RVA Rapid Transit Executive Director Faith Walker
The GRTC bus stop at Fourth and Broad streets in downtown Richmond is a busy place. Six lines visit eastbound stop No. 370. Weekdays, it’s primarily used by people commuting to and from jobs at hotels or shops along Broad. On a nice day, some riders get off here and walk the extra blocks to the VCU medical campus. Around midmorning, older residents from Jackson Ward come here to catch a bus to the grocery store or to visit family across town.
At stop No. 370 on a Wednesday morning in early March, there were three ambassadors from RVA Rapid Transit, a nonprofit organization that advocates for improved public transportation in the Richmond region. They set up a table with free coffee and a printed banner that read “Rider’s Voice” in white block letters. As riders disembarked, ambassadors approached them and asked for their input on the bus system. On this cold morning, the coffee was a hit, but even those who didn’t pour a cup were eager to talk.
The group collects responses in a spreadsheet and, if the rider is willing, on a digital voice recorder. This morning, riders seem particularly irked with bus operators. GRTC Transit System has been struggling to hire, and the drivers are tired and overworked; in April, the company approved a 40% raise in hourly starting pay — from $17.43 to $24.91 per hour — to help attract operators with a commercial driver’s license. Both riders and drivers are frustrated, the ambassadors say.
Every week for 12 weeks, each ambassador spends about 10 hours canvassing riders at the busiest stops in the area and another 10 sorting answers and cleaning up the audio recordings. This data will go to GRTC leadership, city planners, City Council members and offices of the city of Richmond.
RVA Rapid Transit plans to hold a reception in mid-June to release its second annual State of Transit report, which includes recommendations for system improvements and comments from riders: riders who measure their wait times in hours rather than minutes, whose ability to get to work is dictated by unhelpful route schedules, who must stand in the rain while waiting for a bus.
The nonprofit is walking the last mile between system and rider. GRTC surveys riders in person roughly every three years. In between, the company conducts project-based surveys. Recently, they canvassed riders about new routes they would like to see. When GRTC is going to make a change — say, removing a stop or changing a route — they post notices on stops asking for feedback, but their questions are specific, and they don’t originate with riders.
At Fourth and Broad, RVA Rapid Transit Executive Director Faith Walker hands out flyers for an upcoming transportation meeting hosted by ChamberRVA and PlanRVA. “This is open to people who work in transportation, but also to the general public. The general public has no idea that this is happening unless we tell them,” Walker says. Unless you’re a city planner or in that circle, it’s unlikely you’ve heard about meetings like this. We let people know, if you want more information about how transportation works, how decisions are made, come to this event.”
Last year, Walker was RVA Rapid Transit’s only canvasser, but thanks to a recent grant, she was able to hire the four ambassadors for a three-month stint.
Walker’s relationship with the GRTC is not adversarial. On the contrary, she’s in monthly meetings with GRTC leadership, and she has their attention and respect. GRTC is working with RVA Rapid Transit to reboot its Transit Advisory Group, 10 representative riders who meet quarterly to advise on system improvements.
Chet Parsons, director of transportation at regional planning group PlanRVA, says he sees the need for organizations like RVA Rapid Transit. “The work that [they’re] doing right now is phenomenal in terms of the spotlight they’re putting on transit riders, people that are experiencing issues using the current system.”
Riders see the need, too, and they’re happy to be asked for their opinions. Canvassing starts chatter among riders. After answering a few questions from the ambassadors at Fourth and Broad, two strangers bat around the idea of adding a subway or light rail. He’s a fan. He likes the speed. Her, not so much. She’s concerned about safety.
Still, not everyone who uses the bus has been reached. Shaina Cilimberg, a GRTC rider since 2016, says she’s never been asked by anyone what she thinks of the bus, and it’s not easy to find an avenue to provide feedback. She has ideas, like an Uber-style app where people with disabilities can request a pickup. Cilimberg has a physical disability that makes it hard for her to travel on foot, and she often needs help getting from point A to point B. It would feel good to be asked for her opinion, she says.
For Walker, it’s not enough to advocate on behalf of GRTC riders; she wants to teach riders how to advocate for themselves. In 2022, RVA Rapid Transit took out ads in the Richmond Free Press encouraging riders to leave public comments in favor of zero-fare service. Walker believes the influx of comments pressured City Council to move up the vote to extend the free-fare program.
Chaya Braxton, development chair for RVA Rapid Transit, facilitates a Mobility University meeting in May.
In May, RVA Rapid Transit hosted its second Mobility University, a five-week course that teaches bus riders how the system works and how to petition for changes. They hosted the first cohort in fall 2022, and the demand for a second was so great that Walker moved this year’s Mobility University to spring. For the first time, the city of Richmond has agreed to fund the course and will fund a second session this fall.
On an unusually warm afternoon in April, the ambassadors returned to Fourth and Broad to speak with riders. Ambassador Julien Belair was there, handing out flyers he had made, providing information on how to give feedback to the GRTC — complimentary or critical — by email or phone.
Belair says he often uses the comment line to compliment bus operators. He hears a lot of complaints from riders, but he’s sympathetic to the drivers’ position. It’s a tough job. At an event in April, the RVA Rapid Transit team encouraged attendees to reconsider their view of operators. They should be seen as a public good, says ambassador Diana Hall, “like how we treat librarians, teachers, firefighters and paramedics, the people who provide essential services.”
The riders know what needs fixing, they have ideas, they just don’t know what to do with them, Belair says. “It is really good to come to the place where people are voicing their opinion anyway. I’ll be sitting at the bus stop, and people are complaining,” he says. “We might as well take it to the people who can do something about it.”
