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......

WMATA has released a schedule for Independence Day -- and it includes a change from what we first told you last week. Metro will open at 7 a.m. and close at 3 a.m. on Friday, July 4. This schedule is different from what was published on WMATA's holiday schedule on their web site last week (it said it would close at midnight), but that schedule has since been updated. Keep in mind though that on......

It's been exactly one month since the city switched all of its taxi cabs over to time and distance meters, and we've spent that month asking every driver and frequent taxi passenger we've run across what their experiences have been. The vast majority of drivers we've spoken to agree that within the city, fares by and large even out to be about the same -- some are a little more, some are a little less,......

What's this? A rack full of SmartBike DC's shared bicycles all loaded up in front of the Reeves Center at 14th and U NW? Yes, but don't get excited: this was only for a photo op staged by the District Department of Transportation that we just happened to stumble upon earlier this afternoon (yo DDOT, how's about inviting us next time so we don't have to party crash?). These SmartBikes are going to be......

Last week, we learned that DDOT was planning on creating an "intercity bus loading zone" near L'Entant Plaza in Southwest - many of you found the idea rash, unnecessary, and potentially deadly for bus businesses. Well, you can at least take solace in the fact that Greater Greater Washington's David Alpert is on your side. Alpert has created a website which asks District officials to, at the very least, sit down and talk with residents......

The District Department of Transportation is hosting a city-wide public meeting tonight on the final draft of the District Draft Pedestrian Master Plan. If you still haven't had a gander at the plan itself, you can read it here. The plan includes a mix of efforts, including things like restriping crosswalks, changing signal timings, installing more Rapid Flash Beacons, and other tactics that target 61 "high hazard" traffic intersections. Some of the dangerous intersections and......

This is one of those items that's newsworthy because we can't believe it's news: Last night the mayor's office sent around a release announcing that wheelchair accessible taxicabs are coming to D.C. for the first time. How it is even possible there have been no wheelchair taxis in our nation's capital before now? The Post says wheelchair users currently have to call one of two suburban taxi companies that often aren't available to pick them......

We know you love being able to grab a cheap bus to New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other destinations along the east cost. Entrepreneurs know it too, which is why we've kept track of an explosion in new intercity bus options recently, including BoltBus, Megabus, and DC2NY, along with the traditional Chinatown buses. But with so many more buses picking up and dropping off in several areas of downtown, the District Department of Transportation......

Somehow we missed the news that UK-based Megabus.com (which began its first service in the U.S. in Chicago in 2006) began running low-cost bus service between D.C. and New York on May 30. We spotted this Megabus bus stop sign outside Metro Center on Friday. Much like relative newcomer BoltBus, Megabus.com offers tickets as low as $1 if you book early enough, as well as free wireless internet on board. Looks like they actually......

The electricity is back on! Traffic was more or less flowing normally through downtown just after 11 a.m. Pepco reports that power has now been restored to the entire affected area. Metro reopened the Dupont Circle station at 10:50 a.m., and service at Metro Center was being restored just after 11 a.m. when we stopped by to check things out. The station was still darker than normal but customers were being allowed in and out,......

Dogs and cats, living together! A second fire at the Metro Center station has now forced that station to close as well. At 9:50 a.m. another fire was reported at the station on the tracks headed in the direction of Shady Grove. An earlier fire was reported around 7:20 a.m. and caused delays of up to 1 hour on the Red line in both directions. At this point, DCist is officially recommending we all begin......

WMATA has officially closed the Dupont Circle Metro station as a result of the power outage. The station was closed at 9:25 a.m. because there wasn't enough electricity to power the station’s lengthy escalators. While trains can serve the Red Line station, the escalators are extremely long, and customers were experiencing difficulty exiting, so officials closed the station for safety reasons. Trains will pass through Dupont Circle and not stop there. Free shuttle buses will......

If you're reading this right now, you're one of the lucky people in D.C. with electricity right now. A power outage at a Pepco substation on 10th Street NW has cut electricity to about 10,000 customers in the middle of the city, and at several Metro stations near downtown. Power is currently out at the Duport Circle, Shaw, Farragut North, Farragut West and McPherson Square stations. Trains are still moving at those stations, but the......

As of 5:04 p.m. this evening, Metro is all clear.......

If you're sitting near a regular Orange line passenger in your office right now, consider bringing them a paper bag to prevent impending hyperventilation. There's a new WMATA alert posted just after 4:30 p.m. that indicates some as yet undefined track problem outside the Ballston station, and that customers should expect delays in both directions. Metro says they're running shuttle bus service between the Ballston and Vienna stations. But Orange line riders who have dealt......

This just in from Metro: A six-car Orange Line train headed in the direction of Vienna derailed at about 2:45 p.m. today. The third car of train 905, with an unknown number of passengers on board, experienced the derailment between Rosslyn and Court House Metrorail stations. Emergency crews are on the scene. There are no reports of injuries at this time. Trains are sharing one track (single-tracking) between Clarendon and Foggy Bottom Metrorail stations. The......

