News

The West Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPDC) has been selected to participate in the 2025 Community Investment Training through the Rural Investment Collaborative initiative. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Rural Investment Collaborative convenes...

RIDE Solutions, which serves as the commuter assistance program for the West Piedmont Region and is a subsidiary of the statewide ConnectingVA commuter resources program, is developing a strategic plan to identify commuter and general transportation needs in our region, and to formulate strategies to meet those needs. Specifically, the plan will assess alternative transportation modes such as bus service, carpooling, vanpooling, and to a lesser extent, bicycling infrastructure throughout the region, and perhaps beyond.

Covid and changing dynamics in our region have continued to shape how and where residents are employed and travel for their work and non-work trips alike; therefore, this plan will help us to identify the latest trends and to plan for them accordingly.

“While large metro areas such as Richmond and Northern Virginia are served by extensive transit systems and ride-share services such as Uber and Lyft, not to mention vanpools, many of those options are not readily available in our region,” said Joe Bonanno, Senior Planner with the West Piedmont Planning District Commission and the RIDE Solutions Regional Coordinator. “This plan will help us to better understand where the needs are, and the types of transportation options desired by the residents of our region.”
This plan would be incomplete without your input, so we encourage you to take a brief survey to help us understand where you believe the greatest transportation needs are and how we can address them – even if you don’t commute or are not currently in the workforce. The survey will be available until Sunday, September 15th, and can be accessed by clicking here.