Rapid Buses May Be Expanded
Metro Proposes New Service Along 18 Crowded Routes

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 17, 2008

Metro is proposing to add rapid-bus service on 18 crowded bus corridors across the region during the next six years to speed travel times and increase reliability. Officials said the plan would improve service dramatically on "lifeline corridors" that carry half of Metrobus's 450,000 daily riders.

With the region's population forecast to grow 22 percent by 2030, Metro officials say better service on these priority corridors will help unclog roadways and get people out of cars and into mass transit. Washington already has the second-worst traffic in the nation.

The proposal, to be presented to a Metro board committee Thursday, is the first time in several years that the transit agency has recommended a regional action plan, officials said. In the past, the focus was on individual lines.

The improvements would make bus service along these corridors "much more reliable, shave 15 to 20 percent off your travel time, and make [rides] more pleasant," said Nat Bottigheimer, Metro's planning chief. Unlike the average subway rider, who rides the train to work, these key bus arteries have a more diverse ridership.

"These corridors serve every aspect of people's lives," he said. "There are kids riding, people going shopping and people going to work."

The plan would add rapid buses to three or four corridors a year, at an annual cost of $3 million to $4 million. In addition, Metro and the jurisdictions it serves also need $326 million in one-time capital funds for 135 additional buses, traffic signal technology to extend green lights, road improvements and additional parking at key transit centers.

Metro currently has rapid-bus service on five lines and is scheduled to start its sixth as part of a restructuring of its oldest and highest ridership line, the 30s, starting June 30.

If the Metro board committee agrees with the proposal, it would still be at least a year before rapid buses start running on additional corridors. The full board would need to act later this fall on funding the program.

The recommendations for rapid-bus service on key corridors are separate from a plan that Washington area transportation officials are studying to run buses on the shoulders of highways and other major roads.

Rapid-bus service would be modeled after the popular MetroExtra service on Georgia Avenue that connects Silver Spring to downtown Washington. The route is served by other Metro buses; the MetroExtra buses, which have a different design, run on the same route but save time by making fewer stops.

Although bus improvements would be tailored for individual corridors, all the corridors would have some traffic signals equipped with technology to give priority to buses.

If a bus is approaching a green traffic signal that would normally turn red in 10 seconds, it would hold the green for several more seconds to allow the bus to get through the intersection, according to Jim Hughes, Metro's senior planner.

District transportation officials are testing the signal technology at 33 intersections along Georgia Avenue. Nineteen Metrobuses have the complementary technology, and officials hope to begin a pilot in early June, according to transportation department spokeswoman Karyn LeBlanc.

Unreliable bus service is by far the most common complaint that Metro receives. Over the years, as roads have become more crowded, buses have been stuck in traffic with the rest of the vehicles. On some heavily used routes, riders say they wait up to 30 minutes before a bus arrives. Or, as is often the case, several buses arrive at the same time.

The high incidence of late buses and high ridership were among key factors Metro officials used in choosing where to add rapid buses. Metro has about 1,500 buses in its fleet; it has 171 bus lines. The 24 priority corridors represent 14 percent of the lines but serve about 220,000 daily Metrobus riders, or about 50 percent of the total.

"These are big bus corridors, they're growing, and they carry a lot of people all day long," Hughes said.

If the board approves the staff recommendation, the first three corridors to add rapid-bus service in 2009 would be 16th Street in the District (S1, S2, S4), average weekday ridership of 14,594; Veirs Mill Road in Montgomery County (Q2), average weekday ridership 10,859; and Leesburg Pike (28AB, 28 FG, 28T) in Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax County, average weekday ridership 6,230.

In the years that follow, the plan would add rapid-bus service to one more corridor in Northern Virginia, from Little River Turnpike to Duke Street, six more in the District, including along the heavily used X2 from H Street to Benning Road, and seven more in Maryland, including along East-West Highway in Prince George's County.

If Metro and its partners adopt the plan, transportation officials will have to make a fundamental shift in the way they think about traffic, Bottigheimer said.

County and state governments own the intersections and the right-of-way on the roads, he said. They are used to thinking about traffic flow by getting the greatest number of vehicles, rather than people, through an intersection.

But if buses start to carry 25 to 30 percent of the total number of people going through an intersection, then "we need to ask the question, at what point do you start treating a bus as a special vehicle," Bottigheimer said.