Archive: transit
Questions Raised About Streetcar
The District's ambitious plan to create a billion-dollar network of streetcars and rapid buses over the next two decades is supposed to begin next year along a 1.3 mile track in Anacostia. But some District leaders are questioning whether they've picked the right place to start. Streetcar desired for DC. Cars now in Czech Republic. (DDOT photo) At $45 million, the Anacostia line represents a tiny portion of the overall cost of the network, but it's still a hefty hunk of change as the District government looks ahead to some lean years on revenue. So it's worthy of attention all across the city. And for transit advocates regionwide, the debate over this streetcar plan offers some insights into issues they will face repeatedly over the next 20 years. Here are the sides of the argument, in very reduced form. The District Department of Transportation and some D.C. Council members: --...
By | July 16, 2008; 06:37 AM ET | Comments (7)
Seniors Concerned About Rider ID
Many people wrote in this month about Metro's decision to stop issuing senior ID cards and create an easily identifiable Senior SmarTrip card to pay their discounted fares. Background: Seniors had often expressed frustration with Metro's former requirement that they apply for the ID card, wait weeks for it, and then go get a discount SmarTrip card at a separate location. So I liked the idea of eliminating the cumbersome two-step process. Don't bother with the senior ID anymore. Just get the Senior SmarTrip card. New Concerns: Many people 65 and older don't take the train. They ride either Metrobuses or their suburban bus systems. Downtown Washington isn't a hub for them. These two letters, from readers in Fairfax County, express some seniors' worries about the new system: What about seniors who ride the bus and have no SmarTrip card? Now, they pay cash and show their senior ID card....
By | July 11, 2008; 08:08 AM ET | Comments (10)
Attention VRE Riders at Burke Centre
VRE says that Fairfax County is making some temporary changes in the traffic and parking pattern at the Burke Centre garage starting Thursday. Half of the parking spaces on the ground floor will be closed for some minor work. The rest of the garage will be open. VRE says there should be plenty of parking for everyone, despite the closure. Also, the construction fence will be moved, blocking the garage entrance. That area will be closed off for a few weeks so the road in front of the garage can be repaved. Cars will need to use what is normally the exit to get in as well as out. VRE says the exit was designed to accommodate two-way traffic, so there's enough space for this....
By | July 9, 2008; 02:16 PM ET | Comments (0)
Schedules Adjusted On July 4
Independence Day is a unique holiday for Washington's transportation system. No other day-off brings so many people to the region's center for so public a celebration. So the region's transit system has to approach it differently: Metrorail will run on a special schedule from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Reduced fares will be in effect all day Friday. No bikes on trains, because of the crowding. Smithsonian Station is closed all day, for security reasons, the transit authority says. Parking at Metro's lots and garages will be free. Metrobus will operate on a Saturday schedule, and MetroAccess, the service for disabled people, will operate from 5:30 a.m. to midnight. Click here to see Metro's guide to getting where you want to be on July 4. What's Different -- No Pentagon shuttles. After the fireworks on the mall, Metro will not operate any shuttle buses to the Pentagon. Low ridership on...
By | July 3, 2008; 06:42 AM ET | Comments (6)
Updates on Maryland Commuter Buses
Some notes for those of you who ride the MTA commuter buses: Bus Stop Relocation -- The bus stop on Constitution Avenue at 14th Street NW has been moved temporarily to the other side of 14th Street to accommodate the construction at the National Museum of American History. The MTA says all drivers on bus route 995 have been told to use this new location, even though the regular stop is still accessible for the moment. -- The afternoon stops for bus routes 901, 902, 904 and 905 have been moved up the block from National Archives to the eastbound side of Pennsylvania Avenue at Ninth Street NW. The morning buses will continue to drop passengers on westbound Pennsylvania Avenue after making the turn from Seventh Street NW. Hearing on New Service The MTA will hold a hearing Wednesday on its proposal to expand service between Waldorf and the District....
