After a pedestrian dies in a bus crash, Richmond sees renewed calls for better infrastructure

Last week, Alice E. Woodson died after she stepped into a bus lane and was struck by a Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) Pulse driver, leaving Richmond stunned. As Virginia’s capital grapples with grief, a consensus is emerging around what should be done to improve pedestrian safety along one of the city’s main corridors and only bus rapid transit line.

On the afternoon of October 8, Woodson got out of a car stopped at a red light in the left turn lane of West Broad at the Bowe Street intersection. When she walked into the adjacent bus lane she was immediately struck by an eastbound Pulse bus driver, and died shortly thereafter. Eight passengers were on the bus, and although no one on board was injured, the bus driver was taken to the hospital per GRTC accident protocol. After the police determined that the bus had the right-of-way, Richmonders feel left with no one to blame but their own streets.

Now the top improvement politicians and activists alike are championing is to paint the bus lanes bright red. DC, Arlington, and Montgomery County, Maryland have all begun painting their bus-only lanes red in order to better notify drivers and pedestrians alike that buses have the right-of-way in that space.

Hopes of turning tragedy into safer streets

On the evening of the crash, Richmond City Councilmember Kim Gray received a distraught call from her daughter who had just witnessed the incident. That part of West Broad is in the Second District she represents, and Gray knows that stretch well.

“I’ve now had two deaths in my district along there. There’s no room for error the way Broad Street is currently set up. I get so confused when I drive down that street, and I live there and navigate it every day. It’s very dangerous,” Gray said.

Ross Catrow, the Executive Director of RVA Rapid Transit, agrees with the councilmember that unsafe roads—which put vehicles before people—are at fault. In an article on Streets Cred he wrote, “I want to scream at the past 70 years of City leaders for allowing our biggest and best street to devolve into an inhumane, unsafe nightmare highway…It’s cars and bad design that make our streets unsafe.”

Catrow hopes that Richmond’s growing momentum around pedestrian safety will translate into substantive road design changes, and not devolve into anger towards GRTC or its buses.

“The lesson of this tragedy shouldn’t be that buses are unsafe or that buses and pedestrians are in conflict with one another. The takeaway needs to be that our streets are unsafe and we need to design them better to make sure people on foot aren’t put in dangerous situations,” said Catrow in an interview.

How can Richmond improve?

How can Richmond and the region begin to address our unsafe streets? Gray knows what she wants to see change: “I’d like to see more lighting, shortened crosswalks, and more visible mid-block crossings to make our streets safer.”

There’s more to do besides making bus-only lanes more visible. Catrow is advocating for a host of fixes such as lower speed limits citywide, more protected bike lanes that can protect riders from intruding cars, leading pedestrian intervals which give people on foot a head start at a green light, higher-visibility crosswalks, and an end to construction-related sidewalk closures which many believe was responsible for a death along West Broad this past February.

For GRTC’s new CEO, Julie Timm, this has been a horrendous episode with which to close out her first month on the job. In an interview she said, “I’m devastated by the tragedy last week, and my heart is completely wrenched for the family of Alice Woodson, for our operator, and for all the people who witnessed and responded to this horrible accident. GRTC’s top priority is safety, and we will continuously work to improve the safety of our system by partnering with all mobility stakeholders in the corridors we operate.

Gray says Richmond needs to catch up with the rest of the region. In an interview, she said, “I think painting the bus lanes red would be a huge step to make Broad Street safer. That bright red paint would be a great visible cue to warn pedestrians and drivers that those lanes are just for buses.”

For her, this fight is personal. “My kids walk and bike around this city all the time. I want safer roads. I want better transit. But the way we’re building our streets right now isn’t safe.”

Timm believes that GRTC, local government, and the whole city can come together to help prevent future fatalities.

“Mobility safety is a shared responsibility. It is critical that we find solutions to our transportation corridors to make them safe for all users,” Timm said. “This will require everyone to increase their awareness of the streetscape, making room for each other as our region grows and adds more people daily. GRTC wants to be part of the team that develops and implements these solutions to increase awareness and safety regardless of transportation mode.”

However, until city leaders come up with concrete proposals with dedicated funding, residents will be left worrying when and where the next crash could happen.

Catrow shares residents’ frustration. “People are being killed every day all over the country by cars. We’ve got unimaginably far to go in Richmond before we can even begin to claim that our city is a safe place for people to get around.”