We’ve mentioned here before that Segway was going to start giving tours of Historic Richmond.  Well, I just found out that the new “Give Me Liberty Historic Segway Tours”  will begin departing at the Richmond Metropolitain Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Visitor Center starting on  May 17.

Here’s the scoop from Segway of Richmond’s Website:

The guided Segway tour is approximately 2.5 hours with a 15-minute lesson to make sure you’re safe and comfortable gliding around town. You’ll discover architectural features of downtown buildings.  Along the way, you’ll stop and see things you just can’t get to see by car. We can also design a personal tour just for you or your group. Just tell us where you like to begin,and we can arrange for local delivery/pick up for a nominal fee.

When: Tours begin daily,
7 days a week, at 10am
and 2pm.
Where: Meet at the Segway
of Richmond Store located
at 1301 East Cary St. in
Downtown Richmond. Tours
will begin at the Richmond Metro
Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Tickets: Tour tickets are
available at Segway of
Richmond or in advance
by calling 804.343.1850
Cost: $65 per person for a
2.5 Hour Tour.

This is the main one for us West Enders….but If you are going downtown, beware of traffic closures….and be sure to use 195 or 95/64.

* Monument Avenue / Franklin Street will be closed between Staples
Mill Road and Stuart Circle (Lombardy Street) from 8 AM to 1 PM. The
recommended detour for eastbound traffic is left on Staples Mill Road, right
on Broad Street, left on Allen Avenue, right on Leigh Street, right on
Belvidere Street. The recommended detour for westbound traffic is right on
Belvidere Street, left on Leigh Street, left on Allen Avenue, right on Broad
Street.

The University of Richmond held the first of two public hearings last night regarding the new football stadium proposed on campus. Neighbors are concerned that traffic for the stadium, which will hold almost 9,000 people, will be a problem.

NBC12 reports:

Right now, the Spiders play at the hard-to-fill stadium near Carytown. Construction on the new campus stadium can’t begin until the city of Richmond approves a special-use permit - which likely won’t happen until early June.

The Spiders hope to take to the new field in fall of 2010. A second public meeting is scheduled for April 29 at Weinstein Hall.

As I may have mentioned before, the Richmond Metro Convention & Visitor’s Bureau is my employer. Which is why I’m pleased to announce that cutting edge Richmond will offer Segway tours of the city in as groups as large as 30 at a time. The new “Give Me Liberty Historic Segway Tours” will start this month. Yes, you know, those mini-stand up motorcycle thingys. I can just see a herd of 30 now, bumping along the cobblestone in Shockoe Slip.
Several months ago, Richmond Tours, run by James River Bus Lines, stopped operating the local tour because it just wasn’t profitable for them. Now, every weekend when I work, I have to tell many disappointed visitors that we just don’t have a comprehensive tour of the city. Many stare at me in disbelief.
Anyway, despite that fact that this sounds like an awesome April Fool’s joke — It is not. And, personally, I couldn’t be happier. I think it is a great idea in concept and I hope it flies. Now if we can just get the visitors, who had envisioned sitting on a bus for 3 hours to imagine standing on a Segway for that long, we’ll be in business.

Segway Tours Start at Visitor Center in April
Beginning in April, guests to the Richmond Region can see the city in a whole new way. Guided Segway tours will depart daily from the Visitor Center in groups as large as 30. Segways are safe, fun, easy to use and provide a totally unique way to tour downtown Richmond. For more information contact Segway of Richmond.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the University of Richmond is crazy for thinking that Three Chopt Road could handle all of the traffic of a real university football stadium and run it through their petite entrances on extremely narrow streets. This week, Style Weekly writes about the big players involved.

While the University of Richmond moves forward with pre-season deals to expand its on-campus football stadium, neighbors have made an aggressive draft pick to help voice their traffic concerns.

Anticipating ongoing negotiations with the city and the university, the Three Chopt Road Civic Association has retained Ralph “Bill” Axselle Jr. — an attorney who parlayed his 16 years of service in the House of Delegates into a career as a powerful lobbyist.

“We’re confident the city will, at the end of the day, impose the appropriate conditions,” says Axselle, who received his law degree from UR.

For years the university has wanted to move its Spider football team home from the old, hard-to-fill 22,000-seat city stadium south of Carytown. In January, UR announced that a $5 million donation from the Robins Foundation had pushed it over the $25 million fundraising goal line. The school filed for a special-use permit with the city Feb. 20 seeking clearance to enlarge the existing on-campus First Market Stadium from 3,000 seats to 8,700 seats.

Three Chopt Road Civic Association’s president, William Berry, says he’ll monitor modifications to the sound and lighting scheme, but neighbors are worried most about the traffic.

