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I just don't understand how the app says the route was not running with the Not in service bus passing me to somehow running normally once i get home???

I don't see how taking the bus could be reliable for work purposes. At least you would have to get up early and just hope and pray that a bus comes and that you're not late.

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Are you sure you were looking at the weekend schedule and not the weekday schedule

yes I was looking at the weekend. weekend is every hour. Using their stupid website with the GPS bus trackers.

The chart with the times usually isn’t super reliable. If I know I gotta bus somewhere I try and start checking the app within the hour or half hour that I gotta get rolling to keep an eye on the bus time. That coupled with following the bus on the map through the app usually does me good. Been riding the GRTC since I moved here almost a decade ago, it’s not the greatest public transportation but believe it or not it used to be worse

GRTC just sucks.

It’s extremely reliable in other cities. Not this one.

Regular rider here. Definitely a crapshoot taking the bus. 5 to Carytown is somewhat reliable, the app will usually tell you if how far away it is. However every so often the supposed arrival time passes and the bus essentially vanishes. Super frustrating! Also: the app will revert to DELAY once it falls behind schedule. Okay that's not super helpful since I don't memorize bus schedules. I mean, it is 5 mins delayed? 20 mins? 40 mins? Always best to have a backup plan!

A few years ago I used to take the bus to VCU when I lived in Northside, but then I realized it was faster if I just walked the whole way. In the AM it would be super reliable, but the bus home in the afternoon would regularly be an hour+ late. The pulse functions a lot better than the other GRTC routes, but it only goes east and west. I’m forever jealous of cities with functional bus systems.

I take the bus frequently on the weekends. Really nice way to get downtown without a car. It's usually, for me, very reliable. But yeah, every once and a while it screws up very bad. So I never take it if I have plans later that day.

Two useful tricks:

1. Grtc app have real time info on the buses. You can see them as dots in the map if you add them, also save stops as favorites and you can see the predicted time for next bus at that stop
2. The transit app! It has real time info from grtc, alerts so you have a message when it is time to walk towards the stop and the buses also appears in the map. If you share your info you help the predictions improve.

I feel dumb it took me one year to find out about these things.

Check out the transit app, it takes the live info from grtc and set a warning when it is time to walk to the stop.

Buses not in service and buses that have the engine turned off (e.g. for the driver to make a pitstop) fall off the tracker. Buses that idle at their "reset stop" show up as DLY. Sometimes when a bus turns back on, the GPS fails to connect and it falls off the tracker. Knowing the schedule is imperative and be at stops ~10min before a scheduled bus as there are some occasions when drivers run a little fast (or start late because they know they will make up time).

In short, the app is more data, but much like the schedule, it's imperfect data. I've used the bus system since the revamp a few years ago for >50% of my in-town transit to various places, and that's what I've learned.

This link usually works. Sundays it’s a little off

Gives real time update

http://new.grtcbustracker.com/bustime/eta/eta.jsp?route=BRT&direction=West%20Bound&stop=WILLOW%20LAWN%20STATION&id=3501&showAllBusses=on

thats what I was using and why I'm so pissed off!!! I could see the blips on the live map. the bus passed me with not in service on. I check the map again and it has 0 scheduled stops for the one I was at when both GRTC and Google said it was suppose to be there by 1:30.

I just want to get to and from carystreet without my car!!! I know its easier to drive there but this is the first time I'm living in richmond city proper and I shouldnt need to drive everywhere

GRTC has always been shitty. This is why in transplant threads I say don’t come here expecting public transportation. We don’t have it.

Get a bike, fam

Yes, it sucks sometimes. When this happens I ride one of Uber scooters.

What time are you riding? In the afternoon before 6ish, service is fairly frequent and I've never gotten "stuck" in Carytown after taking the bus. The only time I've Ubered home was when it was late and/or pouring rain.

Could have been a signal/timeout issue. It queries the server but didn't get a response on that route in time, maybe defaults to this route isn't active?

I have a bike. I only ride it for exercise because my anxiety doesn't let me leave it anywhere.

I was tempted but my phone was on 2% as I got the uber home

I took the 11am there from the stop by diversity. Tried to take it home going northbound from the stop off Cary and Sheppard. Suppose to be there by 130

You're talking about an organization that is so bad at understanding what good public transit is, that a private bus (2bnb) outdid them by offering obvious routes people wanted, using trackers that were more reliable, 15 years ago. They stayed afloat for years on donations and had a full bus most of the time.

Always worth calling to check instead of relying on the app.

I've been continuously frustrated by public transit in Richmond since moving here.

Generally, it's easier/faster for me to ride my bike than take the buses, but my kids can't ride along as far as I can go, so with them I'm stuck on the buses or stuck in my neighborhood. It's routinely depressing.

MUCH worse! At least you can take a bus to the airport now!

