THE CHARLOTTESVILLE Transit System recently took steps to improve public transportation within the city of Charlottesville. These steps included changing some bus routes to run more efficiently and the opening of a new bus transit station downtown. However, no major changes were made to improve the trolley system which mostly serves students at the University.
While the measures taken to enhance public transportation around Charlottesville are certainly welcome, the lack of improvements to the trolley system is very disappointing. The trolleys that run from grounds to the downtown mall are not reliable and are often not on time. The Charlottesville Transit System had the prefect opportunity to improve the quality of the trolley system, but failed to act. Simple improvements to the trolleys would greatly improve the trolley experience for students and would increase revenue for Charlottesville. The Charlottesville Transit System should act immediately to implement the changes that are necessary to have a workable trolley system.
As most students at the University already know, the trolley system does not provide an adequate form of public transportation. In theory, a trolley should come around to each stop about every fifteen minutes. Many trolleys often do not adhere to this schedule, and this inconsistency makes riding the trolley undesirable. For example, there have been instances in which two trolleys stop in front of the Chemistry building within the span of three minutes, but another trolley does not stop for another thirty minutes or more. In fact, it is often possible to walk from the University to the downtown mall without seeing a single trolley on the way. This type of inconsistency makes planning a schedule impossible and waste hours of students' time.
Another major problem with the trolley system is the overcrowding during peak times. It is not uncommon to see trolleys that are filled to capacity on Friday and Saturday nights. This overcrowding adds to the problem of delays because trolleys are often filled to capacity, and as a result trolley operators cannot pickup any more people. This means that even if the trolleys adhere to the schedule and come around every fifteen minutes, it does not matter because they cannot pick anyone up. With this sort of problem, any sort of schedule is meaningless and trips to downtown become very difficult.
The Charlottesville Transit System could easily have fixed many of these problems during their latest reforms, but it did not. According to Evelyn Trice, supervisor at Charlottesville Transit System, "nothing on Grounds will change, other than the fact that students will have another stop downtown to catch the trolley." Clearly many of the underlying problems with the trolley system have been left unfixed.
Simple and common sense solutions would greatly improve the trolley system for both students and the city of Charlottesville. One simple improvement would be to change the trolleys to a set schedule with definite times of arrival at various stops. Most University and Charlottesville city buses already run on this sort of schedule, and it is much more beneficial for riders. For example, clearly written schedules would tell riders that the trolley will arrive in front of the Chemistry building at 2:47 p.m. instead of a vague statement like trolleys will come every fifteen minutes. This system would allow riders to make more clearly defined schedules and hold CTS more accountable because it must meet a set schedule.
Another simple improvement would involve transferring busses from less crowed routes to the trolley route during peak hours. These other busses could simply change its designation in the front to free trolley and run the regular trolley route. This technique already occurs to a certain extent on the trolley route, but rarely during peak trolley hours. Although these busses may not look as nice as the trolleys, they will get the job done during peak hours because they are larger than the normal trolleys.
Both students and the city of Charlottesville would greatly benefit if CTS implements some of these simple changes. Students will actually have an efficient mode of transportation to reach the downtown mall, and they will also save a great deal of time. The city of Charlottesville would benefit because more students from the University will go to the downtown mall. The increased number of students will result in greater business for the merchants of the mall and greater revenue for the city itself. These benefits to the city would greatly outweigh the small costs necessary to make the improvements to the trolley system. CTS should act immediately to implement these improvements to the trolley system so that students and Charlottesville can reap the benefits.
Sam Shirazi's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at sshirazi@cavalierdaily.com.
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