Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Odd_Invite_5528 t1_iuhybwq wrote

Make licenses more difficult to get and keep. I’m tired of feeling like it might be my last day on the planet everytime I touch 95. Fuck.

272

STREAMOFCONSCIOUSN3S t1_iui1881 wrote

That would first require better public transportation.

135

goosey65 t1_iui23q4 wrote

Agreed- the city of Richmond, especially Central (downtown to carytown), does not need to be as car centric as it is. Currently, we are because we cater to cars and the traffic isn’t yet horrendous compared to other cities. The more people move here and use their cars though, this will change.

We can do this though. We have a fairly good bus system when it is able to run at full capacity with drivers (which obviously is a big hurdle, not downplaying that.) We also have a walkable central city area, a small, but growing amount of protected bike lanes, and overall a small city size sq mile wise. I’d love to see someone on council (either current or in the next election cycle) focus on increasing GRTC and other non car options.

65

rattylight t1_iui9mew wrote

I would sell my car immediately if there were more efficient bus routes to the west end/Innsbrook area where I work. So many people work in this area - why does it require 2+ transfers and 30 minutes of walking to take the bus from northside to Innsbrook (a 15 minute drive)?

40

goosey65 t1_iuiavk6 wrote

For sure- I don’t know why cities always have to choose between making an efficient north to south or east to west bus route. We can have both!! In Austin, it was hell going North to South by bus, while here I find the 20 route really good (when it’s running…) but nothing efficiently going east/west unless you’re doing pulse, which I also know has issues.

10

JustDyslexic t1_iuil6fx wrote

Richmond wants to but does that have control of the GRTC board the counties do but it does sound like the surrounding counties are softening on having public transportation

10

JosefDerArbeiter t1_iuj12ui wrote

My 15 minute car commute would take 1 hour and 30 minutes if I were to do a combination of walking and taking the bus. That's in a best case scenario and could be longer with delays.

6

J-Colio t1_iui5o7v wrote

Can confirm that for an able-bodied individual that downtown is highly walkable. From a transportation standpoint, I can safely walk from rockets landing to carytown, and most North-South's in between. I could cycle a lot of that too, but it'd feel much less safe, honestly.

For mobility impaired individuals who rely on ADA ramps, there's still plenty of work to do. The city has plenty of hills, so they're already in an uphill battle on top of plenty of less than accessible ramps/sidewalks.

From a non-transportation standpoint, some people should carry additional safety measures to protect themselves from other pedestrians - not vehicles. You hear stories... I've heard multiple stories of women even getting harassed while they're in their cars stopped at redlights.

16

PayneTrainSG t1_iuic7zu wrote

You'd need the Jeep Wrangler of electric wheelchairs to navigate sidewalks in the rich parts of the city! It's dire as hell out here.

13

zensucht0 t1_iuiejwr wrote

The image that popped into my head: An electric wheelchair, lifted, big ass tires, with a spare on the back that says (upside-down) "if you can read this roll me over".

Probably going to hell for that one, but it did make me laugh.

9

goosey65 t1_iui87zj wrote

Agreed!

Also, by increasing easier non car options for able bodied folks who can use walking, biking, or the bus-it frees about the road for people who need to drive or rely on cars for basic mobility.

9

Fit-Order-9468 t1_iuil1bq wrote

>For mobility impaired individuals who rely on ADA ramps, there's still plenty of work to do. The city has plenty of hills, so they're already in an uphill battle on top of plenty of less than accessible ramps/sidewalks.

Hardly the only thing to do, but expanding the CARE program would be great, especially later into the evenings. It's basically a shuttle service. Being in a wheelchair doesn't mean you don't want to get a drink or go to a punk show.

7

___zero__cool___ t1_iuj37b8 wrote

That’s a really good point! How late does the CARE program operate right now? If VCU can chauffeur students around in the Ram Ride bus thing at 2am there’s no reason our city can’t do the same for our own residents.

2

sirensinger17 t1_iuiynpb wrote

Oh God, the harassment in downtown is terrible. I used to walk to work. It was a 10 minute commute. My record so far is 5 harassers in 10 minutes. And these guys were graphic. I had just left a night shift at VCU and was wearing messy scrubs and a facial expression that yelled "murder"

4

Ese_Americano t1_iujgijt wrote

Linear time trend forecasts suggest that by 2030, 51% of the US population will be obese or severely obese

Pray for high prices if we want a more-walkable RVA; a debt-based ever-inflating currency won’t save us.

