Alternative Transportation
There are many advantages to using optional forms of transportation while traveling to and from VCU. Below are some ways you may be able to reduce gas, parking or toll costs and make your commute less stressful!
Great News!
VCU is once again offering the free bus pass program for all full time students. For more information about how to ride GRTC this semester, please stay tuned to http://www.bsv.vcu.edu/vcupark/GRTC.htm
Richmond GRTC Bus
Richmond city buses transverse everything you will need from housing to fashion malls to work opportunities. Bus passes are available to all full time VCU students at Parking & Transportation. Information Assistants in the Commons and at Hunton Student Center will be glad to help you figure out how GRTC may improve your commute.
Find more information about Richmond city buses at the GRTC web site.
More information is also available at the VCU Parking & Transportation Services web site.
Cycling to Campus?
Register with the VCU Police (pdf)
RABA: Richmond Area Bicycling Association
Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.
Bicycling and Walking Program with the Virginia Department of Transportation
Walking to Campus?
Mean Streets: Pedestrian Safety
Partnership for a Walkable America
Carpooling to Campus?
Driving to Campus?
The following is a list of options to consider while parking in the VCU Monroe Park Campus area. A VCU Parking pass is the stress free recommended way to handle a car. City streets are managed by the Richmond City Police and are carefully monitored. By the time a student has received 4 parking tickets, they may as well have bought a parking pass.
See the VCU Parking & Transportation web site for parking pass availability locations and prices.
Street and private parkers around VCU should consider some of the following keys to success:
- Arrive before 7 a.m. to get unrestricted street parking on some campus streets.
- Park away from campus. There are multiple parking options just 5 – 10 blocks away and walking is great exercise. Put a bike rack on the car and bringing a bike makes parking farther away even easier.
- Parking regulations on city streets and a color coded street grid map for referencing restricted and unrestricted parking are available on the City of Richmond web site.
Honor Lots and Monthly Options
There are very few private parking lots on the West side of Monroe Park Campus. Small parking lots on Main St., between Harrison and Brunswick and the one on Grace Street between Shafer and Harrison require cash inserted into a numbered box that coincides with parking space. This is called Honor Parking.
More honor lots and monthly parking options are available between the two campuses, to the west of Monroe Park and throughout downtown. The Campus Connector has stops near several downtown parking options and is free to students. Many MCV campus students park below that campus to the east where there are several day lots that are generally a few dollars cheaper than the downtown lots. Those students can catch VCU parking lot shuttles up the hill and transfer to the Campus Connector to go on to Monroe Park or get a great boost and climb the hill for morning exercise.
Download the current Ride Guide from VCU Parking & Transportation.
The following commercial providers supply a lot of downtown's parking needs. Virginia Commonwealth University does not endorse these providers or their products.
- City Parking (Honor and Monthly) — (804) 254-0602
- Jim's Parking (Honor and Monthly) — (804) 740-1260
- Main Park (Honor Lot) — (804) 648-7275
- Standard Parking (Honor and Monthly) — (804) 649-7275
- VA Park (Honor and Monthly) — (804) 649-1258