USA Today notes how the City of Charlottesville is considering eliminating fares on the buses. Cvillenews had great discussions months ago. Until three things happen – 1) The buses stop stopping on at the bottom of the hill at the Emmet Street/Angus Road intersection during rush hour, and staying stopped for five to seven minutes. (getting people to use transit is part marketing against the perception that the buses are inefficient, and this is a testament to the system’s inefficiency) 2) Buses run when people need them to run, rather than closing on Memorial Day (people without cars still don’t have cars on holidays!) 3) The buses go (at least as fast as a car would take them) where people need to go.- the Charlottesville transit system will remain inadequate for most.
Browsing Category Transportation
Charlotttesville-Albemarle conflict continues
For those who are relocating to or unfamilar the area, the County of Albemarle surrounds the City of Charlottesville…. asked the City to close Old Lynchburg road immediately as a way to improve the position of the (Albemarle County) Board of Supervisors in their negotiations on Biscuit Run (a proposed 3,500 unit development) as well as to spark acceptance by County residents for additional road interconnections from neighborhoods like Redfields to Route 29. He argued that only if County residents were literally running into a wall at the City line would they then accept the bitter pill of a political decision by the Supervisors to build alternate paths around the City and through some County neighborhoods.It’s interesting to hear councilors complaining about how roads are needed when many of them have been fighting the Meadowcreek Parkway, one of the most-needed roads, for years. People want roads; the localities have neither the money nor the will to build them.The City has closed connector roads before, but not yet to such a major artery as Old Lynchburg Road.
Transportation and land use
Take note that there are an awful lot of components that will affect home- and land-owners.Last night, ASAP hosted a forum to discuss TDRs (Transfer of Development Rights). Before your biases get you all bound up, take the time (2 hours!)… It is far better to listen to all sides of the debate first, then come to conclusions, as all sides have their own agendas and interests. Filter these agendas for the truth and, thanks to Cville Tomorrow, go straight to the horse’s mouth.Interesting comparison between Loudoun’s and Albemarle’s proffers.
Gov. Kaine’s Transportation package
Provisions would ensure that roads are well built and, where appropriate, properly integrated with adjacent development before the state accepts the responsibility to maintain them.Note the changes to this bill introduced by Del…. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, any local ordinance, or any provision of Title 15.2 (§ 15.2-100 et seq.), on and after January 1, 2008, no street or road or any portion thereof in any county shall be taken into the state secondary highway system for maintenance purposes unless it is within an area under the control of a homeowners association. However, nothing in this subsection shall be construed as requiring or permitting the levying of any fee, charge, or assessment, however denominated, by any homeowners association on any member of the association for the purpose of maintaining, repairing, constructing, or reconstructing any street or road or portion thereof. The county in which they are located shall be responsible for streets and roads not taken into the state secondary highway system.Pay attention, folks – 6 days until the General Assembly reconvenes!
Transportation in Virginia
If you live in or use the roads of Virginia and you’re not paying attention to the potential remedies, or lack thereof, you need to be.To get you started:RepublitarianBacon’s Rebellion (and here)Raising KaineCharlottesville Tomorrow (and here)What would our area look like if the localities had to pay for subdivision roads?… Those who are our elected representatives need to do what they have volunteered to do – represent the best interests of their constituents. That 2007 is an election year and many will be pandering for re-elections is a shame.Why not light rail or some other form of transit?… Otherwise, we will look back twenty or thirty years from now and curse our predecessors (and ourselves) for our irresponsibility and lack of vision.
Housing and Transportation costs
The Center for Housing Policy has released a fascinating report titled: A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families (PDF). It’s 32 pages long, so I have not had time yet to fully digest it, but the premise is fairly commonsense: It typically costs less to live farther from urban centers…. Driving farther costs more money.As I have noted before, important and clear parallels may be drawn between the Central Virginia and the Northern Virginia market:Among the regions studied,the Washington,D.C.–Baltimore has one of the least affordable housing markets. Both housing costs and housing as a share of income are especially high among the region’s outer suburban and suburban fringe areas.Except for married couples with children who bear the brunt ofthese high costs, Working Families are more likely to live in central city and inner suburban neighborhoods where housing costs and cost burdens are somewhat lower…. This is as true in central city neighborhoods as it is on the suburban fringe.In our market, by contrast, many of those in the City have taken advantage of the recent housing boom and sold their houses and moved out into th Counties…. Locally, just look at the numbers of people who are commuting into Charlottesville/Albemarle (CharlAlbemarle!).These are a few of the stories from my feed reader about this story:Bacon’s RebellionBusiness WeekCommenter EM Risse notes on Bacon’s Rebellion:Of course, as we all know by now, Autonomobility is a dead end. But shared-vehicle systems (aka, “mass transit”) cannot overcome random distribution of origins and destinations.For this reason, studies such as Albemarle’s recent one on residents’ opinions regarding growth serve only to perpetuate the myopic view which local governments continue to reinforce. Unless there is region-wide cooperation, transportation will remain as inefficient as it is today – and will only get worse.
Is Albemarle County growing too fast?
Today’s release of Albemarle County’s citizen survey notes a few interesting facts: (Summary) (Full report – 142 pages!)We as a people have a lot of growing to do…. How we grow, where we grow, and where we locate job centers will determine what type of quality of life we are going to have.Regarding Quality of Life: in spite of the challenges our County has, the QOL factor remains quite high…. Not bad.**What we need is a regional study of the same scope and clarity. What follows are highlights from the report:Citizens don’t seem to recognize the importance of tourism to our area.Top 5Bottom 5Like it or not, tourism brings people here. Sure, some of them purchase homes, but most come, spend money and leave…. Couldn’t these all be wrapped under the heading of “Manage Growth”?All in all, that the County 1) does this survey and 2) it’s so comprehensive and publicly accessible are extraordinary, in my opinion. This page seems to sum up citizens’ views quite succinctly – Services are important…. Ah well, such is life.To put these growth trends in perspective, look at these two charts, courtesy of CensusScope: As usual, cvillenews has a great discussion on this.