About Us
Partnership for Smarter Growth is proud to connect to TransitTalk’s network and work together to discover, create and cultivate advocates for expanded public transit in the Richmond Region. PSG, a non-profit education organization, has been working for five years to establish core groups of engaged citizens in each of the nine localities in the region. Our citizen leaders successfully participate in planning processes to make our communities healthier, more connected, and more resilient. We are also partnering with the business community to work with the market for smarter, more sustainable growth.
Together, we can embrace the opportunity of revamping our neighborhoods: Let’s make them walkable, bikable, and conveniently served by public transit. Clean air and water and a sounder economic future are not small rewards. PSG stands with TransitTalk.com in giving citizens more options through public transit.
– Sheila Sheppard, Coordinator
RideFinders, a division of GRTC Transit System, is the regional non-profit agency that works to move more commuters in fewer vehicles throughout the Central Virginia region to protect air quality and increase the efficiency of the region’s transportation network.
RideFinders’ efforts help increase the efficiency of our transportation infrastructure, improve the air we breathe, enhance quality of life, and sustain a healthy economy.
Since its inception in 1981, RideFinders continues to pave a path for the Richmomd Region’s future.
Leadership Metro Richmond is a community service program that seeks to advance the Richmond Region by educating, energizing and connecting a diverse group of local leaders to serve the community. They strive to be the trustee of effective community leadership in the Richmond region.
Part of the vision of Style Weekly is to connect Richmonders. Whether it be connecting them to the information they seek, a cause in which they are interested, or simply other Richmonders online or live in person at an event, Style wants to be the connector. TransitTalk encourages dialogue and connects Richmonders to a topic many discuss often – transportation. Style felt it was the perfect partnership and one that we hope catches on. The message is simple, but important.
– Lori Waran, Publisher
With grandparents who were avid bus riders and as a college student who rode the Midlothian Kmart Express every day to summer jobs downtown, I know that service throughout the Region is a paramount issue as our population ages and for economic development. This is one small way that Richmond magazine, which often does in-depth regional reports, can contribute to the dialogue.
– Susan WIniecki, Editor-in-chief and Associate Publisher
Boomer Magazine is a publication specifically targeting Richmond’s most affluent and influential demographic, the Baby Boomers. As a whole, the Boomers have been responsible for more social change than any other demographic. Boomer Magazine recognizes the importance of green living, the need for regional transportation, and the value of open and honest discussion. A partnership with GRTC is a natural fit!
The TransitTalk.com project began in early 2009 as a team of individuals, Robert Angle, Marleen Durfee, Merlyn Frederick, Michael Jackson, and Debbie Schebe, who participated in Leadership Metro Richmond (LMR) 2009 chose transportation from among several suggested topics, with a specific focus on mass transit, for its class project. Members of the team were aware of the current mass transit system but wanted to fulfill a sense of deep obligation to do whatever it could to increase awareness of the importance of mass transit in the Region. This passion was so apparent to all members that it soon turned into an action plan to increase community awareness and support for mass transit. It was very important to the team to inform individuals on how mass transit can transform Richmond and our Region and how it has done so in cities like Charlotte, NC, and Cleveland, OH, who have benefited greatly by having mass transit in their areas.
The team got quickly to work, using “Got Transit?” as it is initial project name and decided to develop a viral video as one way to inform the public. Of course the team wanted the project to be successful and have great impact on our Richmond Region but more importantly, the team emphasized that the project have “life” beyond fulfilling a class assignment. In order to achieve the kind of success the team aspired to, it became imperative to partner with the appropriate organization – GRTC Transit System. GRTC became our partner that not only provided the professionalism and direct expertise, but defined ridership and transit and its impact on so many issues. The LMR team and GRTC identified two key issues, the economy and the environment, on which transit has an impact on our community. Over the next several months the LMR/GRTC partnership developed a strategic plan to provide a viral video with this particular focus. The video was only one way to increase awareness of mass transit and then work was undertaken to develop TransitTalk.com, print advertisements, and television spots.
During the initial phases of the project, it became clear that others might want to be involved in such an important effort for the Richmond Region. Ridefinders, Style Weekly, Richmond Magazine and Boomer Magazine were among the first to partner and engage the TransitTalk.com message of the need for better public transportation in the Region.
The LMR group continued to provide leadership with the help of volunteers and the partnerships formed over the better part of 2009. During that winter it was evident that there was an outreach portion missing from the efforts of the advocacy group. Partnership for Smarter Growth (PSG) was brought on to handle programming for TransitTalk.com.
As we enter into 2010 it is an exciting time. PSG, Ridefinders, & TransitTalk.com are teaming up to encourage citizens to get smart and speak up about the need for a more connected region with their Voices 4 Transportation Choices campaign. By providing tools and opportunities to communities in the Richmond Region, TransitTalk, Ridefinders and Partnership for Smarter Growth will achieve our mutual goal of making transportation choices a priority among decision makers and the citizens whom they represent. Voices 4 Transportation Choices is a multi-pronged approach to educate, energize, and mobilize the community for more transportation choices.
The goal of TransitTalk.com is to make the Richmond Region aware of the contribution that expanded public transit can make in solving many of the problems facing the region in the immediate, near, and distant future.
Without awareness of the potential impact of expanded public transit, we cannot address the problems of environment, economy, traffic congestion, increased taxes, and the quality of life within the Richmond Region.
