Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Plan It Metro: "Metrobus route 80 key issues and recommendations"

Riders of the 80 Metrobus might wish to read this.

Metrobus Route 80 Key Issues and Recommendations

Photo-Metrobus-80-kennedy-center
       
Metrobus planning staff recently hosted the final public meeting on Metrobus Route 80, the “North Capitol Street Line.” The purpose of this meeting was to share with the public a summary of the issues experienced by Route 80 riders and discuss possible recommendations for restructuring service, stops and route alignments to help alleviate crowding, reduce delay and increase service frequency.

The presentation boards are available for download. (PDF, 15MB) The key issues and a summary of preliminary recommendations are listed below.

The following were the key issues identified by riders during earlier public meetings and a focus group:
  • Frequency of service
  • Passenger crowding
  • Schedule adherence and reliability
  • Communications improvements between passengers and Metro
  • Traffic congestion on New York Ave causing delay to buses using southbound North Capitol Street service ramp
In response to the identified issues, the following recommendations for Route 80 were presented:
  • Recalibrate running times
  • Eliminate southbound stop on Providence Hospital roadway
  • Formalize use of North Capitol Street underpass to improve service reliability
  • Formalize use of Virginia Avenue underpass to improve service reliability
  • Dedicated/enhanced supervision of bus operations
  • Restructure service, including
    • transforming local service into two different routes:
      • Route 80 operating between Fort Totten Metrorail Station and the Kennedy Center
      • Route 80A operating between Fort Totten Metrorail Station and McPherson Square
    • implementing a new limited-stop overlay service -Route 80X- operating between Fort Totten Metrorail Station and McPherson Square, with an option to serve to serve the Washington Hospital Center (see map below)
    • creating a new neighborhood connector -Route 85- between Brookland-CUA Metrorail Station and Union Station serving NoMa and the future McMillan Reservoir development area
  • Consolidate several stops to meet WMATA’s guideline of 1/5 to 1/4 miles between stops
The study team will take what they learned from the public meeting, as well as comments left here, and incorporate them into the final recommendations.
Map of proposed 80X limited-stop service along the North Capitol Street corridor.
Map of proposed 80X limited-stop service along the North Capitol Street corridor.

Take a look at these recommended service and traffic improvements and provide feedback in the comments section below. Thank you for your input.

1 comment:

Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale said...

An express bus route would be most welcome!