Comments on: Circulator to No Longer Ascend Wisconsin?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:13:21 +0000

What a bummer to hear that they are cutting the service to upper Wisconsin Avenue. I live in Burleith and am always taking the Circulator bus down to K Street to the Border’s Book Store or the Staples at 19th & L St. The 30s buses are completely unreliable and despite route splits that were supposed to take care of buses clumping together, they still clump together two or three at a time and leave you waiting for half an hour or 40 minutes on the weekend if you rely on them to get anywhere. And don’t even get me started ont he D6 bus and how unreliable that is as a way to get to K Street. The regular Metrobuses simply aren’t very reliable. The Circulator really does come every 10-15 minutes. Leave it to the District to kill a good thing.

By: d. odonnell

d. odonnell — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:53:40 +0000

If you have ever taken the D2 in the morning rush hour, you will realize how importante that little bus is.
During the non tourist season ,smaller buses like the previos blue could be used by the circulator,buses, during non rush hours.
I also think that the circulator could go up to the cathedral during tourist season. april – sept.
I’m sure a lot of people would leave their cars at home if they knew how easy it was to jump on the bus for their Georgetown shoping,not to mention down town.
d.O’donnell

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:02:31 +0000

Love the circulator. It is the best way to get from the Glover Park/Burleith area to downtown and especially Union Station. I work in Fairfax but often times come home, park the car and hop right on the Circulator to get downtown to head out for dinner and drinks. I couldn’t ask for a better and more consistent service. I most definitely do not want to see it go!

By: Neighborhood Watch: How Far Should the Georgetown Circulator Circulate? - City Desk - Washington City Paper

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:12:09 +0000

[...] bus currently runs from Union Station through downtown to M Street, then eventually up Wisconsin. DDOT has proposed cutting the last leg of the service, leaving only two regular city buses to run to upper [...]

By: Save The Circulator! «

Save The Circulator! « — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:04:15 +0000

[...] Comments As GM reported on Monday, DDOT is considering a significant cut in the Circulator service through Georgetown. GM has found out that the proposal is a lot further on than he feared and thus the necessity for [...]

By: Ken Archer

Ken Archer — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:33:49 +0000

A compromise position that I would support is to reduce the number of Circulator stops on Wisconsin from 1-per-block to 1-per-2-blocks. DDOT reduced the number of stops before and the “community” (a couple of people) objected loudly. DDOT should at least give that a try to see its effect on Circulator bottlenecks.

By: Hallock

Hallock — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:17:39 +0000

GM,
I second your response to Richard. For me the Circulator is more reliable, and faster than the 30s. Because the 30s go from one end of the city to the other they are often (always) delayed. The Circulator has a long route as well but its still manages to do it much faster. On another note its cheaper – so who wouldn’t prefer a far superior service at a better price?

By: Jayce

Jayce — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:39:14 +0000

LOOOVE the circulator! Thanks for the article and update, will continue to support the route in hopes that it remains. Great visual and timly new GM!

By: GM

GM — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:53:48 +0000

Richard, I don’t see why overlapping another bus route is an argument for cutting the Circulator. Throughout its route, when it’s not overlapping or closely paralleling the 30 Series, it’s doing to same with the D6.

More importantly this is about overall service levels. The changes to the 30 Series in 2007 cut the frequency of 30 series bus service through Georgetown (particularly if you leave out the 31 bus, which doesn’t actually go downtown). Add to it the fact that the Circulator extension replaced an existing service (the Blue Bus) and it’s clear that in the aggregate, there will be fewer buses going through upper Georgetown at the very time when a new Safeway development is moving towards a denser built environment and Glover Park is becoming a more popular nightlife destination.

I understand that the Circulator cannot be a panacea that simply replaces existing bus service with better branding. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue that the Georgetown retail and entertainment corridor continues up Wisconsin to the doorstep of Glover Park. To the extent that the Circulator is meant to tie continuous retail corridors together, it should continue up Wisconsin to Glover Park.

By: Richard Layman

Richard Layman — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:11:45 +0000

Umm, why do you need both the 30s service and the DC Circulator service overlapping on Wisconsin Ave.? This is a no brainer, other than the fact that people like the Van Hool buses and the graphic scheme of the Circulator more than they do the regular WMATA service and livery scheme (which is changing for the better)?