GM just noticed that Google has added real-time predictions for the Circulator. This way you check when the bus will be coming before you leave the house.
To use it, load up Google maps and zoom in on Georgetown. Right-click on the blue bus icons for your stop and the bubble will open up telling you when the next bus will come.
The Circulator is supposed to come every ten minutes, but it’s not always on schedule. So it’s worth it to check before heading out. Continue reading
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Georgetown Waterfront by Oblivious Dude.
Last August, GM reported that a water taxi route may open between Nationals Stadium and Georgetown. The hope didn’t pan out last season, but there’s reason to believe that Georgetown may soon finally get itself a water taxi.
JD Land is reporting that American River Taxi is planning to start up a river taxi service between Nationals Stadium, the Gangplank Marina in SW, Alexandria and Georgetown. There are only a few details, but the service is supposed to start up during the second quarter. Continue reading
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Yesterday, Georgetown Current’s Carol Buckley alerted GM to the draconian plan that WMATA is floating to close a massive budget gap. Among other changes, the proposal would stop all weekend late-night bus service between Georgetown and Dupont Circle and cut early morning service as well.
What WMATA is specifically proposing is the following:
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Care of a comment to a Morning Metropolitan, GM became aware of the Wisconsin Ave. Streetcar Coalition. It’s a group of Wisconsin Ave.-based residents and others in the Washington area who support sustainable development and transportation. Their goal is to convince DDOT to make firmer plans to bring a streetcar to Wisconsin Ave.
Little background: Last fall DDOT announced an ambitious plan to bring streetcar lines all over the city.
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Last week GM detailed some changes to the D Series bus schedule. One thing that confused him was that WMATA had been contemplating changes for the D Series for quite some time. Yet the changes announced last week appeared to be part of a systemic not targeted change. The website for the D Series study is now essentially wiped of all mention of the D Series Study.
GM reached out to WMATA and got confirmation that the changes announced last week are indeed the end result of this year’s study. Following his inquiry a press release was issued clarifying the matter.
This is a little odd since the changes announced last week only partially resemble the changes considered last winter. Here’s how the two plans break-down:
The Original Plan:
The Plan Announced Last Week
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Today WMATA announced a raft of changes to Metrobus routes throughout the region. Some of the changes directly affect Georgetown residents. They will take effect December 27th. If you ride the D Series, keep reading.
The D1
The most dramatic change affecting the D Series is that the D1 will now only go from Glover Park to Federal Triangle instead of Union Station. As WMATA announced:
The route will be changed to operate between Glover Park and Federal Triangle. Eastbound buses will follow the regular route from Glover Park to 13th and E Streets, NW, then continue via 13th Street onto Pennsylvania Avenue to the terminal stand on the west side of 10th Street, NW. The westbound route will begin at this terminal stand and continue via Constitution Avenue, 12th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, 13th Street and resume the regular route.
Two new buses will be scheduled to leave eastbound from Glover Park at 9:05 a.m. and westbound from Federal Triangle at 7:05 p.m. The bus schedule will change.
This announcement seems to indicate that two buses will leave at the same time from Glover Park at 9:05 AM and from Federal Triangle at 7:05 PM. Those are odd times to double up the load. Wouldn’t it make more sense to double up buses before 9:00 AM and closer to 5:00 PM? Continue reading
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Wednesday night DDOT hosted an open house at Hyde-Addison to discuss the city’s plans for a brand new streetcar network. The long term plans for this network include a branch into Georgetown. This would bring an end to the nearly 40 years that Georgetown has been without streetcars (which traveled Georgetown’s streets for about a century before they were shut down).
The saga that is the DC streetcar effort has been well documented at GGW, among others. Long story short: During the Williams administration, DDOT performed a study for DC’s transit future. The study concluded that better interneighborhood transit was necessary. This was to be achieved through the use of multiple tools including streetcars and bus rapid transit.
The first streetcar line was to run through Anacostia. This is about when the plans spun off the tracks, if you can pardon the pun. Questions about the route and just who exactly owned the CSX tracks increasingly made a mockery out of the ground breaking ceremony staged in 2002.
But new DDOT Director Gabe Klein, along with Councilmember Tommy Wells, have rededicated the city towards building an ambitious streetcar network. Initially lines will go to Anacostia and along H St. NE. If all goes as planned, the network will eventually look like this:
For Georgetown, this will mean a streetcar coming from Washington Circle down K St. to somewhere around 33rd St. This line will travel from Georgetown down K St. all the way to New Jersey Ave. where it will snake down to H St. It will then pass Union Station (where it will be incorporated into the Union Station Intermodal Transportation Center) and continue on along H St. NE until it reaches Benning Rd.
