LONG-TERM SCENARIO PLAN
How could transportation projects improve equity in Richmond over the next 25 years?
This is the question the Richmond Connects Long-Term Scenario Plan is trying to answer.
What does it mean to improve equity?
Not everyone in Richmond has the same access to opportunities. People of color, low-income households, and people with limited mobility face more barriers to transportation than others. Improving equity through transportation means addressing transportation problems for people whose access to opportunities is most limited.
The Richmond Connects Long-Term Scenario Plan is exploring what Richmond could look like if the City could invest heavily in transportation projects over the next 25 years.
The Long-Term Scenario Plan is testing three scenarios to see how different kinds of investments would improve equity.
Each scenario represents a different way the City could work towards the vision, goals, and objectives of the Richmond 300 Master Plan, Path to Equity Policy Guide, and RVAgreen 2050 Climate Equity Action Plan.
City leaders can use the information from scenario planning to understand the tradeoffs of different investment directions.
How would equity improve if over the next 25 years the City could invest heavily in….
- Bus service?
- Sidewalks and bike lanes in the growth nodes?
- Preparing for electric vehicles, e-bikes, and scooters?
What is a scenario?
A scenario is a way of looking at the future and thinking about what might happen. Scenarios explore different ways the future could unfold. Scenario planning is a study of how the future could be different depending on which scenario happens.
Scenario A
Equitable Transit
This scenario explores how equity would improve if the City invested heavily in better transit service, especially for Communities of Concern.
Investments in this scenario could include:
- More frequent bus service on select routes
- Longer hours of bus service (e.g. later into the night)
- Improvements to make bus service more reliable and more consistently on-time (e.g. signal priority, queue jumps, bus-only lanes)
- Sidewalk and bike lane improvements to connect to bus stops
Scenario B
Active Nodes
This scenario explores how equity would improve if the City invested heavily in sidewalks, bike lanes, and other improvements for walking and bicycling in the future growth nodes.
Richmond 300, the City’s Master Plan, identifies Nodes – places in Richmond where people and jobs are today and will continue to grow into the future. Investments in this scenario will focus on making it easy and safe to get where you need to go within and between the Nodes.
Investments in this scenario could include:
- Filling in sidewalk gaps
- Resurfacing broken sidewalks
- Improvements to make crossing the street safer
- Adding new bike lanes and off-road paths between future growth nodes
- Enhancing existing bike lanes with protective features
Scenario C
Emerging Technology
This scenario explores how equity would improve if the City invested heavily in preparing for electric vehicles and e-bikes, and expanding access to car-share, bike-share, and scooter-share services.
Investments in this scenario could include:
- Installing electric vehicle and e-bike charging stations
- Installing or subsidizing car-share, bike-share, and scooter share in Communities of Concern
- Converting the bus fleet to electric vehicles or driver-less vehicles
Communities of Concern
Not everyone in Richmond has the same access to opportunities.
These people experience more burdens and transportation barriers than others. In Richmond Connects, the term “Communities of Concern” is used to describe people who identify with one or more of these characteristics.
- Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)
- People living in low-income households
- Senior citizens
- Renters
- People whose primary language is not English
- At-risk youth
- People with limited mobility
Where Are We in the Process?
The Richmond Connects team will be analyzing the long-term scenarios over the next few months.
Want to know more or share your thoughts?
Send an email to Connects@rva.gov, and a team member will get back to you.