Recording of the January Meeting
Meeting Highlights
- $291 million in total funding secured so far; no major new funding since last quarter.
- DB2 Southern section (10 miles) expected to break ground in Q2–Q3 2026, with about 2.5 years to complete.
- Multiple segments in Richmond and Henrico County are moving into bidding or construction phases, including the Villa Park segment and areas near Bryan Park, Manchester Bridge, and Kanawha Plaza.
- New bike infrastructure and trail connections (e.g., Dumbarton Road and Glover Park access) are nearly complete, improving future connectivity to the Fall Line Trail.
- A regional delegation will visit Greenville, SC’s Swamp Rabbit Trail to study best practices for trail design, economic development, and placemaking.
- Early evidence shows increased business activity near completed trail sections, supporting the trail’s economic development potential.
- The team is exploring a firefly mascot and expanded public art, including sculptures and student-created artwork, to strengthen trail identity and placemaking.
- The Virginia Great Outdoors Act could provide $50 million in trail funding, but it is still pending legislative approval.
- Pedestrian fatalities have risen sharply, including a recent death along the future Fall Line Trail alignment, reinforcing the trail’s role as a critical safety project.
- The Fall Line Trail continues to be positioned as a major regional investment for safety, transportation, recreation, and economic growth.
Meeting Transcript
0:02Good morning. It is January 14th. Happy new year. I think it’s according to Larry David, it’s too late to say that,
0:08but it’s my first time seeing many of you uh this year. So, happy 2026. Um
0:13this is our quarterly meeting of the friends of the fall line, and I will pull my presentation up now. Um as
0:19usual, uh feel free to introduce yourself in the chat, and I’m seeing folks from all over the region um for
0:27some exciting updates about the following And I think I think let’s see from a new
0:32face standpoint. I definitely see Nathan here. Thanks for joining us. Uh it’s been a little while. Um I think you just
0:39hired one of our friends uh that I that I see recently. Um Kate from the Sydney. So happy you’re here.
0:58Oh, that’s good. Okay. Um, this chair is took the opportunity to
1:04replace one of our pictures. Nice photo from our ribbon cutting on on DB1. It
1:10was just in September, but I feel like it was just yesterday. Um, funny how time time travels here. Uh, no
1:17major updates here from funding on the fall line. uh the um there haven’t been
1:23a lot of opportunities to seek new construction funding since the last time we met. Um so we’re still at
1:28approximately 291 million for the overall project. And of course the long
1:35story of this is that a lot of this money has been raised um uh early in the process which is
1:40allowing multiple construction projects to happen at the same time. And we can get on that um discuss that a little bit
1:47here on the next slide. Not much official change here uh since the last time we met. Um shortly after
1:54the last the most recent Friends of the Fall Line meeting was the open house for the latest um updates to the DB2
2:04Southern 10 miles in Petersburg, Colonial Heights and um about halfway
2:10through Chesterfield. And so that project continues to move on. I have been going to their monthly stakeholder
2:15meetings and uh it’s highly technical but the things definitely seem to be
2:20moving forward and they are piecing together how they’re going to phase the different projects and certainly um I’d
2:26love to open the floor to anyone from VOD or Chesterfield beyond to talk about this. But I will say our longtime
2:32partner Scott Fischer, who’s been the uh mega mega project engineer for these projects, um this this project, the Mayo
2:38Bridge, um someone who worked on the Virginia Capital Trail, is no longer with the Richmond District and VOD has
2:44moved to central office. So we um uh last I checked in with Scott, they don’t
2:49have a direct replacement for that position. Um but we wish Scott well. He’s been so great to work with over the
2:55past several years. Um, and I’m sure he’s doing great things now in central office. Um, before I open the floor to
3:03our local partners, and I’ve got a few slides from Henriiko, I I do want to in um uh sort of present this as an
3:10opportunity for any of our local or state partners to to give us any slides about your sections or or comparable
3:16development, whether it’s connections to the fall line, etc. Um, and uh we have a
3:22a few things that are really in the hopper right now. So, in the um we talked about DB2, the latest I heard is
3:30that there’s a the schedule for the groundbreaking will be in um Q2 Q2 or Q3
3:36this year. Um so really I think it’ll be coming down um the pike pretty soon. Uh
3:42so that’ll be obviously a major um a major milestone and the the biggest
3:48singular section of the trail. and it once it actually gets up to speed, it’s only about 2 and 1/2 years for that 9 9
3:55and a half 10 miles to be built. So, that’s pretty exciting. Um, we have a number of sections in the city of Richmond that are that are really coming
4:02towards uh active construction phase. We got Brian Park, the um mayor just
4:08announced of uh accelerating the project over the Manchester Bridge and Commerce
4:13Road. Um and the um Canawa Plaza section
4:19is also I think ready to be have its ground broken relatively soon. Um I know that I’ve um uh I gave a friendly
4:27suggestion to the city that it might be nice if we could do that during the general assembly session in the next two months to have a VIP audience um in
4:35attendance. But we’ll see if that ends up being appropriate. And um I think
4:40with that I can uh leave it to Henriko to talk about what they’re doing right now because I know that Ryan’s on with a
4:46couple of things, but is there anything else that I didn’t address? And there’s an active section that’s somewhat in
4:51development um uh or something that we should all be paying attention to now would be a great time to jump in.
