Seth Rosen, from the Daily Progress, reports:
But there are divisions over the merits of going a step further and building an expensive bus rapid transit system with dedicated lanes on U.S. 29. Though a fleet of sleek, larger buses speeding down exclusive lanes would shrink travel time and make transit a more attractive option, it would cost up to $138 million to lay down the asphalt and build the infrastructure.
Currently, only 2% of Albemarle County residents and 5% of City residents ride the bus to work. While a fancy bus system may benefit a small few, this sounds like an insane amount of money to spend on something. I’m all for public transportation, but how much would usage increase if we had a top tier bus system?
Slutzky, a Supervisor, tells the Daily Progress:
Even if we had to fund it ourselves, we can afford it, $138 million sounds like a big number when you put it out there by itself, but when you put it in context, it is quite doable.
Are they going to get the money from those “increases” in real estate assessments?
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I’m still partial to this idea.
And Mr. Slutzky’s plan to hope for funding sounds like the mindset that only a politician could find reasonable and responsible.
I’m hoping there’s some context to the above quote.
Wouldn’t a comment preview plugin be a nifty addition?
Jim Duncan, what are the chances of getting CHO airport to fund some of this? It is up on 29N, more or less the end of the line, and we know they have bushels of dedicated funding they don’t seem to know how to spend. I’ve been wondering about this for the last year and would appreciate hearing from you about it. I think I mentioned it on http://cvillenews.com but here you are on Cvillain.com.
The estimate of $138 million is a high-end one, and Mayor Dave Norris pointed out in last week’s joint meeting of the City Council and the Board of Supervisors that the big chunk of that would come in the creation of a bus-only lane along US29. I believe that a project to widen 29 from the South Fork bridge to airport road is on the books, and some of that funding to do so has been already been proffered by a developer.
Keep in mind at this point they are only talking about an idea of how to build in the future. There is not currently a detailed plan of how Bus Rapid Transit would be built, only conceptual drawings.
At issue at the moment is whether the County and the City should agree to seek permission from the General Assembly for taxing authority to pay for the capital costs to fund an expansion of public transit. A secondary issue is whether that authority would cover transportation projects in general. The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is set up this way, though many people are watching the state Supreme Court to see if that will pass Constitutional muster.
We at Charlottesville Tomorrow covered the meeting last week and have a podcast of the discussion. I’d encourage you to all to listen if you want to become part of the debate. If you have ideas to bring to the table, there are plenty of opportunities to weigh in, as both the County Board of Supervisors and the City Council will need to hold public hearings before anything can go forward.
And Jim, Supervisor Slutzky does put that section in context, but I don’t remember off the top of my head where. In general, he’s predicting that this will be a fundable area in the future, as one of the climate mitigation strategies is to get people to drive less. In order to do that, the theory is you make more choices available.
If this plan really makes sense it should be funded at the local level with local taxes. Federal subsidies sound nice, but why should taxpayers in Oregon or any other state have to subsidize Charlottesville’s efforts to reduce its pollution?
And think about it, a $138 million project is going to consume far more natural resources and emit far more greenhouse gases than will be saved by having (hopefully) a few more people actually take advantage of the new transportation.
Colfer - that’s an interesting idea. Frankly, I have no idea whether it’s feasible, but it makes sense. In a perfect world, Greene County would be included in the conversation as well. Why not a line up the 29 Corridor with a bus spur off to the airport that’s built to one day become a direct-service line?
Sean - Thanks for the clarification. Either way, it doesn’t make sense to base support on what funding might become available. That’s lunacy, and akin to the local government setting the budge based on what assessments might come out to be.
Joel - Amen. Federal funds, or local funds are still taxpayers’ money.
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Thor, your argument is “no one’s using public transportation, so it doesn’t make any sense to fund public transportation”—do I have that correct? Because that logic seems precisely backwards.
i only “sometimes” use the bus now because the service is limited. When I lived in Seattle where the system was awesome, I never drove.
smaller buses…………. more routes,………… did I say smaller buses??…….more frequent routes…..but definitely smaller buses.