Cabell Street: All dressed up and no way of getting there

You can understand why some residents of Cabell Street are beginning to feel trapped.

Back in the 1980s, the lower end of that venerable Lynchburg street was sealed off by the demolition of Williams Viaduct. Then, an upgrade to the Blackwater Creek trail system blocked a small road that had provided an alternative outlet.

Related: GLTC to consider limited service to residents of historic neighborhood

That still left the D Street Bridge as a shortcut over to Rivermont Avenue — until the bridge was closed earlier this year. As soon as that happened, the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company stopped bus service on the street itself.

“There used to be five ways to exit Cabell Street,” said neighborhood resident Cynthia Coles. “Now, there’s one.”

Another resident, Robert Penick, expressed what seems to be a frequently held view at a public meeting at Mount Carmel Baptist Church back in July.

“It sounds to me like we’re getting the same old ‘Daniel’s Hill doesn’t need it. Daniel’s Hill doesn’t deserve it,’” Penick complained. “I’ve heard it all my life.”

Even Mount Carmel pastor Johnny Ford, who seems to be a gentle, laid-back soul, is irked.

“It really does seem that things happen faster in other parts of the city,” he said recently.

To be clear, Cabell Street didn’t lose all access to GLTC transportation. The D Street Bridge is still accessible to foot traffic (for now, anyway), and there are bus stops near D and Rivermont and at the top of Cabell Street where it intersects Rivermont. But, says Becky Poe, who has rehabbed several houses on the street and has a keen eye for the passing neighborhood scene: “I’ve seen elderly people walking six or seven blocks with bags of groceries, really struggling.”

After the July meeting, Ward II councilman Ceasor Johnson noted: “I don’t think anyone left here with the idea we don’t care.”

Apparently, he was wrong.

“They seem like they’re listening,” Coles said, “but then they leave, and nothing ever happens.”

Coles’ prior issue was the installation of a traffic light at D and Rivermont (now a moot point for the next two years). That didn’t fly because city officials said the traffic levels weren’t high enough.

“It does require some patience and a wait before a gap (in Rivermont Avenue traffic) opens,” traffic engineer Gerry Harter said at the meeting, referring to the Cabell Street and Rivermont Avenue intersection, “but there are gaps.”

Back in the good old days, when the D Street Bridge was deemed able to withstand vehicular use, the GLTC buses would cross it, make a left on Cabell and continue up the street to Rivermont. Now, it can be boarded only at the two places where the streets intersect.

Part of the problem here, it seems to me, is miscommunication. Evidently, someone at the public meeting told the disgruntled residents that the reason buses didn’t travel the length of Cabell Street is because they couldn’t turn around at the end of it.

“It seems to me that if a school bus can do it, a city bus could do it,” Becky Poe said.

Actually, that cul-de-sac looks spacious enough to turn an ocean liner around — and GLTC head Mike Carroll agrees.

“If someone has said this is the issue,” Carroll said, “they are mistaken. The issue is that with the closure of D Street Bridge, to continue to serve Cabell Street would add more than 1.3 miles to the Routes 1A and 1B, which are already pressed for schedule adherence. They have 60 minutes to make a 13-plus mile loop. Bus routes are like rubber bands — you can stretch and pull to a point, but there comes a time when the band breaks.”

Moreover, he said: “Our activity counts last fall (boardings and exits) averaged 17 passengers per day (on the Cabell Street route). That was with 16 hours of service daily.”

Counters Cynthia Coles: “We’re not asking for a bus going down Cabell every hour. We’d be happy with one maybe twice a day.”

And as for the struggling grocery carriers, Carroll said: “Remember, too, the Demand-Response ‘Paratransit’ service has always been available for those customers who, because of disability, are unable to utilize regular fixed route service.”

True enough, but what about people who aren’t disabled, but just old? Or tired? Or (in the case of those with night jobs) reluctant to walk down the length of Cabell Street after dark?

Maybe somebody with GLTC really was thinking about that. Wednesday, it turns out, the board of the publicly owned company said it was going to ask the City of Lynchburg for somewhere in the neighborhood of $80,000 to establish a special, limited service to the Daniel’s Hill neighborhood.

Which sounds good in theory, but will no doubt be problematic in a tight budget year.

And if the shuttle is rejected, a lot of folks on Cabell Street will feel rejected, as well.