Regional transit authority inches forward

in Albemarle Charlottesville Politics Transportation on with 3 Comments

Charlottesville Tomorrow has the report and podcast of the MPO’s creation of a Regional Transit Authority. Hold that enthusiasm, though. By “regional,” they mean “Charlottesville” and “Albemarle” and not “UVA.”

UVA is the largest employer in the region. They drive a huge part of our economy. They are the only ones who can build a damn road. Why aren’t they at the table?

Julia Monteith, Senior Land Use Planner, representing the University of Virginia … indicates the University is taking a wait and see approach since past attempts to have a regional authority have not moved forward

You can’t blame them.

To be a true regional system, it would have to include the other members of the MSA. Look at where the workers come from – 6,000 from Fluvanna. 5,000 from Greene. 2,000 from Louisa. 2,500 from Nelson. 2,100 from the Waynesboro area.

To continue to enjoy relatively high rates of real estate appreciation, our region has to remain a destination with a high quality of life.

But hey, it’s a start. You’ve gotta start somewhere.

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3 Comments

  1. UVA08 July 25, 2006 at 09:00

    Sounds great in theory but I have a feeling the powers that be around here will just make it into another “meeting board.” You know the places where they meet to discuss the date of the meeting where they will talk about study they will conduct to determine if another study is needed to widen the most congested road in town.

  2. TrvlnMn July 25, 2006 at 21:31

    How much does Albemarle County contribute to the current public transit system? Anything?

    If the amount is zero or close to it then I’m guessing most of this is just to get the county to kick in more funding than they currently do to the system. And the service probably won’t really go much further than it already does.

    From the Cville Tommorrow meeting excerpts:

    1:00:28 — Dennis Rooker suggests the authority should be established initially to handle the existing level of service of the City and the County at the same cost level, then it can develop further from that point. “What I don’t want to do is design a grandiose system that, when we put the cost on the table, immediately causes it to fail because it has got this gigantic price tag on it. I want to make certain we design something that can work at various levels of funding, starting out with what we have now, and working up from there.”

    I think that says it all. It’s the same way they handle infrastructure planning issues. Lets just keep things as they are until we absolutely have to do something about it.

  3. Jim Duncan July 25, 2006 at 22:26

    Unless we have serious buy-in from the community (which I’ll bet it there, or nearly there) for an efficient system, and the politicians to lead and implement, we will be stuck where we are – planning to plan the next meeting about where we should go …