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City presents annual transportation update, outlines bus-stop audit and regional transit study
Summary
City transportation staff reported on a year of projects — a Smart Scale application, a systemwide bus-stop audit and an onboard survey with UVA — and previewed next steps including prioritizing bus-stop improvements and the CARTA study draft due in August.
Ben Chambers, the city’s transportation planning manager, opened the July 20 presentation with a high-level review of the past fiscal year’s work and near-term priorities. He said staff submitted a Smart Scale application for the West Main and Ridge corridor, completed initial planning for a 5th Street road diet and bikeway, advanced a CARTA prioritization study and audited every bus stop in the CAT system to inventory amenities and ADA issues.
"We have an understanding of all the amenities that are there, all the ADA issues that we have facing us at all of our stops," Chambers said, noting that the audit will inform where shelters, benches and other improvements should be placed. He described an onboard survey done with UVA’s planning and data-science schools to identify key transfer locations and better target stop upgrades.
Chambers told council the CARTA prioritization study will present draft recommendations to the CARTA board in August and then come to the council for review in September. He said the bus-stop audit and survey results will drive a rubric for prioritizing amenities such as shelters and ADA-compliant landing pads and that some shelter projects are already in the pipeline for construction next season.
Staff concluded the section by flagging data gaps — notably limited parking supply/demand data and the lack of a single prioritized project list across existing plans — that the forthcoming mobility plan will aim to address. The presentation closed with council questions about timing and where new bus stops would appear; Chambers said several new stops tied to a Route 2 realignment will appear later this year.
