University considers rerouting DuPont GUTS bus, increasing trip time
Posted by: Eric Pilch in News, Vox Populi, tags: Campus Plan, Georgetown Neighborhood, GUTS BusesNot again. The University is considering altering the DuPont Circle GUTS bus route from a fairly straight-shot route to the outrageously counter-intuitive route pictured above, which if adopted will make the trip time to and from the University at least 25 minutes (and that estimate comes from non-rush hour travel). And guess what? The route in consideration, which GUTS drivers tested over the weekend, looks exactly like Georgetown’s neighborhood residents wanted it to.
University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille wrote in two emails:
We continue to work to find routes which provide the greatest safety on campus and put the least amount of traffic on neighborhood residential streets. For the first time last weekend we tried a weekend Dupont route which utilizes the Whitehurst Freeway …. This particular route maintains the published schedule.
Under the tentative route, buses leaving the University will start out for DuPont by traveling in essentially the wrong direction before looping around the University, taking the Whitehurst Freeway, and turning up New Hampshire Ave. (If you can’t view the map above, it looks like this.) Currently, rush hour GUTS buses traveled over to Wisconsin Ave, crossed a bridge on Q St., and landed at 20th and Massachusetts, like this.
Bataille didn’t state whether the possible change is the result of pressure from neighborhood residents who often allege that the buses make too much noise and rattle Georgetown’s wood-frame houses (never mind that Metro buses travel similar routes all the time).
But the last time the University altered the DuPont route, it was in explicit reaction to neighbors’ complaints. And a recent email sent to the Georgetown neighborhood listserv by Lind Greenan, the Associate Vice President for External Relations, reminds us that the University is planning to hold a community meeting in the coming months to present the all-important 2010 Campus Plan to discuss its contents with the neighborhood. Just sayin’.
Voice News will have more this Thursday.
Reporting by Eric Pilch.
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If they do this, are they also going to start dropping people so they can get to the GWU/Foggy Bottom Station as well? Then drop Rosslyn and combine everything to run more frequently? This makes no sense otherwise.
Even if it made any sense to cave to this pressure in the first place, why go through foxhall, wouldn’t it make more sense to just go straight south through campus, and leave through the canal road exit?
Rob, they can’t because work on the science building is about to start, which is going to shut down that road to vehicles until it’s done.
WTF? This is so idiotic. Eric, who in the university administration is responsible for deciding this? Is it too late to change their mind before this becomes the normal route? I’d like to lobby on behalf of the original route if it would do any good.
One more route change like this and it’ll probably be faster to walk to the station. I hope they at least make it stop at the GWU/Foggy Bottom station
For the sake of Georgetown’s streets, we should probably also put a restriction on residents driving alone in SUVs or other oversized vehicles who aren’t carpooling. And no more Metro-buses either.
On the other hand, if it makes our friendly neighbors happier, they could allow students to get parking passes in Georgetown (the only part of DC where students can’t get those passes), and then everyone riding the GUTS bus could just each drive their own separate car down the street and compete for all those abundant parking spots. I don’t think that our rush hour traffic has truly reached its apogee thus far.
If we’re going to be self-absorbed hypocrites, let’s at least do it on equal terms.
Eric, I think you give too much credit to the current Dupont route (unless it’s changed since I’ve been gone). When they hcanged it last year, it became ridiculous, but this is even worse. Why does Georgetown always fold to the neighborhood?
The route’s not the problem. It’s the buses themselves. They’re enormous and loud. Why not revamp the line of buses and go for smaller, quieter, less gassy buses…and increase the rounds to make up for times in the day when traffic is heavier? I can understand the problem with the neighborhood. From the 7th floor of McCarthy, I can still wake up from the sound of a GUTS bus driving by at 5am. It’s annoying.