5:03All righty. Hearing none, I’m gonna um let Ryan jump in. Oh, Phillip. Yep. Uh, Brightly, the only thing I
5:10would mention from handover is that our section is open and uh we have prototypes for the permanent signage and
5:16that should be installed along our section by uh the end of February.
5:25That’s great. I will say um I didn’t include a picture. My presentation was getting a little bit long. So, um, uh,
5:31Philip invited the, uh, chat from the CBTA and us from BikeWalk, uh, to join
5:38Hannover, uh, and Ashland, um, including Emmy to, uh, and Joe Vunas from the
5:44Hannover team to review the prototypes. And one, they looked awesome, but they were the first time that these had been
5:50made, it was clear that a couple of little revisions would really improve the design. So, um I certainly love for
5:56Emmy or Philip to to um uh uh elaborate on any of those design changes, but I
6:03will say they just look they’re they’re big and blue and they’re beautiful and I can’t wait to see them installed.
6:11Emmy, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to not talk about the signage. I can let um Philip talk
6:17about that if there’s more. But um in the Ashland uh for the Ashland section
6:22um obviously the trail ends at Carter Park which is about a mile from our downtown. So we created a an extension
6:30trail into our downtown that is um made up of shared use path um or sidewalk and
6:37we put signage along it um at the end of the week. So, well, in two days because
6:42it’s Wednesday. On Friday, um we’re going to begin install of a functional
6:48uh trail head. So, it’s a functional piece of art. Um we did an RFP for an
6:53artist to come in and um it’s really cool. It talks about the fall line, talks about Ashland. Um it’s being installed at our library, which is the
7:00end of that trail head or that extension trail into our downtown. Um, so the installation of that starts on Friday
7:05and it’ll be great for photos and placemaking and kind of celebrate the fall line in Ashland and the greater
7:12Richmond region. So, um, very excited for that. There’ll be a ribbon cutting at some point um, once everything’s
7:18installed. Um, but that’s our and then we’re kind of hanging out until we get
7:23that way finding signage along the trail in conjunction with Hanover.
7:28I’ll say if it doesn’t delay your timeline too long and certainly don’t do this if that’s um if if it doesn’t work.
7:35Uh it might be nice to pair it with a bike month event, a bike ride or something like that if there if that if
7:41May ends up working out for a u ribbon cutting for that art installation.
7:49Phil, did you want to talk more about the um wayfinding signage and and the
7:55the any of the details about what it’s looking like? Yeah. Um I don’t I don’t know if I can
8:02drop a file in the chat, but um all the changes the recommended changes were
8:07presented to the CVTA TAC uh back on December 19th, I believe.
8:13Uh, so there was a PowerPoint presentation that kind of goes over the changes that we made and um, so I would
8:20recommend anybody goes there if they’re interested in the seeing the changes.
8:28All right, thank you. Yep. Um, Ryan, are you on? Got a few slides for you.
