Circulator Spotted in Adams Morgan!

AHHH -- it's here!!

Working from home today, I noticed that there was a Circulator bus crossing 16th Street at the 16th/Harvard/Columbia intersection. The front of the bus said "Training Bus" ... does this mean Adams Morgan/Columbia Heights is getting its new Circulator bus asap?!


UPDATE: The Circulator training bus came back around about 20-30min later and was full of metro employees in reflective yellow vests. It was following the 42/43/H4 route around the 16/Harvard/Columbia park. Here is a photo of the bus across from the Embassy Apts. It went up Mount Pleasant Street after this, and I don't know where after that.

The 43!!

So, I'm sure you're all familiar with Tim's scoop about the new 43 bus some weeks ago that was carried on a few other area blogs. Well both yesterday and this morning I had the pleasure of riding the new 'express' route on the 43 and... it was a good experience! I don't really have a usual time that I begin or end my commute. Some mornings I head in early, some I barely make it by 9:30 (I'm supposed to be at work by 9...), and my evening schedule is even less predictable. The one benefit this has is that I get a nice sampling of the bus at different hours.

Yesterday morning I was feeling ambitious and refreshed from my 2 week hiatus from the working world. I decided to go in early and I caught the bus at about 7:50 am. To my surprise, the first bus to come was the new 43! My usual commute time is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20+ minutes, down to Connecticut south of Dupont Circle. I'm pleased to report that my commute was cut in half!

Still, maybe that could be attributed to the early hour and limited traffic. Today I didn't leave until a bit later. When I got on the bus (43!) this morning I decided to time it. I got on at 8:34am and stepped off the bus at 8:50! This is during what I would consider peak rush hour traffic time.

All in all: good job Metro! Though this is a simple and seemingly obvious solution to the Dupont Circle traffic issue, I'm pleasantly surprised that WMATA took the initiative and resolved this issue.

Metrobus Route 43 to ...

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

There is a new Metrobus route that Metro hasn't announced!

BREAKING NEWS -- YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST

Hmmmm ... Where to start.

On most days, I bus to work - usually taking the 42 (or if I am lucky the H1) because both of them literally stop right outside my door.  Hence why this article is of particular importance to me - and anyone else who rides the 42.  Yesterday, I happened to notice a Metro truck sitting outside one of the 42's stops in Adams Morgan.  Since it was nowhere near an actual Metrorail station, I figured they must be doing something at the stop, perhaps preparing for the installation of a shelter, or something else excited - but I honestly did not think much of it.

Last night, since it was so nice out - I decided to walk home.  Normally on my walk home I don't follow the route of the 42, since it goes slightly out of the way of the convenient way home for me.  But last night was special, I needed to pick up something on 18th Street in AdMo - so for the rest of my walk home I followed the 42 bus route, which runs along Columbia Road.  I was walking on the North side of the street and happened to look up at the Metrobus stop sign ... and noticed something a little off.  The usual suspects were up there - the 42 and the H1, but something new was between them ... the 43.

What -- the 43??  I know!   I immediately wanted to know what it was and what it meant.  I got home and headed right to the *NEW* WMATA website (sidebar: I kind of liked when metroopensdoors.com sent you to the little graphic of the train doors opening and then redirected to wmata.com) to search for the new 43 route.  You know what ... this article is a waste of time, just go read about the bus on the website.   OH WAIT!  You can't!

That's right - the signage is up, the changes have been put in motion - but nothing on Metro's website.  The route isn't mentioned on the maps or in the timetables, and there isn't even a press release about it.  Shocking.  So I made a call to WMATA's Office of Media Relations in order to get the deets ... surprisingly they actually had them, yet had just decided not to let the public know about this upcoming change.

Route 43 will go into effect on Sunday, December 28th.  It will be a weekday rush hour only service, between 750am and 915am (meaning it will only run Southbound).  About 1/2 of the buses currently designated as 42s will henceforth be badged as 43s.  It will run between Mount Pleasant and Farragut Square.  It seems to me that the 43 will just be the 42 buses that currently run between MtP and FSq - so there will be no service increases or reductions.  