Get a cheap bike if you can. I had a beater I used for errands and such, and a nice bike for riding for riding’s sake. It’s still not a guarantee it won’t get stolen, but it makes it less of a target. And then at least if it does you’re not out as much.

Somehow not on Stoney, though. Nothing is his fault or responsibly

It's been a few years now since I lived in carytown but I'm fairly sure there was 3 busses that went in or near carytown and were reliable enough. What you're describing sounds like the app is wonky. I know the maps and routes are a lot to remember, but if you're planning to go from point a to point b, it's probably better to at least know that route

Fuck Stoney but GRTC is a private entity that receives funding from….it’s either the city or the state, I’m not totally sure

GRTC is pathetic.

You're talking decades of mismanagent and grift.

Not the fault of the drivers.

Try riding on a week day should be better.

I’ve had to call sometimes when there was an excessive delay and the app was being helpful. Never got told why, but bus showed up soon after that.

Assuming that’s the 20 you’re talking about, I believe they recently changed the frequency that one runs. Used to be two or more times an hour, now im lucky if I catch it once within an hour

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There used to be the routes that would go up from the Broad/the Fan over to Belmont, now the only routes that run through there are the 5 (up and down Main/Cary), the 78 (Cary but cuts into Randolph), the 20 (Southside to Northside cutting through Carytown), and the 77 (runs on Grove running parallel to Carytown)

Anyone know who to contact in government to voice concerns? City councilor? State legislator? Like who do I reach out to to say I want better public transit?

The bus is definitely not perfect, but as someone who lives a carless life by choice, it’s not terrible. I felt the same way at first but if you just stick with it and give it a little time to figure out it’s kinks and stuff it isn’t so bad. I take the bus to bus most morning in the winter and am only late on a very rare occasion.

But in all seriousness. Ride a bike. It’s much more realistic and convenient in the city. My bike is my primary form of transportation.

It was a little more reliable pre-COVID. I don't know if it's bad now because of a driver shortage or because it's free fare so they don't have the funding/will to improve anymore.

Ah, you must be new ❤️

Nice! When did they finally realize people go to the airport?

Both.

Also, don't you dare badmouth private industry. They're infallible. Only the government is allowed to suck.

I dunno if that's true. I was on a bus in Boston not too long ago and a homeless guy peed on a lady and they stopped the bus and kicked everyone off and told us to kick rocks instead of sending another bus out.

I was told that wasnt uncommon.

The main thing is to get a nice lock. Nothing's unbeatable, but if it's enough of a pain in the ass then there will be easier targets around. Something like this is enough to keep your bike safe in Richmond. You can wrap it around the seat post, sling it over your shoulder, or toss it in a bag while you ride. Other important thing is don't have quick release hubs.

GRTC is owned by the local governments of Richmond and Chesterfield so idk what y’all are talking about

GRTC is owned by Richmond and Chesterfield 50/50 and sells services to Henrico and Hanover

Ah you’re right. Ok I see where I misunderstood - GRTC is managed by a private entity. So their staff is run by a private company essentially. Seems like a strange relationship but I don’t know much about mass transit

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The GRTC board of directors hold a monthly meeting that I open to the public. You can speak directly to the leadership.

I ride that route daily. Here’s what you do:

Use Google maps to find stops and routes.

When you get to a stop, look on the signpost for the blue square that has the stop number (ex: 1234). Text “GRTC 1234” to 228-27. You will receive a text back with the eta of each bus coming in the next hour.

Caveat: though the Cary/Main line used to run every 15 minutes, it’s now every 30 due to driver shortages. But some days they can’t get drivers for all of the buses, so that adds an element of unpredictability. Also traffic delays—especially around rush hour—can put things off schedule.

Most of the time things work well though and the text message will alert you if they aren’t. Sounds like you just got unlucky.

It's not too terrible if you don't mind going to the dystopian wasteland that is the downtown "transfer center"

GRTC’s board of directors obviously doesn’t use the service at all. The people running the organization don’t care about it running well. I tried using the bus when I wasn’t able to bike anymore when I got a blood clot earlier this year, got so fed up with the bus that I bought an e bike so I could get around reliably again.

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An even sadder fact is that we still have much better transit than most other cities our size.

Here’s how the tracker apps work, to my knowledge: Each bus is outfitted with a GPS tracker that links to the app and should give you real-time information on your bus’ location. If the app picks up a bus on the tracker, it will give a pretty accurate arrival time +- like a minute depending on traffic, number of stops, any special needs passengers, etc. If the app does NOT detect a GPS tracker, it will revert to the scheduled arrival time - the assumption is that the tracker is malfunctioning and the bus is actually on-schedule. What’s much more likely ime is that either the bus driver called out and there is a gap in the route or the bus got so backed up that the app thinks it’s scheduled for a later arrival time. If I don’t see a bus icon on the map, I assume it’s not coming at the scheduled time.

In general, bus service in Richmond is pretty reliable, at least compared to other mid-sized American cities. It sounds like you got really unlucky that multiple buses were out in a row.

