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Seat Belts Not Used By METRO Bus Drivers

Author	Message
carolcarterwalke...	I ride the H8 in both directions from 2nd & Webster Streets, NE. For the past two weeks, I've been riding this route steadily on my way to work/worship. I've noticed an epidemic of drivers not using their seat belts. Is this optional? I'm torn between saying something to them about their lack of concern about their safety and those of everyone else on the bus and feeling angry that I have to the work of METRO's management. Help! Carol Carter Walker
Richard White	Bus drivers are suppose to wear their seat belts anytime a bus is in movement. Thank you for letting us know. We’ll put out a notice to remind drivers of the policy. Anyone who has a complaint, comment or compliment please alert us by calling 202 637 0128. Please tell us the bus number, time and route. Bus supervisors will do random checks.

Welcome to today's chat

Author

Message

Richard White

Welcome to today's chat, which primarily will be about our Metrobus system. We're eager to hear your questions and comments about our bus service. Earlier today, we released information to the media noting that our buses are operating more reliably (i.e., breaking down less frequently) this year compared to last year. That's great news for all of half million customer who ride our buses! Today's news follows a report we released Wednesday noting that our rail reliability has dramatically improved since last December. The bottom line is, our plans for improving the reliability of our trains and buses are working! We expect these numbers to keep improving in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned! Now let's get chatting!

DC Bus Only

Author	Message
Elysia	The bus route for Rhode Island Ave, DC is usually running behind schedule. There have been occasions where no traffic/accident was evident, despite the lag time of 15 minutes or more. Furthermore, the buses (83, 86, T18) upon arriving into DC are usually packed and at times seem to arrive almost simultaneously. Hence if you miss one or all three you have to wait the 15 or more minutes in the morning. It is suggested to have a DC bus only, catering to the DC stops, unlike but similar to the evening Express bus that leaves Rhode Island Ave train station, but doesn't stop in DC. This would help alleviate some of the delays and frustration in the morning, particularly for those DC patrons.
Richard White	Thanks for your question, Elysia. Our recent passenger counts show that the combination of routes 83, 84, 86, and T18 have sufficient capacity in the morning to be able to accommodate all customers who want to ride on those buses. Based on this note, we will investigate the cause of buses running late and recommend revised schedules to improve their on-time performance. Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention.
thm	Do you think that the fact that your passenger counts don't give the same picture of the route as the experience reported by this customer might indicate that the passenger counting methods need to be improved?
Richard White	Our assessment of the adequacy of service is based on the average load factor (the ratio of passengers to seats) of all buses during a 30-minute period in rush hours, and a 60-minute period during off-peak times. Within these time periods, individual trips may carry very heavy loads followed closely by another trip (bus) with empty seats. Overcrowding frequently occurs when a bus is running late, which is usually not consistent every day. Currently, our passenger counts are conducted by our traffic clerks, either by riding buses or standing at the bus stops. Due to cost containment concerns, those checks are only performed on selected days each year on each route. In the future, we anticipate having automatic passenger counters on buses, which will provide ridership data every day on every route.

K Street Busway

Author	Message
BeyondDC	Multi-part question: 1)What is the status of the K Street Busway? 2)Will the buses that run in the busway be branded as MetroBus or something special, like the REX service on Route 1 in VA? 3)Will the "Orange Line With a View" 38B be extended to run along the busway? 4)How does the possibility of removing the Whitehurst Freeway affect plans for the busway? BeyondDC.com Tracking urbanism, planning and transportation in the DC area.
Richard White	The D.C. Department of Transportation is still working on the final configuration of the K Street Busway. The buses will be a combination of Metrobuses and the District's DC Circulator. The Orange Line 38B will utilize the busway, but only as far as Farragut Square, its terminus. We do not yet know the potential effect that eliminating the Whitehurst Freeway would have on the Busway.

Route 80 bus

Author	Message
Jennifer	I have heard a rumor that the Rt 80 bus route will have two more busses added in the morning to accommodate to the seeming increase in passengers going downtown in the morning. As a longtime user of this bus route, I haven't noticed any more busses. I usually get on the bus sometime between 8:15 am. and 8:40 am weekdays on No. Capitol Street and they are just as erratic and crowded as ever. When are the new busses coming and at what times will they be going inbound? Thanks for answering my question.Jennifer
Richard White	Thanks for the question, Jennifer. A new route 80 weekday schedule was implemented on March 27th. The new timetable increased the scheduled running time to better reflect actual traffic conditions in order to improve on-time performance. In addition, some northbound trips in the afternoon peak period (i.e., rush hour) are scheduled to begin at McPherson Square instead of the Kennedy Center so that these trips will not get delayed in the K Street congestion. I don't have the specific schedule in front of me at the moment, but you can find it on our web site under "schedules and fares."

