Category Archives: transportation

Letter To Council On New Market’s Threat Against The Canal

Posted on by
1

From letter:

Dear Honorable Members of the Richmond City Council,

It is devastating to learn that New Market has applied with the Corps of Engineers to backfill the historic James River and Kanawha Canal beside the American Civil War Museum at Tredegar. Burying the authentic canal, built when George Washington was President of the canal, undermines the city’s effort underway to rewater the canal. The canal, built with the sweat of slaves and Irish immigrants, provided the power for the Tredegar Iron Works and made Richmond an important shipping hub.

Here is a link to New Market’s deplorable application to fill the canal: https://webapps.mrc.virginia.gov/public/habitat/getPDF.php?id=20180983

A few years ago the Richmond City Council expressed its desire to revitalize the canal at this location by spending $385,000 for a bridge over the canal on the new 2nd St. connector to maintain the navigability of the canal. New Market’s proposal would fill the canal at the east side of the bridge.

Please take action to let New Market know that the Richmond City Council has devoted significant financial resources to protecting the canal, and it is not in the city’s interests to have the canal backfilled with dirt.

Below, also please find a message from the Dr. Bill Trout, the Curator of the Canal Museum.

Sincerely,
Charles Pool

From attached message:

I hope that we can do something to encourage NewMarket to work toward opening the canal at Tredegar instead of filling it in. A press release from the Virginia Canals & Navigations Society should go through our president Roger Nelson.
Here are some thoughts:

Don’t let NewMarket waste Tredegar’s most historic, dynamic and scenic resource.
The canal should be a major tourist feature at Tredegar because Tredegar is there only because the Kanawha Canal is there – for its transportation and for water power. Tredegar would come alive again by opening the canal for boat trips, and for powering waterwheels and turbines. Filling it in and putting up display panels won’t help. Can you imagine water flowing down a raceway and turning a big water wheel? Wouldn’t that be what tourists would photograph and remember? Tredegar means power!
At Tredegar is the only part of the canal in Richmond where there can be mule-drawn canal boat trips, because the towpath is there and gone everywhere else. People love boat rides. Ask canal parks in the other canal states if mule-drawn rides are enjoyable and educational and bring a canal alive. And how did Tredegar receive its supplies of pig iron and fuel during the Civil War? By canal! Tredegar means transportation!
The James River (now Kanawha) Canal was the first operating canal system with locks in the United States. The first part was open at Pump House Park in 1789 while George Washington was the canal company’s honorary president. He visited the canal, with great ceremony, in 1791. Don’t waste Washington’s canal.
So. Open the canal at Tredegar. A $385,000 arched bridge over the canal bed is already there, waiting for the water. Use your imagination, Richmond! Put your canal back to work, don’t fill it in!

Bill Trout
Curator, Virginia Canal Museum

p.s. The canal society has just published a new book, Amazing Virginia Canals, featuring the high points of our remarkable canal and river navigation network. Pages 26-27 are about the canal at Tredegar and its future. See www.vacanals.org/shop.

City Expanding ‘Ride-Share’ Transportation Options

Posted on by
2

Although most local pundits have been focusing on the announcement of new electric-assist bicycles being mixed in with the City’s bike share program, officials say that there will be even more variety of vehicles coming in order to accommodate all ages and skill levels.

Although details are still forthcoming, City transportation officials have confirmed that the main vendor for their RVA Bike Share program, Bewegen, has tentative deals with the Louis Marx-designed Big Wheel and Huffy, the maker of the Green Machine. More testing is expected before completing the roll-out:

This effort is an interesting contrast with Virginia cities’ long wrangling with California dockless scooter company Bird Rides Inc. This also raises the stakes for the upcoming launch of the Dodo vending machine electric pogo stick company.

East Coast Greenway and ‘ATP Trail Study’

Posted on by
Reply

I am not exactly sure why local planners and media do not bring it up (are they worried about it taking attention away from the ‘Cap-To-Cap’ Trail?, does it go against corporate rulers’ schemes?, are they worried about provoking Agenda 21 conspiracy theorists?) but the Times Dispatch has an article on the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) preparing to build a 40-mile bike trail from Ashland to Petersburg, one that still does not even mention the East Coast Greenway (www.greenway.org) effort.

Of course, this ‘ATP Trail Study’ fits in with the East Coast Greenway planning. Why not report on it in those terms?

This community news site has been bringing it up for over a decade now. Originally, neighborhood leaders were interested in having the East Coast Greenway connect with the Belvidere greenway, which connects the Parsons Linear Park with the Riverside Park and the James River Park. That fits in with the Belle Island trail already being designated part of the East Coast Greenway.

From Belle Island, today:

Unfortunately, VCU and other bad development have stymied those thoughts, even though it would have been really cool to have a trail connect Monroe Park and Carver via a trail along Belvidere. Since then, many citizens hope that the East Coast Greenway will utilize the Cannon Creek Greenway, and then have the trail go west to connect with Belle Island. This could really be a boon for Barton Heights and other Northside neighborhoods that need more economic development.