“We’re not opposed to the stadium; we just want them to do it right,” says Berry, former president of Dominion Resources and a UR alumnus. He says the university needs to consider adding an additional entrance or exit to the stadium to keep traffic from clogging Three Chopt Road.

Adding another entrance or exit could get tricky. The backside of the property touches Henrico County. Tuckahoe District Supervisor Pat O’Bannon says residents along Horsepen Road are also wary of traffic and are opposed to a proposed new road connecting Horsepen to the university.

John McCulla, UR’s community relations director, says the university has brainstormed ideas to stem the traffic: reserving the lots nearest the field for vehicles with four or more fans, installing more bike racks, providing an internal shuttle system to make inconvenient parking less so and launching a campaign to make visitors more aware of other campus entrances.

He says the indoor basketball arena next to the stadium, the Robins Center, seats just more than 9,000, and the university has responsibly managed traffic from the season’s 15 home games for years.

The specter of those extra few days of heavy traffic may provide an opening for the neighbors to address the situation.

“If you come up with another entrance and exit,” Berry says, “then you’ve solved a problem for football, but you’ve also solved it for the Robins Center and the rest of the university. It’s a three-fer.”

The Huguenot Bridge is one of the most heavily trafficked bridges in the area receiving about 28,000 vehicles a day. It’s also one of the oldest at 58 years old. No wonder why VDOT is considering replacing the bridge a year sooner than originally anticipated. The Times-Dispatch has more:

Costly maintenance requirements, the bridge’s advancing age and declining condition, and the critical need for widening to allow for emergency vehicles moved the state to rebuild the span, VDOT said.

VDOT will hold a public hearing on the proposed bridge on Nov. 13 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Bon Air Elementary School, 8701 Polk St., Richmond.

[via]:

Henrico police say a county school bus driver was charged with reckless driving after a wreck this morning sent two people to a hospital.

Lt. John Coover says the wreck occurred at 8 a.m. at Patterson Avenue and Three Chopt Road when a bus rear-ended a Honda sedan. The two people in the sedan were taken to Henrico Doctors’ Hospital (Forest) after complaining of neck and back pain.

The Times-Dispatch published an interesting article this morning that highlights various area traffic experts indicating that Richmond-area traffic congestion has reduced. I’m fortunate enough to have only a 100′ commute…literally, however just from what I’ve seen (and heard through the windows), traffic around the Three Chopt and Grove Ave. areas is pretty busy during rush hour times. I can’t imagine what it must be like for other locations around the area.

We have it good in Richmond,” said Virginia Commonwealth University transportation economics expert George Hoffer. The Texas report found that cities of comparable size and congestion were generally those on the economic downslide, while Richmond is relatively booming with new growth bringing new traffic, he said.

“I’m not saying it’s not bad at Short Pump at 5 p.m.,” he added, but the bottlenecks have moved farther from downtown Richmond, freeing up traffic in the north and west sections of the city, while not increasing in number.

I always enjoy a free lunch. And, I just might ride a GRTC bus to get one, especially if it’ll give me the opportunity wear a big purple button that says “I tried transit today.” Does it talk if you punch it like the Staples’ easy buttons? I wonder if people will hit me in the chest if I wear it!

Since Monday, the GRTC Transit System has been giving a blinking purple button to anyone who rides one of the system’s buses. The button, proclaiming “I Tried Transit Today,” is the ticket to a free lunch and party in downtown Richmond tomorrow.

GRTC’s RideFinders program is staging the third “Try Transit Day” with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, WTVR-TV, Lite98 and K95. The promotion culminates in a musical celebration tomorrow from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Kanawha Plaza.

[via]

According to VDOT [via], the following roadwork is being performed in Henrico:

• Virginia 5 (Henrico): There will be a flagging operation along the eastbound and westbound lanes between the Richmond city limits and Orleans Street on Monday through Thursday nights through Sept. 28 from 7 p.m.-5 a.m. for paving.
• Patterson Avenue east (Henrico): There will be alternating lane closures on eastbound Patterson Avenue between the Goochland County line and Virginia 157 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through the morning of Sept. 7 for milling and paving.
• Interstate 64 west (Henrico): The right shoulder will be closed on I-64 west between mile markers 206 and 204 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Also, there will be intermittent, alternating lane closures on I-64 west between mile marker 206 and the I-295 interchange nightly from 7 p.m.-6 a.m. through Sept. 7 for milling and paving.
• Broad Street east (Henrico): The right lane will be closed on Broad Street eastbound at Glenside Drive from 7 p.m. Thursday through 6 a.m. Friday for paving.
• Broad Street east (Henrico): There will be alternating lane closures on Broad Street eastbound at Three Chopt Road nightly from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. Sept. 10 for loop detector and signal work. Motorists should use an alternate route, if possible.