{"id":1169,"date":"2017-04-24T21:19:27","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T01:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2017-04-25T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T23:47:11","slug":"foot-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/2017\/04\/24\/foot-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"Foot Traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Thess Pfferr and Brooke Warner<\/span><\/p>\n

You might not notice them at first: The\u00a0dozens\u00a0of people\u00a0who pick their way along paths worn in the grass and rocky ground along Jefferson Davis Highway as traffic zooms past. If you look closely, you’ll see that many are carrying bags of groceries, schoolbooks, or tools of a trade. These are working families, and they’re not out for exercise: There is no public transportation in southern Jefferson Davis.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The area’s decline really began in the\u00a0early 1960s, when\u00a0Interstate 95 opened, allowing\u00a0drivers to\u00a0bypass\u00a0the\u00a0Corridor\u00a0altogether. That drove local small\u00a0businesses, truck stops, motels and restaurants out of business. When the money moved out, poverty moved in. By the 1980s, Jeff Davis was known for its junkies, prostitution and social decay, and\u00a0was\u00a0generally avoided by travelers and businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, the nearest full-service grocery store is a Food Lion nearly a mile from the heart of Jeff Davis. Many residents without cars must undertake a dangerous journey on foot to get there. It is too dangerous to even ride a bike since there are few sidewalks in the area.\u00a0The nearest bus stop is about 30 minutes away\u00a0on\u00a0foot.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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GRTC line 72 to Ampthill is the only bus that runs along Jeff Davis Highway, stopping just north of Chippenham Parkway.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Maria G., an immigrant from Mexico living in Jeff Davis, has access to a car, but many others are not so fortunate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI drive, but I\u2019ve seen people who don\u2019t know how or are scared [of being pulled over undocumented],\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cThey have to walk or pay someone to drive them to the bus.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0also\u00a0see\u00a0moms\u00a0who, to\u00a0get\u00a0to church, have to walk and cross the Jefferson [Davis\u00a0Highway] and\u00a0[Route]\u00a0150, which are especially\u00a0dangerous\u00a0in the\u00a0snow or rain,\u201d\u00a0Maria said.\u00a0\u201cThere are\u00a0also\u00a0older people, Americans, retired, who don\u2019t drive and have to cross\u00a0the street\u00a0to do laundry. It’s very dangerous.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing the public safety issue has galvanized people here like nothing else. Members of the community \u2014 Hispanic, African American, and white \u2014 met with\u00a0members of the\u00a0Chesterfield\u00a0County government and the\u00a0Sacred Heart Church\u00a0who made a site visit to Jeff Davis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt was important for us, the Hispanics, to work with the American people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe began to share the needs that exist in the area where we\u00a0all\u00a0live.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaders of the\u00a0community, including Maria and representatives of the Jefferson Davis Association, met with\u00a0the\u00a0Chesterfield\u00a0County\u00a0Board\u00a0of Supervisors to air their concerns.\u00a0They argued for a safer environment for their kids and better access to transportation for everyone.\u00a0Citing budget limitations, the County rejected new spending for transportation\u00a0infrastructure, but\u00a0did\u00a0place\u00a0several\u00a0benches along Jefferson\u00a0Davis\u00a0Highway.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Two travelers seek shelter from the rain while they wait for the bus.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The idea was that\u00a0people\u00a0from the community\u00a0could\u00a0rest as they walked to the bus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nhttps:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2017\/04\/Road.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

Listen to the rumbling\u00a0of cars as they pass the bus stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Thess Pfferr and Brooke Warner You might not notice them at first: The\u00a0dozens\u00a0of people\u00a0who pick their way along paths worn in the grass and rocky ground along Jefferson Davis Highway as traffic zooms past. If you look closely, you’ll see that many are carrying bags of groceries, schoolbooks, or tools of a trade. These Read more about Foot Traffic<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2637,"featured_media":1281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53786],"tags":[53806,86,1048],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-davis-corridor","tag-bus","tag-immigration","tag-transportation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2017\/04\/IMG_2978-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7o53H-iR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}