The Shortline 6-7-24

A look at HDPT's Draft Transit Strategic Plan • Chesapeake Bay cleanup faces difficult trade-offs with agriculture • How daylighting intersections make cities safer

An HDPT bus passes an empty bus stop in a massive, mostly-empty parking lot behind the Valley Mall.

The Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation (HDPT) has released a draft of their new Transit Strategic Plan. You should check it out for yourself, but my TLDR summary of the plan is: The current large, one-way routes and stop times are inefficient and not rider-friendly. The preliminary service redesign scenarios are aimed at streamlining and simplifying the transit network (from loops to lines) and would replace areas with lower ridership demand with app-based on-demand microtransit zones.

One-way loop routes as they currently exist. More coverage, but long circuitous routes are confusing and inefficient.

Proposed reconfiguration for two-way service on fixed routes.

A few things in the plan that stood out to me:

• JMU students dominate ridership stats, both in terms of passengers per mile and 2023 survey respondents. The Inner Campus Shuttle transports the most riders in the entire system by a significant margin, and those routes are the least affected by the proposed changes. JMU is paying HDPT $2,108,927 per year.

• A density of more than five people and/or jobs per acre is needed to support a base level (service every 60 minutes) of fixed-route transit service. Areas with higher density can support more robust service. Population and employment projections for 2045 suggest that transit potential will be highest in the southeast of the city.

• The proposed service changes may result in reduced access to transit for some residents who rely on the loop portion of the routes or certain populations affected by the elimination or consolidation of low-ridership routes. HDPT plans to begin a pilot phase of an Uber-like microtransit service next year to help serve areas with reduced access.

• All fixed-route buses are currently fare-free. They are still undecided about whether to continue offering fare-free service. Ridership is projected to be higher in the fare-free financial plan, and state transit funding is based on ridership.

• There is a shortage of drivers, expenses for replacing vehicles, upgrading facilities, etc. which are driving up operational costs.

• The proposed service changes represent a 20 percent increase over current resources. To fund such an expansion, HDPT would require additional funding from the City of Harrisonburg, JMU, or other partners.

• HDPT plans to construct a new facility that would be built specifically as a bus transfer center, including covered passenger waiting, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities.

It’s not explicitly stated here, but all I can think about as I’m reading it is: the goals of public transit (increasing ridership, getting more cars off the streets) are at cross-purposes with low-density use-separated zoning and requirements for building private vehicle storage everywhere. Meanwhile, VDOT is spending $320 million to add one lane in each direction on I-81 through the city. What are we doing here, folks? If Harrisonburg is serious about a climate-resilient future, the absolute bare minimum we can do to support transit would be to end the subsidized and mandated storage for private cars.

Anyway, I think HDPT is doing the best they can to maximize efficient service with limited resources, and the proposed line routes should be an improvement over the current loop routes. My main suggestion is that it should integrate better with the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. Bikes are mentioned only once, “walk” appears twice, and pedestrians are mentioned only three times in the 89-page transit plan.

Scroll through the plan yourself and fill out the feedback survey.

A few other local headlines:

• The first phase of Bluestone Town Center (the senior housing portion) is anticipated to begin construction mid-to-late 2025. The rezoning was approved in March 2023 with a 3-2 vote. Mayor Deanna Reed and council member Chris Jones cast the two dissenting votes. (Rocktown Now)

• Some drivers may be getting a refund after the city dismissed more than 1,400 tickets that were falsely issued from May 6-8 due to a software bug in the camera system. Altumint is the company that operates the camera system. It installed a software update to its camera program earlier in May that created errors in all of its speed cameras. (WHSV) 

• Two 27-year old men died in two separate single-vehicle crashes in Rockingham County this week. Aaron Earman of Broadway crashed on Route 33, near the intersection with Hopkins Gap Road. Justin L. McGuire of New Market crashed on Route 11, a tenth of a mile south of Moores Mill Road. According to the VSP, there have been more than 330 traffic-related deaths in Virginia so far this year.

