Greetings from Charlottesville, and Richmond
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of spending a few days in central Virginia with 7 dozen of my closest friends from the western Triangle.
The Chamber For a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro held their biannual intercity visit to Charlottesville and Richmond. We had sessions on metropolitan growth, economic development, affordable housing, and university partnerships in Charlottesville, surrounding Albemarle County, and the University of Virginia.
On Tuesday in Charlottesville we also got to experience a couple of examples of junior freeway infrastructure, along US 29 north of the City at Rio Road (1, 2), as well as along significant portions of the US 29 / US 250 bypass (Long Rd.).
After leaving Charlottesville, we traveled east to Richmond, where we had an opportunity to visit and learn from the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) and their excellent bus rapid transit system. The initial BRT line in Richmond, which opened a little over 8 years ago, runs east and west across Virginia’s capital city along Broad Street, west to Willow Lawn within Henrico County near the Richmond City border. GRTC is going to expand their BRT system further west into Henrico County, as well as construct a companion north-south BRT corridor.
We also enjoyed hearing from Chapel Hill Transit about a comparison with our future NS Rapid BRT project along Columbia Street and MLK in Chapel Hill, which is slated to go to construction later next year.
Joe
Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA executive director