By | June 23, 2008; 03:05 PM ET | Email a Comment
Transit Advocates Say, 'Dump the Pump'
Today is the third annual Dump the Pump Day, and this may be the easiest sell yet for transit advocates. The American Public Transportation Association and local transit agencies across the country are urging people to leave their cars at home today and try an alternative route to work. An online calculator lets you see how much you would save. Around here, we've had some unfortunate experiences with that lately. Metrorail, the second largest rail transit system in the nation, had a ghastly first half of June, particularly on the Orange Line. Despite that, Metro has been setting ridership records this spring. On Tuesday, Metrorail recorded the ninth highest weekday ridership in its 32 year history, with 812,686 trips taken. Then Wednesday entered the books as the sixth highest ridership day, with 823,516 trips. That was 28,308 more than the comparable day last year, Metro says. It pushed Tuesday's ranking...
By | June 19, 2008; 07:20 AM ET | Comments (16)
Fares Rising on VRE
The fares on the Virginia commuter trains are rising in two stages this month. Effective today: Monthly and TLC fares increase 3 percent to offset the rise in fuel, insurance and maintenance costs. Effective June 29: Fares for Ten-Ride, Five-Day and Single-Ride tickets will go up by varying amounts. Here's a link to the VRE chart that shows the impact on different trips. The reduced fares will be 50 percent off the full fare equivalent. Here's a link to the VRE page that explains the reduced fare policies and categories....
By | June 10, 2008; 01:31 PM ET | Comments (2)
MARC Apologizes to Riders
The MARC train service just sent out an apology about Monday afternoon's messy ride home from Washington on the Penn Line. This was the sequence of events, according to the MARC statement: -- Train 450, heading north from Union Station at 5:10 p.m., was delayed when it had to work around a disabled Amtrak train. -- The engine on Train 450 failed north of Odenton, and restart attempts were unsuccessful. -- Amtrak decided to push Train 450 into BWI Marshall Station with Train 534. But they had to operate at a reduced speed of 20 mph, delaying other northbound trains. -- At BWI Station, passengers heading north of Baltimore transferred to Train 440, which extended its run to Perryville for them. -- Amtrak decided that Train 538, which left Union Station at 6:05, should bypass the West Baltimore and Halethorpe stations and that passengers should return to those stations on...
By | June 3, 2008; 02:01 PM ET | Comments (7)
Purple Line Prospects
The Purple Line transitway proposed for Montgomery and Prince George's counties almost certainly will be light rail rather than a rapid bus route, but what else will it be? Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez speaks at Purple Line rally. (Thomson) Advocates for the project held a rally at Silver Spring Station on Thursday to highlight new ridership projections showing that the top end service, a light rail line costing between $1.5 billion and $1.75 billion to build, would provide 68,000 trips a day for its riders. It would cost $22.8 million a year to operate and maintain such a system. The low end of investment, a very basic bus rapid transit system, would provide 40,000 trips a day, according to Maryland Transit Administration estimates, and cost between $420 million and $460 million to set up. Operating costs were estimated at $17.3 million a year. Look here to see the range of...
By | June 2, 2008; 08:44 AM ET | Comments (68)
Easing Switch to Carpools and Transit
Transportation planners and transit advocates talk about several impediments facing people who want to make the switch from driving alone to transit or carpooling. Among them: Inertia. Even many people with long drives that keep them from family time, or even seeing their homes in daylight, fall into patterns that are hard to break. Doing something different requires some planning, and people who endure long drives and get limited sleep are often just too tired to change habits. The unknown. Stepping into a carpool or boarding a bus means learning a lot of new stuff. Carpoolers have their own etiquette. Bus riders know the fare, how to pay it, where to sit, where the route will take them and how to request a stop. Good example of problem-solving: Arlington County developed an innovative program to encourage young people to ride transit. The idea was to get teenagers used to riding...