98 "Link" Bus

Author	Message
dcrider	Mr. White, The 98 Adams Morgan/U Street "Link" Shuttle is a great idea. In practice, I have never found this bus to be on time. The first run is supposed to leave the Woodley Park Metro stop at 5:59 p.m., yet on several occasions I've waited almost until 6:30 for it to arrive. Given that this has to be one of the shortest routes in the entire system, why doesn't the bus run on time -- and why is the first bus often so late? Thanks!
Richard White	The bus that makes this first trip from the Woodley Park station at 5:59 p.m. is scheduled to pull out of the Western bus garage at 5:43 p.m. and head to Woodley Park. We're investigating your complaint and thanks for bringing it to our attention. Any customer who has a comment on service can call us at 202-637-0128. Please note the bus number, time and route.

kudos to Deanwood-New Carrollton and Greenbelt-New Carrollto...

Author	Message
PublicTransUser1...	Hello, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you very much to all of the hardworking men and women who go out of their way to provide a safe and pleasant ride on the R-12 Deanwood - New Carrollton, and the T-16, T-17 Greenbelt-New Carrollton routes. They are all very courteous, considerate and pleasant and I feel very safe as a passenger on any of their buses.PTU1980
Richard White	Wow, thank you for your very nice compliment, Public Transit User. We will be sure to pass your compliments along to the employees you mentioned. We are proud of the work that our employees do day-in and day-out to provide the best possible service to our customers. Keep riding!

bus line managers

Author	Message
thm	Soon after the Metrorail peer review, WMATA announced that it'd be appointing line managers for each of the Metrorail lines, who would supervise all aspects of a line. Are there any plans for line managers for bus routes? It seems like many aspects of Metrobus could use better coordination between planning, operations, and marketing, and other departments, and a line manager could do that coordination. One example: getting bus schedules on the buses! Marketing decides how many to print, operations is supposed to put them on the buses, but for whatever reason, usually you can't get a schedule on the bus for the route you're riding!
Richard White	Thanks for your question. An outside peer review panel has been reviewing our bus operations as well, and we're expecting recommendations next month. We currently meet on a regular basis with our Office of Planning, Bus and Marketing to review all aspects of Metrobus service. Each of the Metrobus lines are operated out of a particular transportation division with a supervisory staff assigned to review and assess all bus lines. Each of these divisions is supported by a team of senior and regular street supervisors who monitor all areas of performance to ensure the best possible service. We will take the necessary steps to meet with the requisite offices to better coordinate the availability of schedules on buses.

Metro Employee and Police Parking

Author	Message
Greenline rider	Since shortly after September 11th, I started riding Metro. At first I rode to look for potential terrorist attacks on the system. However I began to enjoy the daily commute and interaction with other riders. I inquired as to where I could park my car, if there was an employee/police parking area. I was surprised to learn that Metro did not provide parking for their employees and police officers. Then I was told that the Greenbelt station had a large parking lot on the Beltway side that was virtually empty. I inquired with the station personnel if it would be okay to park there but was told that even Metro employees have to pay for parking. In fact, I was told that Metro Board member Deegan just ordered Metro Transit Police to ticket any Metro employee/police officers cars that were parked in this empty lot. I am confused as to why Mr. Deegan, with all of the repair/funding problems Metro faces, would be so interested in a few employees/police using a virtually empty parking lot to park in? In a job with long hours on their feet, lots of customer service and not a lot of pay, one would think that such small but pleasing perk, allowing employees to park for free in a near empty lot, would be a great incentive for happy employees. After all, I am sure that free parking comes with the position of Metro board member or Metro CEO. It also seems that offering free parking would encourage more police to ride Metro. Lord knows that I personally have taken action hundreds of times as a Metro rider. I have stopped fights between riders, removed aggressive panhandlers, offered directions to lost passengers, helped older riders with broken escalators/elevators/stairs, farecard purchases, and enforced general eating/drinking and smoking violations. Seems to me that the small perk of free parking for employees/police in a near empty lot is the wrong place for Metro executives to focus.
Richard White	I appreciate your comment and suggestion about providing free parking for our employees, including our police officers. As you may know, we already provide free rail and bus transportation for our employees because we believe it's important for our employees to ride our system, for many of the same reasons you mention. We think that having our employees, including our "white collar" employees, gives them a better appreciation of what our customers experience and helps keep our system safer, because our employees know what to look for in terms of what is unusual or out of the ordinary. At the same time, free parking has never been an employee perk, and we don't have any plans to add it at this time. While there may be some empty parking spaces at some stations, for the most part our lots are filled, and our customers must take priority!