8:34Yeah, morning everybody. Um, and I guess beforehand, thanks to Philip and everybody, Ashlin or handover for
8:41working through all the signage stuff. That’ll that’ll make things a lot easier for for the rest of us when we get to
8:46get to that point. So, really appreciate y’all. Um, so Brley mentioned uh I guess
8:52fall line adjacent. So, this is my I guess quick update. Um, we have a a road
8:57diet project uh a two-m long road diet project along Dumbartan Road. Um, so
9:03that connects Brook Road and Aelia Avenue or US Route One with uh Staples
9:08Mill Road. Um, and so that’s about two miles and right kind of smack dab in the middle of that will be the future
9:14Falline Trail crossing. Um, that’s kind of where uh where the arrows are pointed
9:19there. But we’re really excited for this project. It’s kind of been coming down the pipe for really for quite some time
9:25now. And uh just happy to report that it’s uh I’d say 95% finished. All the
9:30striping is done. Um we are waiting on some traffic signal replacements that
9:35will um uh and one of those intersections will actually include some uh dedicated uh dedicated bicycle signal
9:43crossing at Bird Hill, which is uh Bird Hill Road, which is closest to Staples Mill. But anyway, just an exciting um
9:51bicycle connection uh to where the the fall line trail will be constructed here hopefully soon. Um so that yeah, a
9:58couple of photos there. Uh Brenley, you can scroll over. I think there are just a couple more pictures on the next slide
10:05um of some fun fun bike lanes. But anyway, um yeah, so this was a fourlane
10:10fourlane road that has been has gone on its uh its diet for the new year and um
10:16yeah, just happy excited that it’s it’s almost finished. So um one falling adjacent report there.
10:23Um is this Henriko’s first use of green paint? Uh that. Wow. I should know the answer
10:30to that. Um Sharon, do you know if we have green paint anywhere else? I think
10:36we do. I can’t where specifically where. This is one of the newer ones. Um but
10:43that’s exciting. This is Bill Rian. Um no, I there’s definitely some green paint in Henriiko.
10:50Um uh near me on Ridge, North Ridge Road, there’s green paint.
10:56Oh, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Green paint. Green. There’s a lot
11:03of back and forth about the green paint usage. Uh but now that we’ve got we’re kind of rolling out bike lanes uh all
11:10over the place. I think you’ll see more, but this is definitely the the highest profile project that’s been that’s using
11:17green paint. So anyway, um more uh fall line direct update that
11:23we’re really excited about. So one of our segments, the Villa Park segment actually went to AD, uh late last week
11:30on Friday. So uh really exciting. It’s it’s a little over a mile long segment that connects East Param Road with
11:37Lakeside Avenue. Um so that that went to add last week. Bids close February 10th.
11:45Um kind of along those lines, we are also anticipating segments south of
11:51Lakeside Avenue. So from Lakeside Avenue down to Dumbartan Road. Uh that is kind
11:56of several segments being packaged together. And uh that the the goal for
12:01that is is in April, midappril. Uh we still are we’ll need to go through I
12:06guess VOTE’s authorization to advertise process, but we’re we’re right there. And um yeah, so I think we’ll have uh
12:17several of these segments under advert or under construction here um in the next couple of months. So really excited
12:22about that. Thanks, Ryan. And this really pairs nicely with the um the Lakeside um area
12:30plan that Henriko has been working on. I know they did they had a number of public meetings around creating a
12:36vision. I think the terminology they were using is like a garden district as essentially an extension of the
12:42aesthetic and history of the um Lewis Gter Botanical Gardens and really looking at re and imagining what
12:49Lakeside Avenue looks like through the commercial corridor and beautifification and and really interesting stuff
12:55including bike lanes, but also thoughtful connection across a really short distance over to the Brook Road
13:01corridor um to get people from the fall line into this what you know what I’m
13:07imagining to be a trailoriented district. Yeah, absolutely. And and I I hate I’m
13:13sorry to go back, but I I should have also mentioned uh because they were talking about the the northern section
13:19into handover. Uh one other project that’s getting close to finished I think sometime this spring is uh the Glover
13:26Park extension. Uh Glover Park is right kind of right over the Hanover Henriiko
13:32line and um that park is undergoing a major expansion project and um the
13:38there’ll be a uh direct there’ll be a new road opened up onto Woodman Road uh that already has kind of a shared use
13:45path connection to the Falline Trail right there. So, I think within the next couple of months, you’ll have kind of a
13:51um just a new place where you could uh I guess park if you need to and and ride up to Ashlin, ride back or or vice
13:58versa. Um just to kind of have your first real trail head uh in in Reicho County uh within Glover Park. So, we
14:05were out there last week taking a look at the the progress of the construction on the park and uh there’s a lot a lot
14:11going on, but um yeah, that’s the goal is to have that that park open in the spring.