By | May 27, 2008; 12:14 PM ET | Comments (6)
Buses Are The Thing This Year
A transit authority committee this morning is looking at a staff proposal to greatly expand the region's express bus services. But it's just one of a bunch of bus developments likely to expand commuters' options. -- Maryland is going to expand service on nine of its commuter bus routes to and from Washington. -- Separately from its express bus proposal, Metro is working with local jurisdictions on a proposal to speed bus trips by opening up road shoulders for their use. -- Virginia maintains that a key element of the HOT (high occupancy or toll) lane projects on the Beltway and I-95/395 is to support improvements in commuter bus services. The buses would use those express lanes for free. -- On June 30, Metrobus is going to overhaul service on one of its longest and most popular routes across Washington in an innovative program that could serve as a model...
By | May 22, 2008; 07:13 AM ET | Comments (7)
Purple Line Planning Continues
While the Dulles rail project has gained the most attention lately, one of the region's other transit projects, the Purple Line in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, keeps chugging through its study phase. The Maryland Transit Administration, also in charge of MARC, Baltimore's light rail and the commuter buses among other things, is holding another series of open houses to discuss the Purple Line. Three of the sessions are this week. The schedule: -- Today at West Lanham Hills Recreation Center, 7700 Decatur Road, Landover Hills; -- Wednesday at East Silver Spring Elementary School, 631 Silver Spring Ave., Silver Spring; -- Thursday at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School cafeteria, 4301 East-West Highway, Bethesda. All are from 5 to 8 p.m. You'll see some new, bigger numbers on potential ridership and some new estimates on travel times along the line, which still could be either a light rail or a rapid bus...
By | May 12, 2008; 12:23 PM ET | Comments (3)
Free Ride Today on Va. Buses
Get to know a Northern Virginia bus today. It's free. This one-day free ride on any route in Northern Virginia was scheduled by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission to remind commuters that the free bus option will be there again this summer, whenever a bad air day is forecast. These Code Red air quality alerts don't come very often anymore, and an alert doesn't mean that we've actually violated our air quality standards. In fact, we've done a good job avoiding that in recent summers. Still, the regional Council of Governments predicts we could have one to five alerts this summer. One way to reduce ozone pollution is to get people out of their cars and on transit. Virginia jurisdictions subsidize the free bus rides, using funds from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. Of course, the sponsors hope that you'll be enticed by the free ride and...
By | April 30, 2008; 05:37 AM ET | Comments (4)
Hearing on Montgomery Fares, Fees
The Montgomery County Council is holding a public hearing today about proposed changes in the county's transportation fares and fees. The session is at 1:30 p.m. in the 7th Floor Hearing Room, Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville. The changes are part of County Executive Isiah Leggett's proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts in July. The proposed changes include: -- Eliminating the Ride On bus system's "Ride About" two-week pass. -- Creating a Ride On Monthly Pass, costing $25. -- Increasing the cost of the Ride On 20 Trip Ticket from $20 to $27. -- Increasing some parking fees in the Silver Spring and Wheaton parking districts....
By | April 22, 2008; 08:40 AM ET | Email a Comment
Streetcars in DC's Future
A groundbreaking ceremony today at Benning Road and H Street NE brought together the people who make urban transportation projects happen: There was the mayor, the head of the department of transportation, some of his engineers and project managers, the local council member and business and civic leaders from the neighborhood. Rendering of corridor's Starburst intersection, with trolley. (DDOT image) The ceremony formally launched the rebuilding of the Benning Road/H Street corridor and the groundwork for a streetcar line that will run to Union Station. Like other transit projects such as the Purple Line, the Columbia Pike line and Dulles rail, it's not only about moving people more quickly and efficiently from one point to another -- important as that is. It's also about organizing the future of communities. In this case, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Transportation Director Emeka Moneme, Council Member Tommy Wells and many community leaders are working for...
By | January 31, 2008; 12:35 PM ET | Comments (58)
Help For Crowded MARC and Metrorail
Two sources of some joy today for rail riders: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced that MARC's Penn Line will be getting three new trains to ease crowding during the afternoon rush and add night service, all starting in February. These are the three new trains: -- A 500-seat express leaving Union Station at 5:14 p.m., which the governor's announcement says should relieve crowding on the 5:20 p.m. train. -- A train leaving Baltimore at 10:30 p.m. and stopping at BWI Thurgood Marshall station to pick up late-arriving airport passengers heading for Washington. -- A train leaving Washington for Baltimore at 11:45 p.m., offering more flexibility for people who need to work late but want to take transit. Here's a link to the full text of the announcement from the governor's office. Meanwhile, Lena Sun wrote in today's Post that the prayers of many Metrorail riders have been answered: The transit...