I've started riding the bus recently and it's exceeded my expectations. It's been very clean and not too late most of the time. But, you should always go by the real times from the gps bus tracking on the app. It's been good to me to substitute at least 50% of my car driving, not the best to rely on completely (since most of the bus stops don't have any shelter or benches).

My only gripe is that many parts of the city and county haven't developed sidewalks or safe areas to bicycle in. There's bus service out to the Broad street intersection of Innsbrook. But, so what? You get dropped off in a ditch or gutter on the side of the road.

ya'll are pathetic

Unsolicited advice: may I suggest a cargo bike with e-assist? The long-tail models are great for hauling older kids. @ rva.cargo.bikes on instagram hosts semi-regular meetups in warmer weather where you can test ride others' setups. We ride our kid around in a dutch style box bike and it's totally changed our family's happiness level for the better.

This isn't a defending Stoney comment, but GRTC sucked before him and will suck after he leaves. It's always been bad.

Yep. If you happen to live and commute along the Pulse line, it's a good option. Anywhere else? Unreliable, and even if it is, it probably involves changing buses at least once and takes 3 times as long as driving does.

That's the thing - if you want to get cars off the road, the public transit option needs to be at least comparable in reliability and transit time. I'm not spending an extra hour round trip waiting and switching buses for the sake of not driving. No one except college students have that kind of free time.

You're insane if you trust drivers around here enough to haul your children on the back of a bike in traffic.

It'd be one thing if there were bike lanes separated from traffic everywhere, but there aren't. Is it really worth that gamble? I'm gonna say no. This isn't Amsterdam. Pedestrians and bike riders get hit by cars here all the time.

Nice of you to call me insane while knowing nothing about my riding experience, where and when I will and won't ride with my child, and anything else about my lifestyle, safety precautions, etc. Sounds like we have different risk tolerance levels, which is fine.

That's not really odd, at least not for the US. Conservatives HATE the idea of government programs, and love to privatize. So a compromise that the liberals have come up with is public-private partnerships. Government gives some money to a private company to do the service. It causes so many problems compared to if government just did it itself, but this is what we are stuck with until people stop voting conservative.

Of course,I don't know the specifics of Richmond's politics, so I could be wrong. This idea has pervaded almost every aspect of American politics, so it seems very likely to me that's what's going on.

I'm not sure why you think that is odd - this is the prevailing model throughout most of Europe as well. Often times, private involvement is even more embedded in operations there.

For instance, unlike the U.S., private actors have a substantial stake in European airports ( over 40% have private shareholders) while in the US they are all government-owned,

I mean, you're both right.

Also, everything would be a lot easier if I lived in the denser part of town (somewhere between MD and CH). Northside is carsy, and because of the interstate/railroads, I need to get onto busy roads like Brook, Chamberlayne, Hermitage, or AA to reach anything.

Again, all these things are well within my ability as an adult cyclist, but they are big impediments to kids.

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I've never had a significant issue taking the Pulse to work. Maybe a delay by a few minutes, but nothing too bad, especially if you're tracking with the GRTC app (not Apple Maps).

It's outside of commuting hours that I've had significant issues.

Unreliable as hell but at least its unreliable and free now

Dog there’s been like one Republican mayor in Richmond since the Civil war lol. Y’all just going to keep guessing in this thread or what

Technically that doesn't matter really. You can be a liberal who takes on a lot of conservative viewpoints. The overtone windows is really skewed to the right in america, so MANY liberals are more centrist than in other counties.

Democrats in america is just slightly moderate right wing people in the rest of the world. Bernie Sanders is even a centrist in the rest of the world. But in america he is considered a lefist. So...yeah, your point isn't as valid as you seem to think. Still a point to keep in mind, but...yeah

I don’t need to preface my comment to remind people of generalities of world politics in a Richmond Virginia subreddit. Especially when someone else just educated you that this is just as common if not standard around the world.

Maybe you just made assumptions about something you don’t know as much about as you thought you did?

And often the places that do have that public-private thing, even if common around the world, is a LOT more deeper than at first seems.

In Europe there is a LOT more regulations and things that they put on those partnerships than they do in america. As a result they run better. In america, we seem to be very adverse to the idea of regulations. And even that ignores the fact that no matter if its common in europe or not, when the government does it by itself without the partnership, it often does BETTEr and costs the people less in taxes.

So my point still stands. The democrats in america don't like to do things as well as they do in europe.

There is a really good video that discuesses this exact problem. Search up "how privatisation fails railways" on youtube. A channel by the name of Shaun discusses the issues with privitization and how it just doesn't work as well even with the partnerships.

> It is managed by a private transit management company that provides the CEO, COO, and Transportation Manager, as was its predecessor, Virginia Transit Company (VTC). GRTC itself has 400 employees.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Richmond_Transit_Company

Your comment reminded me I need to pick up a better lock. Thank you.