14:18Awesome. We look forward to that. Yeah, that’s all I got. Um, any more updates about the fall line
14:27development itself or anything in the corridor connections before I move on?
14:32Thanks everyone. All right. Well, we’re really excited. Um, Sportsbackers is on the precipice of of leading its next um
14:40substantial study trip. Um you if you’ve been following us for a while or maybe you’ve been on one of these trips
14:45before, we’ve gone to Atlanta, Indianapolis, uh Bentonville, Arkansas, and Durham. Um
14:53and varying sizes from, you know, um actually gone a few more places u New York and and DC. Um uh some of them have
15:02been relatively small staff or staff plus a few folks trips. um and up to
15:07about 40 people on bus trips to DC, which we’ve done twice. This is going to be in some ways our biggest trip in that
15:14we’re taking 25 people to Greenville, South Carolina to study the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Um with at the moment we’ve got
15:21five of our of our partner localities um sending one to three staff members. Um
15:26we have local funders, we have artists and community members uh including partners from our Falline Placemaking
15:33Collaborative. um joining to uh study not only the swamp private trail as a
15:40model trail but um specifically to follow the most recent chamber RVA’s
15:46inner city visit which took leaders from around from the you know the business uh
15:51community from the local government um uh delegation from our whole region to see this and I’m I’m told from multiple
15:58angles that the Swamp Private Trail really impressed people um not only for how great the trail itself is but from
16:05connecting to local parks to incorporating art and storytelling and and sort of becoming a a canvas for
16:13cultural narratives and inclusion. And um so we’re we’re hoping to take people
16:18who are one or two levels removed from our top executives from across the region to see the same thing, have the
16:26same impact, and to figure out a way to actually um get our hands on and
16:31developing these kinds of projects. Uh we really can’t wait and it’s only a few weeks away now. We’re going in early
16:37February. So um uh some of you will be joining us and uh appreciate your uh
16:43give u dedicating a few days to this study trip with us.
16:49Um we we continue to work and and figure out the role that we can play with art u
16:54related to the fall line. It it’s obvious and we’ve said many many times that all of our model trails incorporate
17:01placemaking and art as a not just a nice to have but essential um component to
17:07trail oriented design and and um opening the door to people using
17:12these trails. And uh in our latest meeting of the fall line placemaking collaborative, we we dug into some art
17:19and theme questions to kind of get a sense of how we our art could start to
17:25represent the communities that it connects to have bigger stories. And that is now nested in our u multi-month
17:32process to really energize re-energize the fall line website. Um, it’s always
17:38been uh kind of an iterative process with the website where we got a new one about a year ago and now we want to
17:44really start focusing on the features that are needed for users to be able to find information that they want. And
17:50it’s like every time we talk about the website, we’re talking about visuals. We’re talking about um um language that
17:58people um find accessible. And it became so clear that the visuals that we’re
18:03choosing have some holes that we can try to excuse me I’m just all of a sudden losing my voice.
