Regional Transit:
JAUNT Services
Rural Transportation Services
This map at the head of the page depicts a few of the major transportation services that are available to residents of Greene, Albemarle, Nelson, Louisa, and Fluvanna Counties. The primary means of rural transit in these areas is JAUNT’s regional bus service, which operates mainly on weekdays to provide enhanced mobility for individuals outside of the urbanized sections of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. JAUNT offers two types of services – fixed commuter routes and demand-response service. The green routes represent the fixed commuter routes that run twice daily – once in the morning and again later in the afternoon. The hatched areas show the service areas for the demand-response services for both JAUNT and Greene County Transit. The inset map provides a larger map of the urbanized area. Many of the area’s major roads are also included provide context for the routes.
General Overview
Organized in 1975, JAUNT is a regional surface transportation system that provides enhanced mobility to residents of the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Nelson, Louisa, and Fluvanna Counties. These five local governments are responsible for supporting and maintaining this extensive service, which is used by the general public, agency clients, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities. The JAUNT fleet, which currently enlists over seventy vehicles, is equipped with on-board computers, lifts for wheelchair access, and comfortable seating arrangements. The majority of JAUNT routes function on a demand-response basis, meaning that riders call ahead and designate where they would like to be picked up and where they would like to go. In the last decade, JAUNT has been recognized by the Virginia Transit Association as the Most Outstanding Non-Urbanized Transportation System (1999), and by the Community Transit Association of America as the National Community Transportation System of the Year (1994). JAUNT offers a wide variety of routes that stretch across Albemarle, Nelson, Fluvanna, and Louisa Counties. The following is an overview of service times and days, fares, and discounts in each of the surrounding counties.
Charlottesville and Albemarle County
For residents of Charlottesville and urban Albemarle County, there is a demand-response service that runs seven days a week. The bus, which has no fixed route, runs between 6:30am and 11:50pm, except for Sundays, where it is available from 7:30am to 10:00pm. The base fare is $1.50 but it may increase if riders are further out in Albemarle County. Sunday fares for this service are double the normal rate. Unlike most of JAUNT’s other routes, riders are not required to make their reservations twenty-four hours in advance. JAUNT provides a similar demand-response service to residents of rural Albemarle County. This bus runs on weekdays between 6:30am and 6:30pm, on Saturdays between 10:00am and 10:00pm, and Sunday from 7:30am to 10:00pm. Fares can vary between $2.00 and $3.00 depending on location. Sunday rates are double the usual price, and riders over the age of sixty may apply for senior citizen discounts.
Louisa County
Three types of routes – intra county, mid-day, and commuter – service Louisa, a large county directly east of Albemarle. The Louisa intra county route travels to Louisa and Mineral and starts on weekdays at 8:00AM and 1:30PM. This is a demand-response service available to residents throughout Louisa County for a fare of $2.75. Louisa residents may also take advantage of the mid-day service, which leaves the eastern portion of Louisa for Charlottesville at 8:00 AM and returns around 6:00PM each weekday. Fares are $3.25 each way, but senior discounts are available. Lastly, the Louisa commuter service, the only fixed JAUNT route in Louisa County leaves each weekday at 5:55AM and returns later in the afternoon. Stops include the Mineral Express Mart, the Louisa Mini Mart, K& B Market, Holly’s Market, and the Zion Crossroads Park and Ride Lot, before passengers are taken into Charlottesville. The fare for this route is $2.50 each way, but tickets are available for $2.00 when purchased in advance.
Fluvanna County
Fluvanna County, located south of Louisa, is serviced by four routes including two commuter lines, a mid-day service, and an intra county bus. The two commuter routes have fixed stops and originate in Fork Union and Palmyra. The Fork Union route includes stops at the Town & Country Grocery Store, the Fork Union Exxon, the intersection of Routes 15 and 53, the Troy Post Office, the Zion Crossroads Amoco, the Beaverdam Church, and the Shadwell Store before taking passengers into Charlottesville. The bus departs Fork Union each weekday at 6:15AM and then leaves for the return trip from Charlottesville at 3:00PM each afternoon. The fare is $2.50 each way, but a ten tickets package may be purchased at a discounted rate of $20.00.
