If they can manage to get dedicated rail lines, and get the higher speed engines south of DC, this place is going to be fully absorbed into the NE megalopolis. It's currently a dingleberry.

I don't mind the 3hr ride, but when the train is crawling through certain stretches of it, it feels like you're paying for a shit-tier service.

IDK if you saw my second edit, but the chart you posted from 2021/22 shows ridership significantly down on the Washington-Richmond line (and over all lines ) compared to 2017/18. (Probably related to more 'work from home' solutions for riders, but not necessarily a good thing for mass transit in our region (less riders=less demand=less funding))

Maybe I should just build a sweet kicker ramp so speeders can fly over the house and land in the cushy grassy yard safely. I’ve literally never felt the need to do anything like this before and I lived on 2 major roads in a FAR more populated city with a LOT of accidents as well. This street is like a death trap lol.

You should watch it again as an adult. I've seen it lord knows how many times now, and I have to say Emory is my favorite. All the characters are such caricatures of themselves, but he at least had some common sense (even if he was an ass)!

If we were a modern developed country with high speed rail, it could be a 20 minute ride

Good luck bud.

Cold! But worth it to get out of the house for a bit. I went to Shore Dog first to grab a quick bite. And I did have an umberella and jacket, but I still got wet, lol

On top of an apartment building near Libby hill. Great views!

>What can be done

Contact your elected officials, have others do the same. That's all you can do.

>Any tips?

Build a moat

I agree with all of this. Even down to the ways they draw folks in. Its not just a place to shop. Its a destination woth its things like the train for kids, and the summer shows series, etc. If you are super bored, you could just walk around and people watch /window shop while having a coffee and pastry and kill an hour or two. A traditional mall doesn't have that feel. In particular the difference between open air and trapped inside brown/pink tiled walls

I hope so. I still see people borderline try and run bikers off the road here. They need to just have those traps pinned from the little bridge over the tracks and then right on Westlake or something because these are the points where they start speeding (right off the highway) and slowing down because of the light or traffic or to take a turn.

It's not like there aren't cops posted at Stoneleigh all the time but people don't pay attention or care. There's a plan to take Dumbarton down to two driving lanes and add bike lanes to make it less attractive as a passthrough to and from Staples Mill; that'll probably do the trick.

I think the route that originates in Richmond and goes to DC started just before the end of FY21 - https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/new-amtrak-train-route-51, which obviously means those numbers are low. But good to see that the route is getting lots of use and not necessarily taking away from the other routes that come through town.

It doesn’t matter who you were talking to.

You had the opportunity here to share some crucial context with every reader (that you ALSO did your due diligence and looked in their post history), which totally changes things, but you didn’t.

Why? Did you choose not to? Did you forget? Maybe you were feeling lazy. Maybe you’re making it up now after the fact. I don’t know, but one thing is for certain… that you failed to communicate the evidence you had clearly when given the opportunity.

So, ironically, you’re proving my point for me. Getting sufficient evidence (from you) leads to better decisions (from readers).

If you want to show me how I am wrong, I’m all ears. If you want to take responsibility and admit that you didn’t communicate clearly to everyone reading at first, I would respect you for it. But your last comment makes it look like you want to dodge the points I am making, and degrade the conversation into personal insults.

Reach out to Frank Thornton on the Board of Supervisors, as well as Steve Yob who is the Deputy County Manager in charge of these issues. Express your concerns and a desire for increased safety measures along Dumbarton. Express these every single month until things change.

The traffic calming changes on Dumbarton should help lower the speed by reducing the amount of road available. Also, they routinely do speed traps on Dumbarton - but more would be great.

Neither the 2021 or 2022 numbers seem correct. The 2021 for obvious reasons but the 2022 numbers show RVA significantly lower than Newport-News and Norfolk which have fewer routes. We need a recount.

> easy rail access to DC

I wish it were a bit easier. It should take 1 hour, not 3 hours.

You can get great parking in the side of the mall, it’s def busy on the weekends.

Good luck!

I'm from Bluefield and we used to drive to Roanoke to shop at Valley View for Christmas -- it had so many more stores than our Mercer Mall. When I moved to Richmond I was amazed at how many malls they had.

> I am going to keep kitten to socialize for a couple weeks

You're a good person, OP!

FYI here's a great video on socializing feral kittens that may help you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Z2yrcCwTE

The double parking is out of control in the city. People simply don't care about inconveniencing anyone else if they benefit from it.

How likely is it that at least one of these posts has staged a stray chicken bone on the street for karma?

I ride my bike to work from Bellevue to Downtown every day, and there honestly hasn't been a day where a person doesn't walk into the bike lane without looking, and I have to slam on my breaks, or some idiot thinks the bike lane also works as a parking spot. I wish cops ticketed people for parking in the bike lane, but I have seen cops even do it, so I don't think they give a shit.

This whole city is just a giant game of "what are you gonna do about it" with the people in power breaking whatever fundamental human law they want. And every perpetrator will also use some bigoted perspective for why they get to break the law and inconvenience everyone around them.

I remember right in front of penny lane, a bunch of drunk idiots filling up the bike lane, and when I asked them to move, the group all told me to fuck off and started calling me a bike bitch. They were in the wrong 100000,% but they couldn't give a fuck because this is Richmond and who gives a shit about doing the right thing.

This shit gets me boiled. The idea of dying while on the way to work because of some idiot being selfish makes me want to pull the moon from the sky and punt it into the sun.

My rant is over. I will rest.