18:12So uh the thought came up um about h how sports backers can
18:20lead conversations where art starts to come out of it. Who who’s going to produce the art? Where will it be
18:27produced? And what will the art be of? Um, ultimately we’re not big on on having to, you know, thumbs up or thumbs
18:34down these things. Ultim a a collaborative vibrant corridor. That
18:40means a lot of people are going to have their hands in this. Um, but we just so happen to have a headquarters right on
18:45the Falline Trail and the opportunity to create some art ourselves. So, we asked the Falline Placemaking Collaborative,
18:51what kind of art might make sense? and a lot of discussion um centered around
18:56animals, sculpture of of an animal that might make sense for um the trail and
19:03paired with our how we’ve been thinking about the website, the conversation around the potential for a mascot came
19:10up and uh with digging into that a little bit deeply. the um the potential
19:16for a firefly uh seemed to be a a mascot animal that could make sense for the
19:22fall line. We like the alliteration uh of firefly. It’s very much a um an
19:28animal that people have um you know nostalgic and warm feelings for. We love
19:34seeing a field full of fireflies. They happen to be somewhat suppressed right now. they’re they’re rarer to see and
19:40there’s some environmental factors there that um are I think nice uh sort of a
19:46nice adjacent um message uh related to getting people outdoors and the the
19:52natural areas that this trail will connect. And so this is a very much a
19:57soft opening to a concept like no hard decisions have been made, but we kind of want to explore the potential for a
20:04mascot for the fall line and if it could be a Firefly, which is one of many
20:10things that we considered and and it’s got sort of our first or maybe second level of of go-ahad from a stakeholder
20:16group that could have downstream effects. Things like, do we have cute
20:21little fireflies on our website? Do we have um does it become a theme that pops up in various places around the whole
20:28corridor in art of multiple mult uh you know multiple formats? It could be in
20:33little Easter egg stickers. It could be in murals. It we could have a sculpture and with with um sort of full
20:40disclosure, we certainly have started the conversation about the potential for a Firefly or other kind of sculpture to
20:47be a signature trail headpiece at um Sportsbackers headquarters. uh we have
20:52not s sought any kind of approval. So we’re kind of we’re approaching this in a conversational way first before we
20:58start to um uh you know seek approvals and and find specific funding and work
21:03with specific artists. But I think that’s the direction that we want to go and this is our first time really going public with it. We’ve talked to our
21:09marketing team a fair amount. We’ve talked to the the placemaking collaborative a number of times. And what we want to um uh open the door to
21:18is a conversation of does a Firefly not work? Is there something that like do we have an aversion to a Firefly for any
21:26reason? And um uh are there any good alternatives? I think there’s a I want
21:31to work from general to specific and not the other way. I don’t want to necessarily go backwards on a on like
21:36really opening the door to an infinite possibility of what we could choose. But, um, I think it’s it’s a fun thing
21:44to explore. It’s definitely we’re working towards, uh, some kind of shared agreement about a, uh, mascot or icon
21:51that would make sense for us. And, um, the, uh, oh, there’s a Firefly Trail.
21:57Oh, we’re just going to have to Oh gosh. We’ll see. It’s I don’t I don’t think there’ll be
22:03much conf I don’t think there’ll be much confusion. They are they are leaning the the reason it’s called the Firefly Trail
22:09is related to it being a rail trail and the former rail line looks like
22:14fireflies with the sparks flying through the woods. So they don’t really use any like mascot. It’s more about the rail
22:21than it is like physically a firefly. I mean they have like some Firefly stuff and but I I don’t think it’s going to be
22:27I don’t think a confusion would would come up with that. So um I appreciate that. Uh, I’ve I’ve
22:34included a a silly, but I also I think kind of poignant um example of what how
22:40this uh Firefly could look. And uh I want to give Natalie a lot of props for jumping into using some AI graphic
22:46design tools uh to see what we could play with. When I look at this, it looks like like it could very much live on a
22:52um serial box, which I think is kind of fun. Um but it’s also like you could imagine that this is it’s a friendly
22:59character. You could see this living as a sculpture. you could see it living as like little Easter eggs and corners on a
23:04website or published materials. And um if we had grand ideas, we could imagine
23:10having a different version of the Firefly and all seven localities. And so like there’s an opportunity for us to
23:15kind of be creative. Uh or it could be the same character that is doing something different in each of those um
23:22each uh example. However, this is again this this is conceptual ideas and and
23:28we’re not pushing for anything in particular. We kind of want um you as the friends of the fall line and our art
23:33community and our friends um fall line placemaking collab collaborative to find
23:39something that we can agree on so that we can actually start moving this stuff forward. And I think what that will look like is Sportsbackers has the
23:47opportunity to probably buy one piece of art and have it at our website or have it at our um office and to think like
23:54can this be a spark that helps to start that next implementation. And if you’re