The second fixed commuter route, which runs from Palmyra to Charlottesville and back each weekday, leaves from Palmyra at 6:25AM, and leaves Charlottesville for Palmyra at 3:30PM. Stops for this route include Stoneleigh Drive, St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, Food Lion, Hopi way, and Thomas Farm Lane. The fare for this route is also $2.50 each way, or $2.00 per ticket with the ten ticket package. As in the other counties, the Fluvanna mid-day bus runs a demand-response service, but it is only available on Mondays and Thursdays. The bus arrives in Charlottesville at approximately 10:00AM, and departs to return to Fluvanna at 2:00PM. The fare is not listed on the JAUNT web site. The fourth route offered in Fluvanna, is the intra county service, which takes passengers to and from Lake Monticello, Zion Crossroads, Palmyra, and Fork Union. This service is only offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and the fare is $2.00 each way, or $1.25 for seniors or disabled persons.
Nelson County
Albemarle’s neighbor to the south, Nelson County, has five different JAUNT routes. The two commuter routes provide service from Lovingston and Roseland. The Lovingston route departs each weekday morning at 6:45AM and reaches Charlottesville at 7:25AM. The returning bus departs at 4:30PM. Stops for this route include Front Street, the Lovingston Firehouse, and the intersections of Routes 6 West and 29, Routes 6 East and 29, and Rabbit Valley and Route 29. The fare is $2.50 each way, with the $0.50 per ticket discount available when purchasing ten tickets at once.
The second commuter route, which leaves Roseland each weekday morning at 6:00AM and arrives in Charlottesville at 6:55AM, makes stops at Henderson’s Store, the Colleen Drive Inn, the intersection of Route 29 and Poplar’s lane, the Cedar Grove Church, and the intersection of Route 29 and Heard’s Mountain Road. The returning bus departs for Roseland at 4:30PM, and tickets are available for $2.50 each way. The three other routes, the Nelson mid-day to Charlottesville, the Nelson mid-day to Lynchburg, and the Nelson mid-day to Lovingston and the county’s senior center, operate on the demand-response policy. The bus to Charlottesville arrives in town at 10:00AM, back in Nelson at 2:00PM, and is available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The fare is $1.75 for disabled passengers and those over the age of sixty, while the regular rate is $2.75 each way.
The Lynchburg service runs only on Friday, but is available for the same fares as the Charlottesville mid-day service and arrives and departs at the same times. Lastly, the bus to Lovingston and the Nelson County Senior Center is available on Monday and Tuesday for a fare of $2.00 each way, not including senior discounts. This service is only offered in “certain areas” of the county.