So this really wasn't the "extra, extra!" that was advertised ... no real changes - but it is exciting that there is a new bus in the neighborhood.

Tim.

It's called a queue!

I don't care what you call it - a line or a queue - as a bus user I've noticed that some people just do not get it.  Here in America, we are pretty good at it - we form fairly organized queues for basically everything.  Though it is my understanding that many countries around the world just don't 'do' queues - they just kind of mob up, fighting and pushing to be the first at something. 

Though I can't find an article to link to, I know the paper of record (for those of you who aren't aware, it is The New York Times) mentioned in a few articles about teaching the Chinese people to form lines before the Olympics.  It seems fairly foreign to me that certain cultures do not form queues, but I guess they just don't want to - which I guess is okay.  It makes things a bit disorganized in my opinion, but I am not really one to judge - so they should do as they please.  Though it is nice of the Olympic organizers to take into account that the Chinese people should learn to form lines so as to not anger tourists at the Olympics.

So ... we form queues everywhere - for everything.  Sometimes things get a bit out of control, but for the most part we respect the idea of a pecking order.  Yet, for some reason this system completely fails when we get to a bus stop.  Why are lines impossible at bus stops? -- they aren't!  Yet for some reason, if you are the first person at the bus stop - you likely will not be the first person on the bus.  Part of the problem has to do with the fact that bus drivers don't stop in the same place every time - which bothers me even more, but that's a tale for another time.

The other evening, I was waiting patiently for the 42 (link to a great blog regarding the 42 - check it out) in the direction of Mt. Pleasant at Q Street.  I arrived at the stop just as another bus was pulling away, but decided not to run for that bus because I was in no rush.  As two buses passed the stop because the driver had deemed they were too full, I was beginning to wish that I had ran for the first bus.  Finally a third bus arrived and the driver was kind enough to stop for us...

Now, being the first one waiting for the bus logic would say that I should be the first one on.  Of course I knew that wouldn't be the case, but I was a bit pushier than usual as I did not want to get locked out of this bus.  I was probably the fifth person on the bus, after dealing with the shoving and groans from people as a maneuvered in front of them.  I'm all about giving up my seat on a bus to basically anyone else (women, elderly, someone carrying a lot), but if you people aren't going to bother forming lines - I'm not giving you preference in getting on the bus.  I usually concede this harsh stance when it is an elderly person - but otherwise, I don't really care who you are -- just because you are a woman doesn't mean you get to board before me, sorry.

That is my rant about that - It is just something that is really starting to bother me.  Sorry if I sound like an evil person, but the facts are the facts.

Bus Hoppers

I noticed something peculiar today. In fact, I've now noticed it 3 times in the past week. While on my daily commute up/down Connecticut Ave I witnessed a hopping. Has anyone else noticed these? It's like a transfer, except it's not. Instead of boarding a bus headed in a different direction or with a different destination, these hoppers wait for a stop to come then get off one bus only to board one that's on the same route. I've noticed it only really happens during rush hour, when buses tend to 'stack up' one in front of the other on the road.

Last week I witnessed someone get off my bus, run behind it to get on the bus behind me which was running the identical route, only to see him get back on my bus a few stops later!

While I suppose there's nothing intrinsically wrong with these hoppers swinging from bus to bus, I just don't understand why. The destination isn't changing. The traffic isn't changing either, so it can't be any faster. The only explanation I can see is the atmosphere mustn't be good enough for them on Bus A, so they try their luck on Bus B. I'll admit that sometimes the Metro buses stink a bit, or the clientele is unfortunate (and certainly rude) but does this really warrant all the effort to change buses?

I'm puzzled about these hoppers. Maybe I'm just lazy. Or then, maybe I'm witnessing the newest fad in urban exercise. Can anyone explain this? Are there any hoppers out there?