We all know the effect that levels of federal funding have on transit around here (and, obviously, around the country). One only has to look to the way that the Federal Transit Administration has handled the development of the proposed Purple and Silver Lines to see it - public services toyed with by the fickle madam that is federal appropriations. Without the cash from the Feds (however small that apportionment may be), not much seems......

We'd be remiss if we didn't point out a story from this morning's Examiner which quotes Metro Assistant General Manager Gerald Francis saying the agency is considering spacing out bus stops on many Metrobus lines in order to improve bus service. Perhaps Francis and company have been reading DCist comment threads? The too-frequent spacing of bus stops, which occur at nearly every block on some lines, has been a rallying cry for District residents for......

Monday is Memorial Day, so Metro has released its holiday schedule. Metrorail, Metrobus and MetroAccess will all operate on a Sunday schedule, 7 a.m. to midnight, on Monday. Parking at all transit authority-operated lots will be free, and off-peak fares will be in effect all day. The good news for Green and Yellow line riders is that ongoing switch work at Mt. Vernon Square will not take place this weekend, so the lengthy delays seen......

WMATA is reporting that a man was struck by a train on the Red line at the Wheaton Metro station at 1:45 p.m. today. The six-car train was traveling in the direction of Glenmont. There's no word yet on the man's condition or how he was hit by the train. Red line trains are sharing one track while police and emergency personnel investigate. The Wheaton station is still open, but trains are sharing one track......

We're now two-thirds of the way through the month of May, with only 11 days left until the date by which Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to begin fining D.C. taxicab drivers $1000 every time they are caught picking up a fare without a time and distance meter installed in their vehicles. We've definitely noticed more and more taxis with meters installed over the last week, many with those helpful "D.C. Certified Meter Taxicab" stickers......

The Post digs in to the D.C. Department of Transportation's plans to unveil a new pedestrian strategy today that aims to reduce accidents and injuries in the city's most dangerous intersections and crosswalks. The plan includes a mix of efforts, including things like restriping crosswalks, changing signal timings, installing more Rapid Flash Beacons, and other tactics that target 61 "high hazard" traffic intersections. Some of the intersections and crossings mentioned in the story include Howard......

The annual Andrews Air Force Base Joint Service Open House and Air Show starts today and runs through Sunday. Metro says they're ready for the large crowds: they plan to use 190 free shuttle buses to ferry attendants to and from the base, which is closed to civilian automobile traffic. The shuttle buses will depart both from the Branch Avenue Metro station, and from FedEx Field. Of course, the big event coincides with ongoing switch......

Photo by Sommer Mathis We just ran into District Department of Transportation's Manager for Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transportation Demand Management Programs, Jim Sebastian, at the corner of R Street and Rhode Island Ave. NW, on his way to a meeting on one of the new SmartBikes we've been eagerly anticipating. Doesn't Jim look sporty? While he was test driving one of the bikes, which have smaller front wheels than standard bikes, Sebastian told us......

Photo by cstein96 Just a few days after Metro's board gave preliminary approval to the restructuring of the 30s bus lines, the Examiner has a story reporting that Metro General Manager John Catoe is now shifting his attention toward improving Metrobus service after spending his first year focusing mainly on Metrorail. Among Catoe's priorities for Metrobus: hiring more bus supervisors and giving them dispatcher authority that would allow them to make alterations to bus......

Seems like just about everything about driving a car in this city is becoming more expensive these days. WTOP reports that parking fees at both National and Dulles airports will go up on June 1. At National, regular daily parking will increase from $17 a day to $20 a day, while economy parking will go from $10 to $12 for 24 hours. Hourly and valet parking will stay the same. There will be another option......

Major roadwork is scheduled on the Outer Loop starting Friday night and lasting until Sunday afternoon, which will reduce traffic to one lane in preparation for next week's shift to moving traffic onto the second span of the Wilson Bridge. In addition to the lane closures, ramps at the Route 1 Interchange to and from the Outer Loop will be closed, and detours from the Telegraph Road Interchange and the Springfield Interchange will be in......

WTOP is reporting that the the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to ban taxicabs without meters from taxi stands at Reagan National Airport. That's good. Regular roundtrips to DCA are the D.C. taxi driver's bread and butter, and the airport taxi stands have dispatch employees there to assist passengers who are ready and able to enforce the meter rule. But MWAA says it will begin enforcing this rule at National on June 1, one month......

Last week we told you about some major Green and Yellow line weekend delays in store thanks to switch replacement work planned for the Mount Vernon Square/7th St-Convention Center Metro station. That news was based on a report from the Washington Post's Get There blog, which unfortunately had the wrong dates listed for when the work would start: anyone who rode the Green or Yellow lines last weekend can attest that the trains were running......

Today, Radiohead kicks off its In Rainbows world tour in West Palm Beach, Florida, which means that D.C.-area fans are mere days away from getting their fix. The boys from Oxfordshire dispatched a press release today, announcing the launch of a new section on their website: The Most Gigantic Flying Mouth For Sometime. Die hards will undoubtedly note the allusion to the Hail to the Thief-era video series, but this particular announcement has far less......