Photo by Darwyn

After three different studies and numerous public meetings, the District Department of Transportation is finally committing to putting in a bus-only lane on one of the city’s busiest corridors.

Currently, the S-buses—which run up and down 16th Street—are only in motion about half the time that they are operating. Boarding, waiting at lights, and congestion all slow down service for the 20,000 people a day who use the line. It is a problem that the District Department of Transportation has been working on solving for more than five years.

The final public meeting to discuss their proposed draft plan, which includes a rush hour bus lane among the service changes, took place at the end of January. Going forward, DDOT plans to have two meetings a year to discuss its progress (one is slated for sometime in the fall).

“The foundation of what we’re recommending, we feel confident about,” says DDOT transportation planner Megan Kanagy. “Yes, rush hour bus lanes can work. Off-board fare collecting can work.”

Still, DDOT is a ways away from actually implementing a dedicated bus lane—two to four years away to be (sort of) exact. Planners also hope to time the opening of the bus lane to other proposed changes, including an ambitious plan for offboard fare payment, which would be a first for WMATA. Other elements include eliminating some bus stops and implementing transit signal priority (which allows stoplights to give an early green for a bus or hold a light just as one is pulling up.)

While the 16th Street dedicated bus lane would be the only one in District, Alexandria’s bus rapid transit system, called Metroway, has seen steady growth since opening in 2014. Ridership in December was up 18 percent from a year prior on the line, which runs between the Braddock Road and Crystal City Metro Stations on the Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway.

“We’re excited to start making some changes out there. People have been waiting a good while to see something come out of this,” Kanagy says. “We’re ready to move beyond the planning.”