Who took advantage of ‘To the River and Back’ Memorial Day?

I rode the To the Bottom and Back shuttle bus to Belle Isle from Carytown with my family Memorial Day afternoon. We had a lot of fun, even though we made it a quick trip on this super hot day. What was your experience Richmond? The experiment happened thanks to the generosity of the Friends […]

May 30, 2011; 8:21 PM • by Phil Riggan

I rode the To the Bottom and Back shuttle bus to Belle Isle from Carytown with my family Memorial Day afternoon. We had a lot of fun, even though we made it a quick trip on this super hot day. What was your experience Richmond?

The experiment happened thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the James River Park. Two buses, running the normal route from Thompson Street through Carytown down to Belle Isle, through Shockoe Bottom and back.

We rode the bus from The Byrd in Carytown and came back around 3 p.m. With about 3 hours left in the “To the River and Back” and after not seeing anyone on the two rides we took, I have to say I’m not sure enough people got the word about the free ride to Belle Isle.

It was chaos as usual down by the James. Tredegar Beach, Belle Isle and all the parking lots along Tredegar Street were packed. In fact, the parking lot was 20 cars deep and there were many people honking and arguing in the two walks I took through the lot.

Like I said, the bus was not packed on the way there or back for us. The driver, Karen, said she had given a ride to about 30 people total as of 4 p.m.

I guess I was hoping for about 200 total riders for two buses? Since this experiment had no previous efforts for a comparison we didn’t have a good gauge.

Who took the bus? We will get the total ridership later from 2BNB, but I’m guessing less than 200. Getting more people to Belle Isle wasn’t the goal — getting more people there safely and creating less congestion for the parking lots was the goal. Changing people’s habits and getting them to find alternative transportation.

May 30, 2011 8:21 PM 0