To The Bottom and Back bus looks to extend route to U of R

To The Bottom and Back bus extends route to U of R

By: Virginia Kenney

Contributing Writer

To The Bottom and Back, the bus that provides free transportation through downtown Richmond on weekend nights, will extend the buses’ routes to the University of Richmond, effective Oct. 15. The organization, which added its third bus last weekend, will add a fourth.

Jim Porter, head of 2BNB, as the bus line is commonly called, said the fourth bus would also travel to the University of Richmond, which is approximately seven miles from Shockoe Bottom. The bus will arrive at the campus every hour and pick up community members as well as students.

The new additions follow a recent $3,500 fundraiser for the organization; the additional bus is scheduled to run through the end of the school year.

Porter said that by Thanksgiving they plan to have a second bus on Broad Street, bringing the total number of buses to five.

Porter and associate Patrick Viase began the operation with only $6,500 on Aug. 18, 2009. Gradually, more residents and VCU students began riding and donating.

Now nearly 3,000 people ride the bus weekly; the number keeps growing which, in turn, increases sponsorship. “What we’re doing is so groundbreaking,” Porter said. “A lot of our sponsors are glad to be involved.”

They recently received a grant of roughly $2,000 from the Fan Association.

To The Bottom and Back has a state-of-the-art tracking system in place, which Porter says is unlike any other in the country. The system was set up to help patrons track the buses throughout the evening using GPS.

Not only can people track them online, but they can also follow the buses on their smart phones.

Fortunately, the bus has never had to involve police in managing the numerous inebriated people who ride the buses each weekend. In fact, “the police in Richmond have been wonderful to us – very encouraging, very cooperative, very helpful,” Porter said. “They’ve handed us their drunks and told us ‘Take these kids home or we have to arrest them.’”

Porter himself fell victim to a drunk driver. In 2007 he was hit on his way to his son’s high school graduation. This accident was preceded by a work-related incident in 1998 that left him paralyzed which he mostly, but never completely, overcame.

“The accidents just showed me that anything is possible and to never give up on your dreams,” he said. “You can chase anything if you never forget it. If you can teach yourself to walk again, you can do anything.”

The group has had occasional troubles. On Sept. 30 one of its buses caught fire outside of The Canal Club, a local concert venue. There were no injuries, but because it was Thursday night, no other buses were running.

VCU student Jessica Hollis was on the bus the night of the incident. “It was really scary,” she said. “It was just unexpected. It was almost counterproductive that they didn’t have a second bus running because their top priority seems to be safety. Instead they ended up with 50 drunk kids running around the streets of Shockoe at four in the morning.”

Thanks to community donations, 2BNB made the $1,000 needed to fix it, and it was back in operation the next night.

2BNB has recently provided transportation for University of Richmond’s Habitat for Humanity and took less fortunate families to the racetracks for the child-oriented Touch a Truck event.

Porter says that they plan to branch out to more cities once they’ve locked down Richmond. Buses can be tracked, and donations can be made at http://www.2bnb.org/home. The buses run from 6 p.m. until 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.