Current Problems Facing JAUNT as viewed from the Landscape of Aging
While JAUNT does provide a valuable transportation service for residents of the rural counties surrounding Charlottesville, it does have its share of problems that inhibit is ability to provide extensive, convenient service. Some of the aspects of JAUNT’s service that have raised concerns are its efficiency, its availability, and its convenience – particularly on demand response routes. The first issue, efficiency, touches on the point that some routes are used by a very small amount of passengers. The average riders per trip in January 2005 for mid-day routes in Fluvanna, Nelson, and Louisa counties are 5.3, 3.7, and 3.4 respectively (JAUNT Ridership Information). Such disturbingly low numbers are indicative of a service that is either not meeting the convenience needs of passengers, or is not available at times that work with their schedule. Availability problems are a result of the fact that JAUNT is highly limited by the number of routes that may be run in a given week. Routes are never serviced more than twice daily, many are unavailable on the weekends, and some routes, such as Fluvanna mid-day, are run only once or twice each week. Moreover, JAUNT is unable to access many of the remote parts of these counties during periods of inclement weather and sometimes shuts down service entirely if the roads are too dangerous. Lastly, many residents have expressed concerns over the level of convenience that is provided by JAUNT services. The twenty-four hour advance notice requirement for rural demand-response routes is often cited as a major deterrent for potential riders with varying transportation needs. In addition, many routes take far too long to reach their destinations. The Louisa mid-day service, for example, is designed to provide a means of getting to Charlottesville for mid-day errands and appointments, but for residents of eastern Louisa County, the bus departs at 8:00AM and does not return until 6:00PM. All three of these concerns may be tied back to the overarching problem of funding that has plagued JAUNT in recent years. The five local governments have been reluctant to wholeheartedly commit to the regional transportation system and instead of expanding service, have reduced funding, route coverage, and availability in recent years. In light of its available resources, JAUNT prides itself on providing the best service it possibly can; ridership has gradually increased over the years to well over 20,000 passengers in the month of January 2005, including large proportions of senior citizens and individuals with disabilities. Until JAUNT has allocated the resources it desperately needs to provide extensive, efficient, and convenient regional services, however, it will continue to struggle to meet the mobility needs of its rural constituency – especially among the elderly and the disabled.
The opinions and assessments of particular services represent the view of graduate students and not necessarily those of JABA, the University of Virginia, or The Institute on Aging.
JAUNT Passenger Statistics
These graphs provide demographic on JAUNT riders from the month of January 2005. The pie chart on the top left indicates that senior citizens account for almost one-third of all JAUNT passengers. The bar graph on the top right hand of the sheet shows that most riders for this particular month reside in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Louisa and Nelson are a distant third and fourth, respectively, and Fluvanna County was home to the fewest passengers. The three-dimensional pie chart in the bottom left-hand corner provides data on the percentage of riders with disabilities. Surprisingly enough, disabled persons account for over two-thirds of all passengers in January 2005. Lastly, the last bar graph in the bottom right indicates that two-thirds of all JAUNT riders pay their own fares, while the other third’s fares are covered through various agency programs. While these graphs provide significant insight into the types of people that are using JAUNT, it is important to note that the data represents one month of service for a regional bus system that has been around for several decades. Any conclusions that might be drawn for these charts are based only on snapshots of JAUNT data; real results would require close examination of similar demographic data over a much longer period of time.
Travel Time to Nearest JAUNT Commuter Stop
This map is the first of two attempts to depict the accessibility of JAUNT commuter stops for residents of the Charlottesville region. The colored roads represent the time required to travel from that location to the nearest of the many JAUNT commuter stops, which are represented by the black dots stretching across Nelson, Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Louisa Counties. The dark green areas are within five minutes of the nearest stop while the red roads are over an hour away. These travel times factor in highway speeds and distance to calculate the cost-weighted distance for locations throughout the surrounding counties. Therefore, while one location might be physically closer to a stop, the fact that it is only accessible by secondary roads would assign it a greater cost than a location that is further away but accessible by highway travel. This results in an interesting series of green corridors that loosely follow the JAUNT routes out into the surrounding counties to the south and east.
Aggregate Accessibility to JAUNT Stops
The second accessibility map provides more detailed information on senior accessibility to JAUNT commuter stops. The map, which includes stops as black dots, is divided up into census blocks – each with an aggregate value in person hour units. This value is calculated by multiplying the number of residents of each census block by that block’s average travel time to the nearest stop. If a census block has a small senior population and is relatively close to a JAUNT stop, the aggregate accessibility value will be extremely low, indicating that there is very little need for additional mobility options in the area. These blocks are represented by lighter shades of pink and white. On the other hand, if a census block has a large amount of individuals over the age of 65 and is nowhere near a stop, the value will be much higher. These locations, which are depicted in darker shades of crimson, have poor access to JAUNT and may require further evaluation. Areas close to the stops with large senior populations and areas farther away with smaller amounts of elderly individuals will register somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. This map is an important tool in evaluating the relationship between supply and demand of transportation options for the regions senior citizens.