It’s important that everyone understands how important this is for Richmond’s future. Having the East Coast Greenway intersect with the Virginia Capital Trail will be amazing. Imagine bicycle tourists traveling down from DC, coming into Richmond, staying and enjoying the area before making to the choice to fork or not. Pretending this is just a regional thing is just ridiculous.

VDOT will hold a public information meeting on Tuesday, March 26, from 5-7 p.m. at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School, 1000 North Lombardy Street, Richmond, VA 23220.

Corner of Pine and China St., Grace Arents School, 1911

Posted on by
Reply

For this ‘Throwback Thursday” history post, here’s a great 1911 photo of the corner of S. Pine and China streets. It shows the Grace Arents School, named after the activist, philanthropist and niece of Lewis Ginter who funded its construction. The school building is now used for award-winning Open High School. In fact in 2011, there was a centennial celebration.

Notice the streetcar tracks, which were visible until at least early 1960’s. Many of the tracks still exist today, lying under the modern streets.

This photo was posted in the Visual and Vintage Virginia FaceBook group.

Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine On Nearby Car/Bike Accident

Posted on by
Reply

Blue Ridge Outdoor Magazine’s Shannon McGowan has coverage of a recent accident that took place at the intersection of S. Harrison and W. Cary streets.

Tom Tedesco, a Virginia Common Wealth University student and a Trip Leader for the Outdoor Adventure Program there, had his easy going Saturday flipped on its head while biking home from the library…Literally.

…

BRO: What advice do you have for urban bikers?

TEDESCO: First and foremost, I would like to say ALWAYS WEAR YOUR HELMET. ALWAYS. Not just when you’re biking long distances or biking fast or mountain biking, but always. It doesn’t matter how far you’re going, or if you’re only going to be biking for a few minutes; accidents like this can kill you in an instant.

I was less than a mile from where I was going when this happened, and only a few hundred yards from where I had started, and since I landed starting with my head, without a helmet, the outcome could have been far worse.

I would also like to remind people, myself included, that even if you’re doing everything right, it’s important to remember that not everyone else is. We should all be biking cautiously, with the mindset that every driver on the road is on the phone and might run a red light.

Again, click here for full article.

GRTC’s Richmond Public Schools Ridership Program

Posted on by
Reply

More good news, from RVA Rapid Transit:

The unlimited bus pass program for RPS high school students begins on October 1st! If you’re a parent or guardian of an RPS high school student, and want them to have unlimited bus access to all our City has to offer (at no cost to you!), you’ll need to fill out this permission slip (PDF) and return it to your school’s liaison. If you have any questions about how the program works, you should read this handy FAQ, and if you’ve still got questions, shoot an email to Pass Program Administrator Kendra Norrell (kendra.norrell@ridegrtc.com).

That said, don’t forget the big picture.

VCU’s ‘Free Ride’

Posted on by
2

This past week Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) announced that it had signed an agreement with the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) that will give their students and employees unlimited access to the new $65 million Pulse system and all other GRTC bus routes. In other words, as much local media trumpeted, VCU students and workers will get to ride ‘for free’.

Of course, this is welcome news. If nothing else, it may alleviate parking pressures and reduce carbon emissions. However, Richmond citizens should look past the headlines and consider the big picture of VCU’s ‘free ride’.

The conversation about the need to grow GRTC and mass transit in general has increased measurably as VCU has grown in both population and physical plant. All along, this community news site has advocated for more commitment from counties and universities to GRTC and mass transit. This call has only increased as ‘The Pulse’ BRT project has spent federal and state funds for implementation.

The problem is that with federal and state monies now spent, more and more of the cost burden will be shifted back to City taxpayers. And VCU, despite the announcement this week, is still falling very short in its commitment. $1.2 million is a drop in the bucket. Heck, VCU probably spent close to $1.2 million on all of the PR for their new ICA building. One year is not that long. Consider that VCU has made more of a commitment to its basketball coach than Richmond’s mass transit.

So what, the neoliberals say, college basketball brings in more money and GRTC can’t even support itself. VCU spends so much on transportation per student, university administrators say (if I was a student, I would be looking at where that money is going exactly). Yet, despite supposed sports profits and rising tuition, more poor and longterm Richmond residents are getting forced out of the City with rising tax bills. The City of Richmond continues to pay the overwhelming majority of GRTC’s budget and now it has increased its operational costs. Remember when ‘The Pulse’ backers said that it was designed to help Richmond’s poor? Now the largest entity by far on ‘The Pulse’ route is hedging its bets and waiting to see how the chips fall.

The local media and elected officials should be questioning this ‘deal’ more, but the majority of them won’t for fear of falling out of VCU’s favor (and advertising budget). If VCU alumni want to arrogantly claim that ‘they built this city’, they should be required to put their money where their mouth is. Other urban universities do more than brag.