Transit on Thursday: The Bus Upswing Edition
Did you get an email from Metro yesterday?
If you did, you're now an important part of a new program that's attempting to find ways to improve the service of the S bus lines, which run between Silver Spring and downtown D.C. The first step in the The Metrobus 16th Street Line Study was surveys which were distributed to riders of any S line bus on June 18.
The email contains details about a community meeting that that will include the community surrounding 16th Street in the planning of the upgrades:
The format of the public meeting will be as follows: an open house will take place from 6:30 to 7:00, during which participants can review project materials and speak individually with members of the study team. After that will be a brief presentation to inform participants about the study and what will be taking place at the meeting. Following the presentation will be a breakout session where participants will split up into smaller groups at tables to discuss challenges facing the 16th Street Line and potential solutions. A member of the study team will be present at each table to facilitate the discussion. And finally, participants will report back to the larger group what was discussed at their table.The format of the meeting sounds like as good a chance as any to bring up some of the other broader issues that affect the S lines, like six buses bunching up at the same stop.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, July 15, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church at 16th and Newton Streets NW.
The study also has a website where you can learn more. With the potential for improvement on this line, in addition to the recent rollout of changes to the 30s line, things are looking up for crosstown/cross-jurisdictional bus transit in the District. Of course, we'd love to hear from those of you that live near 16th Street in the comments - what changes would you like to see on the S line?
After the jump: 11th Street is set for some heavy road work, and your usual roundup of the transit stories this week.
Photo by noahdevereaux
11th Street Reconstruction Scheduled: Thanks to neighborhood blogger 14th and You, there's word from ANC 2F06 commissioner Mike Bernardo that 11th Street NW will be undergoing some massive reconstruction, beginning (hopefully) this fall, and ending who knows when. The work, which will be similar in scope to the work that was done on P Street west of Dupont Circle and Q Street near Logan in the last year or so, will no doubt affect the large amounts of traffic that uses the street to commute, as well as the popular 66 and 68 lines of Metrobus. The work is scheduled to cost up to $8 million and will run between L and O Streets. We'll keep you in the loop when the project officially gets off the ground.
BRT Takes How Long, Now?: This week, the Post featured a big graphic all about the Purple Line. While many of the points made should be old news to transit buffs who have been following the story from the beginning, we did notice one little interesting nugget of information. The alternative to the light rail option is obviously a Bus Rapid Transit system - but it would take a hefty 66 minutes to get from Bethesda to College Park using BRT, at current estimates from the Maryland Transit Administration. Of course, the benefit of the BRT option is that it costs about a third of a light rail option, but still - we hope you Maryland commuters have some serious reading material prepared, if the solution ends up being solely BRT.
Engines and Cabooses: Not in the least D.C. related, but still one of the cooler things we've seen in a while, courtesy BeyondDC... Door to door service for MetroAccess - which we mentioned in May - is now operational... Montgomery County roads need $450 million in repairs; only $8 million is budgeted for them (we guess roads authorities know how transit usually feels now)... Slight decline in Fourth of July highway travel expected... We don't know about "devils," but the area's drivers are accident prone... The Onion: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others... Of course, it turns out Metro will be open until 3 a.m. on Friday after all - Metro's guide to getting around town tomorrow evening, in case you need it, can be found here. Happy Fourth!