2

autotelica t1_iuil9mg wrote

I was riding my bike on the sidewalk downtown on Main Street the other day and noticed that the curb cuts for a long stretch were only in one direction. Like, ideally you should have a curb cut if you want to cross Main heading south and a curb cut if you want to go west. But all the curb cuts I saw were to the south, which was inconvenient for me since I was heading west. It would have really sucked if I had been in a wheel chair.

1

goosey65 t1_iuhyx8b wrote

Truly- the way people drive on 95 and 64 is terrifying. That particular stretch also feels oddly harrowing. On top of all the other issues facing our region, I would love to see elected officials make a concerted effort to focus on methods to decrease traffic fatalities both in and outside the city.

36

Lateandontime t1_iui6vyf wrote

This. I go from Midtown to Church Hill around 4pm everyday. I refuse to take the interstate anymore. Straight down Broad. Idc if it takes me 10 more minutes.

10

fang-island t1_iui85vp wrote

I totally agree with you. The interstate is definitely getting worse. I gotta say though; Broad street around VCU makes me nervous as well.

I'll drive down the length of Monument just to avoid Broad and the interstate.

I, also, don't mind if it takes a little longer.

12

PayneTrainSG t1_iuicws0 wrote

Are you not able to take the pulse and/or ebike?

−2

Shad0wembrace t1_iui8y91 wrote

People drive without licenses all the time.

21

10000Didgeridoos t1_iuiy2uf wrote

Or insurance. The one time I went to court to try to get a speeding ticket reduced to traffic school, I'd say at least 5 people ahead of me in the docket all were in there because it was the umpteenth time they'd been caught driving without either or both of those things.

People do not care and if they need to risk driving without those things to get to a job, they will. I have an umbrella policy of $1 million on top of my car insurance because I'm aware one bad crash with an uninsured driver might bone me into bankruptcy if I'm unable to work a long period of time or need ongoing home health help because I'm crippled.

8

DanSRedskins t1_iuib0p7 wrote

We really need to move past cars as a society. Isn't it crazy that we haven't come with something better yet? It's so dangerous.

19

autotelica t1_iuijwp8 wrote

I am trying to make this happen by biking everywhere. But I feel like you kinda have to be crazy to make this choice, with the way people drive. I have had three near-misses with cars over the past couple of weeks. None of them have been my fault, but it doesn't matter who is right or wrong when two tons of metal is coming at you at 40 mph.

So I don't blame people for weighing the dangers of biking vs driving and electing to go with the latter.

17

goosey65 t1_iuiqt2f wrote

For sure- when I see “we”, I mean elected officials and residents working together. It’s very scary to bike here, which sucks because in theory it’s a very bikeable city (mostly flat and grid system). I applaud anyone who does but wouldn’t fault anyone who doesn’t. I hope if we can get more protected bike lanes and driver enforcement, it will become safer.

5

fluufhead t1_iuiy8wk wrote

Agreed, and this sub is great supporting evidence, there's like 5 threads every day about drivers having a bad time. Sounds aggravating and psychically damaging.

4

10000Didgeridoos t1_iuizlsk wrote

It's not really "crazy" from an economic perspective.

In order to convert our past 60 to 100 years of suburban sprawl everywhere as a country into public transport you'd have to invest hundreds of billions of not trillions nationally into light rail and bus systems. It's also not clear where the land to run those lines would come from either because it's all privately owned and would have to be seized by eminent domain, if for example you wanted to build light rail through the Richmond metro area.

Stakeholders don't want to change anything. People driving mostly want to keep driving themselves, and business owners don't want to risk losing any volume because the parking or road outside their business has been taken away. We couldn't even convince a handful of places on Broad St to give up a small amount of 2 hour parking spots to have the Pulse run along the curb instead of in the middle of Broad.

It's also simply cheaper to maintain existing highway and road networks than it is to try to end those things or replace some of them. And COVID just fucked budgets everywhere, too, so it's not like there is a surplus of hundreds of billions of dollars sitting around.

So you'd have to essentially convince people to be taxed more to pay for this massive renovation, convince all the people who prefer driving to stop, convince business owners to go along with it, and convince politicians to risk being the ones advocating for this mostly unpopular stuff.

It's never happening. No one wants to hear this, but there is about zero chance cars are replaced to any degree in Richmond in the next 50 years let alone most of the country. This isn't to say we shouldn't try to get some of them off the road, but rather being realistic - the political will, voter will, and money isn't there for a magical massive public transportation conversion. We're mostly stuck with this.

−3

ohnogangsters t1_iuiareh wrote

this doesn't really fix the chances of accidents happening, unfortunately. it's a structural issue - we wouldn't have car accidents if we didn't have a society designed around cars

12