24:00familiar with um some of the local artists like the B cycles in uh by Matt Lively and Richmond are really uh
24:06well-liked and they’re notable and recognizable. um something like that could develop out of this kind of um
24:14exploration. So I think um I’m certainly happy to have more conversation about the Firefly um in general. Uh but I
24:22think right now like know that we’re kind of playing in this space and um
24:28eventually I think we’re going to ask Ken Reicho uh what they think so that we can start moving towards the incremental
24:33process of of putting something um at our headquarters. Otherwise related to art, we’re very
24:39excited to take a few artists um to Greenville with us to kind of again
24:44explore what we might be able to take um from what works there to implement along
24:50our corridor. Uh our bike month theme is going to be very much centered around art. at our October um meeting, we had
24:58folks from the Manchester um art park, the Little Giant Society, um explain
25:04their concept of a of a a kind of a living curated museum of art or or art
25:11gallery very much in the in the fall line corridor by the Manchester Bridge. And that’s an opportunity for us to
25:17really explore with getting people involved with the fall line alignment and with art. And um we look forward to
25:23exploring that more. And lastly, we’ve reached out to Hannover County Public Schools for the opportunity to have
25:30Hannover school like art classes produce art that could live somewhere in the
25:36fall line corridor. um our original thought and certainly there’s there’s room for this to to adapt for sure, but
25:42there’s we’ve got some conceptual agreement that we could install art along the railed fences along the
25:49current existing section of the fall line on DB1. Um modeled after what has
25:54uh art that we’ve seen on the news river trail near where my dad lives in North Carolina. Um just imagine we have
26:01locally made children’s art that gets rotated out every year or every season.
26:06Um that is flat and you know doesn’t cause any damage to the to the rails. Um
26:13obviously there’s some agreement um that needs to happen between VOTE and Handover or it may it might also nicely
26:20fit within their existing agreement. But we’re working towards this concept of how can we start to get um local buyin
26:28and local kind of participation in fall line art and placemaking. And what
26:33better way to do it than working with public school students uh who can get their art displayed in a place they can
26:39go visit. Um certainly parents I think would like that as well. So these are things that we’re exploring and uh would
26:44love to see that this kind of effort proliferate.
26:51Uh switching gears for sure. Um the general assembly starts today. I think uh I think they ring the bell in one
26:57hour. Um the uh probably the most notable uh legislative issue that we’re
27:04familiar with is Delegate Crez has now I think for the third or fourth year is
27:09carrying what is called the Great Outdoors Act, Virginia Great Outdoors Act. That is um a $200 million
27:16appropriation. I should I should double check that that number is right. is previously a $200 million appropriation, but I do know uh it would include $50
27:23million for trail development um which is the most recent attempt and um there
27:28haven’t been any other parallel or competing attempts to get trail funding at a state level since um 2021.
27:36Um so this is uh the latest thing to pay attention to if you’re looking for state
27:41investment in trails. Uh Natalie and I went to Cleveland for
27:48the rail the trail nation conference, the first of its kind to my knowledge put on by the Rails to Trails
27:54Conservancy. And I’ve got a couple of pictures of pretty slides, but I’ll say uh we were very impressed with Cleveland
28:00in general. Um they have a really extensive trail network through um connecting their region and really
28:07interesting place to visit like lots of industrial history that in some places we have here as well. Um really cool
28:14placemaking opportunities. They they did a lot of outdoor branding with their Cleveland sign. They actually have I think five or so of these that you can
28:20visit around town. Um you can see a couple an example of a tunnel uh or like
28:26an arbor type um installation with lights over a wide pedestrian path. Um
28:33we there was a presentation by our our um our friends in Atlanta at the Atlanta
28:39Belt Line that showed that they actually have a close to 12 to1 return on investment on their the the model trail
28:47for the fall line, the Atlanta Belt Line. They’ve put about $700 million into it and generated more than $9
28:53billion in increased value in their region. Um, so
28:58we have to be able to tell the story very effectively that like this is not a nice to have kind of project. This is actually a good investment decision from
29:06our region and we continue to be successful in that in that storytelling. But we have not quite gotten to this
29:11like that astronomical level. And I think we’re we’re very much working iterative iteratively to get there. And
29:17it becomes more and more in focus the more sections come online and you start to see some of the um impacts the the
29:24positive economic impacts around these areas. Um um I think it’s okay to share
29:30that the uh county administrator from Henriiko was already seeing and
29:36increases in restaurant activity and other trailoriented activity after DB1 opened and that’s at this point I think
29:43anecdotal but we’re looking forward to figuring out how we can explore that more analytically and um including with
29:50working with future uh opportunities with graduate students to explore that. So, we’re we’re moving in that space.
