It's Time for Charlottesville City Council to Get on the Bus

With its plans to transition its bus fleet to zero-emission, CAT is leading the way

Becoming a carbon-neutral city by 2050 is an achievable yet daunting task. It requires each segment of our community to investigate solutions and create an actionable plan to reach our climate goals. The best plans ensure that the transition will be both efficient and just, and the city of Charlottesville must lead the way to demonstrate what’s possible.

Charlottesville Area Transit, or CAT, has become the first city of Charlottesville agency to initiate a planning process for a transition to a zero-emission fleet. That in and of itself is something to celebrate, and I hope all city departments will follow CAT’s leadership. CAT has many priorities to balance, and Director Garland Williams has spent the past few years working to improve the frequency and reliability of our transit service. The agency’s proposal to achieve zero emissions strikes an important balance between improving community mobility and achieving climate goals.

The first and most significant recommendation in CAT’s presentation to City Council is to transition its fleet to zero-emission buses by 2040, putting CAT 10 years ahead of the city’s goal if all fuel is generated with 100% clean energy. It will achieve this by piloting zero-emission technologies between 2026 and 2030. After 2030, the phase-out of diesel vehicles will begin. From that point forward, our bus system will get cleaner each year until 2040, when the transition is complete.

Emissions from our homes and commercial buildings have declined thanks to the expansion of clean energy and building efficiency efforts, while emissions from our vehicles remain Charlottesville’s and Albemarle County's most stubborn source of emissions. That means that CAT has a unique role in our path to a zero-emission city. Not only do they need to reduce their own emissions, but they must build a system that encourages more of us to leave our cars behind sooner rather than later.

CAT proposes to improve our transit system by expanding its fleet by 18 buses in the next few years. This expansion will allow buses to run more frequently — as often as every 15 minutes. The Community Climate Collaborative’s 2021 "Transit, Equity, and Climate" report found frequency to be CAT’s lowest-rated service and one of the most requested improvements. We cannot wait to expand CAT’s fleet until new vehicle pilots are complete. Consequently, these new buses will not be zero-emission. However, we applaud the city’s work to get residents out of their cars and on the bus to a zero-emissions future.

CAT will have five zero-emission buses on the road by 2027 and will test these buses on each of CAT’s transit routes. During this time, we urge CAT to invest in training its drivers and mechanics to operate and maintain zero-emission vehicles, prioritizing CAT bus drivers in this transition. The pilot phase will also give the city time to build a new facility to charge and house our new zero-emission bus fleet, a key ingredient to a successful transition.

While C3 hopes that CAT and City Council will stay open to transitioning more quickly if the pilot performance exceeds expectations, we recognize that CAT’s recommendation presents an important balance between building an effective, reliable transit system and reaching our climate goals. CAT’s hard work has earned the support of C3, and it should earn the support of our city councilors. CAT is leading the way on climate, and it is time for Council to get on the bus, too.

This blog was originally published by the Daily Progress February 14, 2024