Richmond fights congestion at Pony Pasture

Is the James River Park system getting too popular?

There appears to be some evidence to support that theory, at least at Pony Pasture, where visitors have their easiest access to a swimming hole from a parking lot, compared with other areas of the sprawling park.

Traffic congestion has been growing in recent years at Pony Pasture, and it has swelled to the point where volunteers are being stationed as marshals at the entrance to the parking lot on weekends.

City officials are considering several approaches to try to ease congestion at Pony Pasture, where the lot appears to be designed to hold about 85 vehicles but where volunteers say they can fit more than 100 on weekends.

That still isn't enough to prevent Saturday and Sunday backups spilling onto Riverside Drive, which has several blind curves as its snakes through the Southampton neighborhood.

The office of City Council President Kathy C. Graziano, whose district includes Pony Pasture, has scheduled a meeting tomorrow with Richmond police and the Friends of James River Park, the group that is providing the volunteer parking-lot marshals on weekends.

Graziano's office also is working with the Southampton Citizens Association to try to see what can be done to craft a long-term solution.

Suggestions have ranged from more aggressive ticketing of illegally parked cars in the neighborhood to establishing shuttle-bus service from Pony Pasture to one of the strip malls on nearby Forest Hill Avenue.

"It's very crowded on weekends," said Molly Dellinger-Wray, a board member and past president of the Friends of James River Park. "There's really nowhere else to go in that area."

That group is seeking help in staffing the parking-lot gates at Pony Pasture. Working in 2-hour shifts, the group is stationing one volunteer at the entrance and one at the exit, each with a walkie-talkie.

As one car leaves and creates an opening, another vehicle is allowed into the lot. While the cars wait to enter, volunteers give the drivers litter bags as well as literature about the park written in English and Spanish.

Dellinger-Wray said waits to get into the lot typically last no longer than about 15 minutes. People waiting in line generally have been courteous.

"It's a good problem to have and especially because it's the kind of use that we want for the park," Dellinger-Wray said. "It's people being responsible and not leaving their junk around. They're families with their kids and their dogs."

Contact Joe Macenka at (804) 649-6804 or .