Other agencies and SmarTrip

Author	Message
BeyondDC	Do you know what the time frame is for other regional bus agencies (Ride-On, CUE, etc)to accept WMATA SmarTrip cards for payment? BeyondDC.com Tracking urbanism, planning and transportation in the DC area.
Richard White	The time frame for roll out of SmarTrip card use on the remaining 15 bus properties is mid 2007. Each of the regional partners will be rolled out seperately with their own individual tests, including Virginia and Maryland properties.

We'll always have Paris...

Author	Message
nosocksguy	Paris has one of the best bus systems in the world. Two lessons we can learn from Paris: 1.) Naming Bus Stops One reason people don't take the bus is that they're afraid they'll miss their stop. In Paris, all bus stops are named, with a small sign on the front of the shelter or on the sign pole, visible both to pedestrians and at bus-window height. Nervous first-time bus riders can use these to get their bearings. These can be tied (as they are in Paris) to the LCD electronic signs in some buses. 2.) Better bus maps at bus stops In Paris, regardless of whether there's a bus shelter or simply a sign pole, there are at least three maps at each bus stop. One shows the whole system, one is an extremely "zoomed in" view of the corner where the bus stop is located (it shows other nearby bus stops, thus facilitating transfers), and one for every bus line that uses that stop. The last map is the most important--it "straightens out" the bus line and simply shows all the stops, in a row, listed by name (see above), as well as big landmarks and metro stations. Clearly, there will be a one-time cost in installing bus stop name signs and in creating these maps. But by opening up the bus experiece to people currently too confused to ride (residents and tourists!), and by making the experience easier for current users, this investment will be paid back in short order.
Richard White	Thanks for the question. We currently have 770 "talking" buses that announce the bus stops as they approach them. We also now have bus maps at our Metrorail stations, and on our information cases at most of our bus stops. As for whether we should "name" our bus stops, that's an idea we haven't explored yet, but we are constantly looking for ways to make our bus (and rail) system better, so keep those ideas coming!

Relocating a bus stop

Author	Message
otter	How would I go about requesting that a bus stop be moved north one block?
Richard White	All you have to do is contact our bus stop and shelter coordinator, Dave Brlansky, at 202-962-1937, or by e-mail at dbrlansky@wmata.com. Please mention the location of the bus stop you'd like to see moved. Thanks!

Bus Rapid Transit

Author	Message
dccruiser	Recent letters to the editor of the Post tout bus rapid transit as being much cheaper to build and operate. Is bus rapid transit a better solution for extending service to Dulles than rail? Why? Please respond to this message. Thanks
Richard White	Bus rapid transit (BRT) as an option that was carefully studied in connection with the Dulles Corridor extension. After exhaustive review, it was NOT determined to be a feasible option for this corridor, primarily due to three reasons: One, the BRT maximum capacity was not sufficient to meet projected ridership demands. Two, BRT is not workable for the portion of the service that goes through Tysons Corner due to road congestion. And three, the BRT connection at the West Falls Church rail station would be very difficult to make workable. Let me also say that BRT offers great promise, and it is being actively evaluated in other corridors.

Smaller but more frequent buses

Author	Message
BeyondDC	This isn't a question so much as a general suggestion for future bus service. I went to college in Boulder, Colorado, where the local bus system was in the process of replacing numbered routes running 40 foot buses every half hour with individually branded routes running smaller buses every 15 minutes. The result was vastly increased ridership (5,000 riders per day for the whole city under the old system and 26,000 with the new, more frequent and specially branded buses). 15 minute intervals meant the buses came often enough that I didn't have to worry about timetables. I just showed up at the stop and knew that I would never have to wait very long. It was GREAT. I would like to see this type of service implemented on MetroBus routes where possible, since it is so much more convenient for riders. More information about the Boulder service can be found at http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/goboulder/html/transit/index.html BeyondDC.com Tracking urbanism, planning and transportation in the DC area.
Richard White	In 1999, we split up two long bus lines (the D and H cross town lines) to create shorter and, in some cases, more frequent feeder bus routes using small buses. Although these small buses are not "branded" individually, the smaller buses themselves provide a distinctive look that customers can recognize. Ridership results have been mixed, with increases on some routes and no change on others. Although this type of service is attractive to many riders, the additional service increases operating cost significantly. Since passengers fare don't cover the full cost of service, the difference must be made up by subsidies from the local jurisdictions where service operates. We are exploring developing some new "branded" routes in addition to the Pike Ride in Arlington and REX service in Fairfax County.

Broken glass at bus shelters

Author	Message
donovan	It seems that the bus shetlers on 8th & C Streets, NE, often have broken panels. There is glass all over the ground at the stop on the NW corner now. Can you fix this?
Richard White	Thanks, Donovan. The bus shelter you mention does not belong to WMATA (Metro), but instead is owned by the District of Columbia government. However, even though we don't own it, we will notify the proper D.C. officials and we will monitor that area. Thanks for passing it along.