Virginia

• The U.S. Geological Survey recently estimated that meeting nutrient goals for the Chesapeake Bay could require taking approximately 44% of the region’s roughly 8.2 million acres of farmland out of production or instituting dramatic actions that would almost certainly affect farm income. (Bay Journal)

• Vehicles in Virginia will be allowed to emit more carbon into the atmosphere next year, due to executive action from Gov. Youngkin. (Virginia Mercury, Daily News Record)

• The first Missing Middle zoning case to be heard in Arlington Circuit Court was dismissed last week, but legal fees in another lawsuit against the county continue to balloon. (ARL Now)

• Despite increasing population density, automobile traffic has decreased in most of Arlington’s major thoroughfares since the 1990s. (The Deleted Scenes)

• A plan to allow up to nine new data centers on about 270 acres along in Prince William County will move forward after a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group opposed to the project. (Prince William Times)

• A massive data center proposed in Ringgold would be years in the making if it’s approved by the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors. (Danville Register & Bee)

• Virginia’s latest spending plan includes efforts to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to a prominent transportation agency in Northern Virginia, toll relief in Hampton Roads and highway widening along a stretch of Interstate 81 in Southwest Virginia. (Virginia Mercury)

• The Green Bank for Rural America has won a $500 million federal award to advance clean energy technology projects in the 13-state Appalachian region and in “energy communities” with a connection to the coal industry. (PV Magazine)

Elsewhere

• Rather than simply hope enrollment trends change, cities need to proactively plan for the inevitable future failure or merger of a significant portion of their higher education institutions. (The New Urban Order)

• A new report tracked pedestrian fatality rates in the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Almost all of them are becoming more dangerous. To improve safety on roads, cities should consider a range of tactics for reducing conflicts between drivers and pedestrians, such as lane narrowing, protected bike lanes, raised pedestrian crosswalks and curb bumpouts. (Governing)

• In his new book, Killed By A Traffic Engineer, Wes Marshall argues that road design, not driver error, is largely responsible for the surge in US traffic deaths among pedestrians and bicyclists. (Bloomberg)

• New York Gov. Hochul pulled the plug on NYC congestion pricing, shocking and infuriating climate activists and NYC resident who rely on transit, which congestion pricing was slated to help fund. (StreetsBlog NYC)

• The foremost tactic that has worked to increase supply and density of housing has been to make it easy to build apartments near commerce or near transit, according to Alex Horowitz, project director of the Housing Policy Initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts. (PBS)

• The APA and the NLC released the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook to incentivize local approaches to land use, housing development, and preservation.

• Like many areas, northern Wisconsin is experiencing a housing shortage. New state legislation has made available low-interest state loans to turn second stories of downtown buildings into residences. (WPR)

• Cleveland is pursuing two key avenues to becoming a 15-minute city: a change to zoning laws and incentives for transit-oriented development that doesn't plan around parking. (Cleveland Scene)

• The 15-minute city proposed to shorten commutes and increase convenience. Anti-15-minute conspiracists have little to fear, as Moreno’s resolutely non-sinister new book, The 15-Minute City: A Solution to Saving Our Time and Our Planet, makes plain. (The New Republic)

• A recent IPCC report found that revising land-use policies is the most impactful action that local governments can take to reduce emissions. (dezeen)

• Transportation is among the biggest sources of a city's carbon emissions. To cut that footprint, officials often turn to costly, intensive transit projects and building out electric vehicle infrastructure. Denver is doing those things, but also spent more than $7.5 million in just two years on e-bike vouchers, supporting the purchase of nearly 8,000 of the battery-powered bicycles. (Public News Service)

• A new executive order will require the Maryland DOT to put VMT reduction at the center of its climate strategy. Which states will follow their lead? (StreetsBlog USA)

• A new electric vehicle car-sharing program is coming to Spokane. The program allows anyone to borrow a car by joining ZEV CO-op, and you'll need to pay an hourly fee to use the car. (KREM)

• Born out of an anti-car protest in 1974, the Colombian capital of Bogota closes many roads to cars every Sunday, leaving them free for bikes, skates and pedestrians. (The Guardian)