the way back in 2003, the Richmond Rail Transit Feasibility Study (PDF)2 identified Broad Street as a place to locate new mass transit projects. In 2008, the Richmond Regional Mass Transit Study (massive PDF) and accompanying GRTC Comprehensive Operations Analysis (PDF) identified Broad Street as ripe for mass transit opportunities. The TIGER3 application, which is how we secured $25 million of federal money for the BRT project, has an entire section called “Economic Competitiveness” filled with maps (development potential, disadvantaged populations, population density, district features) supporting the Broad Street corridor as a great choice for BRT. But I think the 2009 Downtown Master Plan4 puts it best:
Broad Street is Richmond’s grand avenue and was designed as the widest street Downtown. Today it remains its primary image corridor and major spine for transit and pedestrian/vehicular traffic running east-west through the central business district and is remarkably intact west of 5th Street. It serves as the front door of state government, both campuses of Virginia Commonwealth University, City government, and the region’s tourism industry. The ten-block stretch of historic commercial buildings between 4th and Belvidere Streets, many with residential uses in upper floors, combined with historic and contemporary commercial, civic, and institutional buildings, reflect both the diversity and vibrancy of Downtown.
Plus, you can walk to many, many things from Broad Street, probably a million of which just sprung into your mind. For example, here are the walking distances from a bunch of Richmond’s breweries to their nearest BRT station.5
| Brewery | Distance (miles) |
|---|---|
| Ardent Craft Ales | 0.28 |
| Isley Brewing Company | 0.44 |
| The Answer | 0.80 |
| Hardywood | 1.00 |
| Strangeways Brewing | 1.12 |
| Garden Grove Brewing | 1.22 |
| Legend Brewing | 1.42 |
Here’s handy zoomable/pannable Google map if you want to see what else is nearby.
More BRT FAQs
- BRT FAQ #001: So what’s a BRT?
- BRT FAQ #003: What’s the timeline, and when did it all begin?
- BRT FAQ #004: The bus itself
- BRT FAQ #005: What’s this dang thing cost to build?
- BRT FAQ #006: The left turn situation
- BRT FAQ #007: What does an outside expert think?
- BRT FAQ #008: What should I know before attending a public meeting?
- BRT FAQ: Holiday status report
- BRT FAQ #009: Who even knows about the BRT?
- 31 minutes eastbound, 28.2 minutes westbound. Traffic engineers are precise! ↩
- A study which suggested BRT could be a low-cost alternative to light rail. ↩
- The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. ↩
- The Richmond Downtown Plan also recommends a BRT along Broad Street (…as a precursor to bringing back the street cars!?). ↩
- You can read all about the final station locations in the Final Station Location Report. ↩
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
One small issue with those estimates…no one drives from one end to the next on Main and Broad Streets, they instead would be taking the Interstate. I realize the more important number is the GRTC number, since this mainly (as it should) benefits people without cars. But to say that 28-31 minute number is an improvement over driving is a little misleading. Just thought that was worth pointing out.
Good inclusion of the breweries, love the idea of BRT as my designated driver
Love the map! I’ve made attempts to connect the different transit projects and hubs that have been proposed, but the formats supplied by the city, GRTC and others are often just images without the data needed to quickly import into google. I hope this map continues to grow as a part of this series, showing existing routes, and perhaps layers for future routes that will better serve the BRT backbone than the duplicate services we have today. The real power though would be in tying in content from other articles rvanews has and will continue to focus on, such as the bike initiatives, highspeed rail plans, and other community services for a truly comprehensive map. While both the city and the Partnership for Smarter Growth should take on this task, i think rvanews is taking the first step with this BRT piece and should continue.
Nice! I can go from Willow Lawn to Stone, and back!
Certainly, Broad Street is a major corridor. But without knowing more of the rest of GRTC’s planning, the current BRT plan still begs the question of whether the route is more for bus riders or developers. Again, I am for the BRT overall, but I think more people should be asking more critical questions.
With a major portion of the route going through VCU’s campus (both Monroe Park and MCV), shouldn’t VCU be a major investor in the BRT project? There is major interest in turning Cary Street into more of a transportation corridor also, so how will that compliment or hook into BRT? Where is the permanent GRTC downtown transfer station going (many, including former GRTC CEO John Lewis, wanted it on or near Broad just north of Main Street Station)? Does it make sense for the eastern part of the BRT route to jog along the river and head more directly east to serve East End residents and not just the new Stone brewery and Rockett’s Landing? The City’s Economic Development Department throws out these huge numbers for new development along the BRT route on Broad, so what this new development will look like and how it will contribute to and enhance what is already there?
Meant to say Does it make sense for the eastern part of the BRT route to jog along the river OR head more directly east to serve East End residents and not just the new Stone brewery and Rockett’s Landing?
A lot of transit academia define the walk-to shed from bus stops as one quarter mile. So if you go by that definition none of the breweries are “walkable” from this bus route. http://planitmetro.com/2014/06/10/whats-a-walk-shed-to-transit/
Stuart, as the article you nor says, typical experience is that most folks don’t walk much more than a quarter mile to regular bus service. As this will be a higher quality bus service, experience shows that patrons are often willing to walk further, more like a half mile. Furthermore these rough guides to walking distances are just that, rough guides. It’s not as though someone who is just being a half mile will additionally decide it’s too far to walk, just like someone who is a block away might still find it too far for them to walk for a number of situationally specific reasons.
Ugh, please excuse all the grammatical errors in my comment above. It barely makes sense. I should know better than to try and write comments from my phone.
The number of stops is telling of their confidence in how far people will be willing to walk to this bus route. 14 stops in 7.6 miles is an average distance of 0.54 miles between stops, or an average max walk of 0.27mi to the nearest stop on the route. If they were confident people would walk a half mile to get a ride, the stops would be closer to one mile apart. Some of these would be eliminated for overlap, like 9th and 12th street stops which aren’t even 1,000 feet apart and the same riders would in theory walk to either one. “Rapid” is the goal so it follows the stops are spaced as far as possible to eliminate superfluous stopping. In this case the best they can do is one half mile because they don’t think riders will walk further than a quarter mile.
@Scott: AFAIK there are additional lines planned (aside from the Broad Street Line and its proposed extension to Short Pump), so I imagine one of the additional lines could potentially address Cary Street becoming a major corridor (and VCU could be involved in this since Cary Street passes through the Monroe Park Campus). Ideally, the permanent transfer plaza would be near where most of these routes intersect, or, realistically, where all the existing bus routes are closest to one another. This wasn’t at 9th Street and Clay (where the temporary plaza is now), so I’m not sure where that would be. Some research would definitely need to be done, but it should definitely be somewhere downtown or just to the east.
I love the project but I just won’t to make sure that it will expand out to short pump an to the airport so I would like to here a little more about expansion