I am using a Charlottesville Area Transit bus this morning to get to a meeting at Stonefield at 9:00 a.m. It would have been more convenient to drive but if I am to encourage others to take transit, it needs to be something I take as well.
This is the first time I have purchased an all day pass. I wrote about them when all the buses got new fare boxes. I can take the bus on the CAT system all day long for $1.50.
The bus I took, Route 4, was crowded when I got on. Mostly people going to work at the medical center at UVA.
As the bus heads to downtown. There are just me and three other people.
Now I am sitting waiting for Route 8 to leave the downtown station. My transfer card actually worked but I wonder how well it will scan later on today due to all this rain. Are the monthly passes plastic or laminated?
I have spent a long while writing and researching the built environment. I drive these roads all of the time but only see the landscape pass by through a bus window. I never noticed the gigantic mansions on Barracks Road as you descend towards Emmet Street.
Two people get off the bus at the corner of Angus and U.S. 29. One waits for a transfer. Thankfully there is a shelter for him. The bus then stops at the Kroger. This is the second Kroger on this route. This Kroger at one point was going to move to where the Giant used to be in the Seminole Square Shopping Center. But that fell through.
There are now plans for 350 apartments at that other location. It is my mission to help encourage residents of that new place to transit. This is the site of the proposed new apartment complex.
I will review those plans to see how well they fit with the concept of transit oriented development. Hillsdale Drive Extended was an investment in our community. We need people to live there!
This is the first time I have purchased an all day pass. I wrote about them when all the buses got new fare boxes. I can take the bus on the CAT system all day long for $1.50.
The bus I took, Route 4, was crowded when I got on. Mostly people going to work at the medical center at UVA.
As the bus heads to downtown. There are just me and three other people.
Now I am sitting waiting for Route 8 to leave the downtown station. My transfer card actually worked but I wonder how well it will scan later on today due to all this rain. Are the monthly passes plastic or laminated?
I have spent a long while writing and researching the built environment. I drive these roads all of the time but only see the landscape pass by through a bus window. I never noticed the gigantic mansions on Barracks Road as you descend towards Emmet Street.
Two people get off the bus at the corner of Angus and U.S. 29. One waits for a transfer. Thankfully there is a shelter for him. The bus then stops at the Kroger. This is the second Kroger on this route. This Kroger at one point was going to move to where the Giant used to be in the Seminole Square Shopping Center. But that fell through.
There are now plans for 350 apartments at that other location. It is my mission to help encourage residents of that new place to transit. This is the site of the proposed new apartment complex.
I will review those plans to see how well they fit with the concept of transit oriented development. Hillsdale Drive Extended was an investment in our community. We need people to live there!
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| All this could be your next apartment, and that of hundreds of your friends! |
And at Stonefield. It took less than an hour to get here and that includes time waiting for the route to begin.
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| The 7 and the 8 both stop at Stonefield |
In all I am satisfied with that journey. I am glad I could get here without my car. Somehow that makes it feel more urban, even if Stonefield still seems suburban. Still, the bus passed a lot of apartments and there are more slated for this area.
Using the CAT app, I see I currently have three choices to get back downtown. A #7 arrives at the nearest stop in 6 minutes, but it's more likely I'll take the next #7 or the next #8, both of which arrive at the stop in 26 minutes.
Or I could move on and have lunch here. I am currently standing under the cover of a restaurant’s storefront while waiting for the bus. There is not yet a covered shelter at Stonefield but there will be one there at some point. For now I can see where the bus will come from.
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| A dreary day, but the buses were warm |
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