29:55And some of you would have um seven years ago now, um gone to our um we
30:02brought folks from the Indianapolis Cultural Trail to a a dayong session that we hosted at the Boat House down on
30:08the um adjacent to the the Virginia Capital Trail. And Karen Haley here is the executive director of the
30:14Indianapolis Cultural Trail um foundation. and she has been just so um
30:20helpful to us learning the the the big vision, learning the process, and it was good to see her in person again. We
30:26hadn’t seen her since we went to Indianapolis in 2023. Um just some pretty pictures from
30:33Cleveland. Um it’s a really big conference. I would recommend if you’re looking going to this sort of thing and
30:38they put it on again. I’m not entirely sure that they’re going to. Um there were certainly several hundred people,
30:44probably 500 people were there. Um, Cleveland had some really great trails. Um, one again showing some cool
30:50architectural history. You know, this on the upper left here, I I I I squint and I see the Manchester Bridge and I feel
30:56like we have some very similar um, architecture that we can um, play off. We have our own beautiful river. Um, and
31:02I also shared this picture on the bottom right of a grade separated crossing. There were many of these that they did really nicely using rail infrastructure
31:10um, and and and other opportunities to not have us cross at grade with cars. Um
31:16certainly not every time, but it’s very much appreciated when they do it right. And uh the more we travel, the more we
31:23see these trails built across the country, the more we see really thoughtful uses of this kind of thing. And I want to ensure that we’re
31:28exploring those opportunities in our region for these kind of um grade separated crossings.
31:35And that’s that. I will say um I think Cleveland is not a city that necessarily has a reputation for being a really cool
31:41place to visit, but I would go back in a heartbeat. very the the trails were really cool. The uh the riverfront
31:47experience was really cool and uh not just the river, but the of course there’s the um the big lakes. They call
31:52it the north coast of of the US because they have a great lake right there. Um
31:58and they they actually have a national park not far from downtown. Uh it’s like a 30 minute bus ride to get to um
32:05Kayahoga uh River National Park, I think is what it’s called. And um uh yeah, I
32:11just I didn’t want to prolong this with a lot of pictures, but it was a really great trip and I’ I’d encourage you to to check it out.
32:18I am changing themes here and this is not a regular subject matter that we include in the friends of the fall line
32:24but it’s uh it really is a topic at the top of people’s minds today that uh in
32:29the Richmond region we’ve had a a recent increase and a really concentrated period of pedestrian fatalities that
32:36have brought to light um really a bigger trend that doesn’t get as much attention as it usually does or or or I should say
32:43maybe should warrant on a regular basis but because of this recent concentration and the high-profile fatality of um a
32:51friend of mine and friend of many of us uh Bill Martin from the Valentine Museum um has really spotlight this issue. And
32:57so I’ve I I ran these numbers using um publicly available Virginia DMV data as
33:04well as some recent reports from the Richmond Police Department. And this shows unfortunately that this we have a
33:11pedestrian safety problem that is on an upward trend, has continued to be on an upward trend for decades. And
33:16unfortunately um the past three years have really been um an um a notable
33:22increase in fatalities. And I I want to explain the numbers that I have here. Um
33:28on the upper left I’ve got fatalities overall. That’s K’s are fatalities in
33:33pedestrian or in um transportation speak. Um, so, uh, I’ve got the
33:39cumulative fatalities over the 16-year period, 2010 to 2025, and then the
33:453-year period, 2023 to 2025. That’s the same for all of these graphs. So, uh,
33:51the the past three years are included in that 16-year period, just for clarity,
33:56but I don’t think it changes the um the outcome of this analysis at all. Um, if you look at if you on on the right,
34:02we’re controlling for population. So I um these numbers are now divided into uh or by 100 per 100,000 people and you can
34:11see my population modifiers there. These are the the latest population um data for each of the three big localities in
34:17the region. And by three big it’s not just by population size but also by these are the three that have the
34:23highest and always have the highest um non-instate crashes and fatalities. on