The Georgetown extension is not planned to be built until the second of three phases. DDOT is hoping to finish all three phases in seven to nine years. That would probably mean streetcars would reach Georgetown in four to six years. Although further delays are probably inevitable.
The big issue when it comes to streetcars in DC is how to power them. All over the world streetcars are powered with overhead wires. However, in central DC (including Georgetown) overhead wires are prohibited by federal law. DC will probably end up using a hybrid system involving some overhead wires and batteries. There is zero chance that any overhead wires will go up in Georgetown.
Finally, you’ll notice from the map above that there’s an arrow going from K and Wisconsin northward. That’s because DDOT is considering Wisconsin as an extension to the Georgetown line. That could mean that it gets incorporated into the third phase or it could just mean that it would be among the first expansions considered after the 37-mile system is built.
In reality, besides the H St. and Anacostia lines, nothing is set in stone. The true driving force will be whether the city can find money for the system. That’s a huge ‘whether.’
Filed under Transit
Is something like this in Georgetown's future?
The Georgetown Current reported yesterday that various Georgetown leaders have been meeting recently to consider revamping Georgetown’s parking regulations. According to author Carol Buckley, members of the ANC, the BID and CAG are part of the ad hoc group.
The article indicates that among the options the group is considering is the concept of performance parking. Actually, they didn’t use that term exactly but the substance of the proposals mentioned amount to a type of performance parking.
GM laid out his out vision of performance parking for Georgetown way back in March. In a nutshell: performance parking attempts to price street-side parking in a way to discourage long-term use of the space. Cities using this approach raise the parking meter price high enough to ensure that there are always a decent number of spaces open. If people want to park longer term, they are encouraged to use the pay garages, of which Georgetown has plenty. Continue reading
When it rains, it pours. We were just days away from losing half our Circulator service when the Mayor stepped in to save it. Now news comes that we might double our service. The Examiner is reporting that DDOT and the Georgetown BID are in discussions to turn the remaining Blue Bus into a Circulator. This would mean a Circulator would go from the Rosslyn metro to Dupont Circle, via Georgetown.
This is all a bit of Deja Vu all over again. In 2007, DDOT worked with the BID to modify the then relatively new Circulator to take over the Georgetown-to-Foggy Bottom Blue Bus route. The BID always considered the Blue Bus to be a demonstration project for what reliable bus service could do in Georgetown. Having the Circulator take over the Foggy Bottom route was a culmination of that. Continue reading
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Breaking news via the Washington Post Getting There Blog:
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is scheduled to go to the D.C. Circulator bus stop at Whitehaven Place NW on Tuesday morning to announce that the extension of the route up Wisconsin Avenue will be preserved.
The District had planned to end that portion of the Georgetown-Union Station route on Sunday, Oct. 4, to save money
According to the mayor’s schedule, the announcement will be at 9:15 am.
Needless to say, this is great news for Georgetown (and Glover Park by the measure of comments GM received). Apparently the Mayor listened to the pleas of the residents and businesses. Great thanks goes out to everyone who wrote the mayor. In particular, CAG deserves praise for bringing this issue to light and not dropping it even as the fight seemed lost.
As more information is available, GM will report and analyze it.
Once again, a huge thank you goes out to everyone who wrote in and made their voice heard.
Update: DDOT issued this press release:
(Washington, DC) — Mayor Adrian M. Fenty along with Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Gabe Klein announced today the DC Circulator route along Wisconsin Avenue will remain in service.
“After further review this administration has determined the route along Wisconsin Avenue is necessary to the residents, businesses and workers who rely on it as an economically reliable transportation choice.” said Mayor Fenty.
“It is never easy to make any cuts in service, and we did not take this particular cut lightly,” said DDOT Director Gabe Klein. “We are pleased that Mayor Fenty and Councilmember Evans are supportive of transit and its importance to the city and that they support keeping this portion of the route open.”
“The great outpouring of support from the DC Circulator ridership has once again ensured the continued service of this vital transportation option along the Wisconsin Avenue corridor,” said Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans. “I salute Mayor Fenty for his continued support of the residents of Ward 2 and throughout the city.“
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced on September 21st the DC Circulator would undergo several service changes coinciding with the beginning of the FY10 District budget including a discontinuation of the Wisconsin Avenue route north of M Street.
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The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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