One-third of Virginia community colleges lack close public transit connections

Two-thirds of community and technical college campuses in Virginia are within a half-mile walking distance of a public transit stop.

For the remaining third, students traveling by public transit must walk more than half a mile to reach campus, with a quarter of all Virginia campuses located more than four and a half miles from the closest stop.

“Training for hands-on professions like nursing or welding requires in-person instruction,” said Abigail Seldin, co-founder of the Civic Mapping Initiative, the group that collected the data on Virginia in hopes of improving accessibility for students. “And, as we learned from the pandemic, high-speed internet is not yet available to all students at home. If states want to fill these high-demand jobs, transit access to community and technical college campuses needs to be a priority.”

Since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in Virginia have reopened for in-person learning, and public transit agencies have been finding ways to increase ridership by increasing stops and offering free services.