34:29the on the bottom rung we have that these same numbers divided by the years in that period. And this is an important
34:36metric because um the uh it helps us kind of conceptualize this a little bit
34:41more when we’re going longer uh evaluating longer periods. And the most important sort of salient condensation
34:48of these um numbers is the bottom right which is all these same numbers. It is
34:54fatalities during these periods per year per 100,000 population. And what you see
35:01is comparing the most recent three years that have been completed to the longer
35:0716-year period. And I should note that I choose 16 years because that’s as far back as the online data for DMV goes. Um
35:15Richmond and Henriiko have a notable increase for fatalities but regardless of type. So we’ve seen a 38% increase in
35:25Richmond um of the the past three years compared to the past 16 and 40% in
35:31Henriiko. So that’s inclusive of car fatalities, caron car, single vehicle crashes, that sort of thing. Um does not
35:38include interstates. The if you look at just pedestrians, you take the pedestrians out of that. We’re we’ve
35:43seen a 76% increase in pedestrian fatalities in in Richmond, a 32%
35:50increase in Henriiko, and a 14% increase in Chesterfield. And I think if it, you
35:56know, I’m not going to belabor this too much. The the problem is I in my opinion quite apparent and we’re doing a lot of
36:02work in the background to get communities and community leaders to really prioritize solving this problem.
36:09Um, but it because that 76% number is so high, it it makes that 14% number seem
36:16relatively low, like maybe that’s not a problem, but 14% is itself a pretty significant increase and something that
36:22we really want to address. This is a regional problem. There’s a lot that can be dug into this. This is this is a
36:28snapshot and I I want to recognize that that’s the case. you know, data analysis could really tease out many other
36:34additional takeaways, but it’s it’s so apparent that this problem really needs
36:40to be addressed in a much more holistic and impactful way. And um I look forward
36:45to our organization having a role to play in that. Um one of the most direct ways that we do that is our bikewalk RVA
36:51Academy, which we are launching our 14th edition of. Uh now applications are open on our website and we have our first
36:58session in um early February. So um please share that application around if
37:05anyone you are you know would be interested in in getting more active as an advocate. And in our in our view this
37:12movement of advocates is the only thing that’s really helped to increase our investment in biking and walking
37:18infrastructure and in trying to address this problem. So thank you very much for listening to this. I know it’s not
37:24exactly uh the most fall lineoriented thing ever. And oh, I I do want to say sorry, one
37:32fatality uh in the past two weeks did happen directly on the fall line alignment in Chesterfield just north on
37:40Route One just north of the defense contractors. You know, one of the more notable landmarks in that area. Um
37:47uh we talk a lot about the fall line as kind of a joyous project. It’s a it’s a it’s a placemaking project. It’s an
37:53economic development project. It’s an active transportation project. But all the way at the bottom of its foundation,
37:58it is a safety project. Um going back to 2015 when um my colleagues and I uh
38:06canvased Route One to talk to pedestrians who were walking on unimproved surfaces and unimproved areas
38:12using walkers to get to places where they needed to get food or to get pro-social behavior and had no other
38:18options. Um, we elevated those voices in 2015 when Chesterfield
38:23uh was considering its first bikeways and trails plan that passed in November of that year and became a foundational
38:29project for the fall line um overall. So, we’ve been talking about this for at
38:35least 11 or 12 years in Chesterfield and and in the region. So I just want to say
38:41that that someone died on the fall line alignment uh future fall line alignment um makes
38:48this very clear to understand that this is a safety project as much as it is everything else that I described. So we
38:55want to ensure that this project helps to bring those that that um
39:01safety to everyone across the region. And that’s all I’ve got for today. Again, uh we’re working very hard to
39:07implement the fall line vision plan that lives on our website and our next meeting is I’m sorry, it’s April 8th, uh
39:14the second Wednesday in April. Okay,
39:22any questions, thoughts?
39:30Thank you, Brley. Yeah, thanks, Brley. Appreciate it. Thanks.
39:36Thanks everyone.