By | December 12, 2007; 04:22 PM ET | Comments (5)
Crowding on MARC
All our local rail systems -- Metro, MARC and VRE -- are providing a useful service to riders through their e-mail alerts, and MARC just upgraded its system. But useful as these systems are, they can also serve as a sad catalogue of inconvenience to customers. Just now, I saw this one for MARC riders: "Penn Line - Due to a shortage of available cars train 428 (415p DP WASH) tonight and train 405 (555a DP BALT)tomorrow morning will be short one car. Expect severe overcrowding on both of these trains. We regret the inconvenience." My mailbag often includes letters from MARC riders contending for the dubious honor of riding on the most delayed or most crowded line. Just judging from the mail, the winner often appears to be the Brunswick Line, to the west of Washington, but lately I've been hearing from Camden and Penn riders. An online chat...
By | December 11, 2007; 04:11 PM ET | Comments (4)
New Figures For Purple Line
The Purple Line transitway across Montgomery and Prince George's counties would take people on as many as 47,000 trips a day and get them between Bethesda and New Carrollton in 46 minutes, according to a study distributed last night by the Maryland Transit Administration. Michael D. Madden, the state's manager for the project, said the ridership estimates compare well with those of other such projects across the nation. That will be important -- as the Dulles rail project shows us -- when Maryland asks the federal government to help finance construction. Those ridership and time estimates are for the high-end version of the project: a light rail system that might cost $1.79 billion, according to the study. At the lower end, the state could invest $105 million in improvements to the existing transit system, upgrading bus service and traffic controls for an estimated 108 minutes of travel time between Bethesda...
By | December 4, 2007; 07:47 AM ET | Comments (29)
Purple Line Planning Tonight
The Maryland Transit Administration is beginning a round of open houses tonight to update the public on planning for the Purple Line, one of two transit lines I hope will be built across the suburbs north of Washington during the next decade. Signs at 2006 campaign rally in Langley Park. (Robert Thomson) The Purple Line would be either a light rail or bus rapid transit system linking Bethesda with Silver Spring and New Carrollton. The planning process is a mini-version of what Virginia is going through in launching the rail line through Tysons Corner to Dulles. Project managers must pick a route and prove to the federal goverment that the cost per passenger will justify a federal contribution to the construction program. Like the Virginia project, the Purple Line isn't just about moving people. It also is an opportunity to focus suburban development on transit stations, reshaping communities to meet...
By | December 3, 2007; 08:15 AM ET | Comments (67)
D.C. Shows Off New Bus Shelters
At more than 40 spots across the District, bus passengers await their rides under new aluminum and glass shelters. More than 600 of them are on the way under a deal the city signed with Clear Channel Adshel. New shelter design. (Clear Channel) On Tuesday morning, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Transportation Director Emeka Moneme showed off one of the new ones outside a Popeye's near the intersection of Benning Road NE and East Capitol Street. The new style has great curb appeal. Moneme pointed to one of the old brown, glass-less shelters across Benning Road, and the contrast was immediately obvious. The new one has a modern, urban look. Plus, it has information. The big new bus map is another breakthrough in shelter design. And someday, we all hope, the panel that runs along the top of the shelter will display Next Bus information, giving riders a realistic idea of...
By | November 28, 2007; 05:49 AM ET | Comments (16)
Expect Severe Overcrowding at Union Station
Amtrak is experiencing a signal problem at Union Station which is preventing all Camden and Brunswick trains from arriving or leaving the stop, according to the Maryland Transit Authority. "Brunswick train 891 is over 30 minutes late and Camden train 846 is still in Washington. We expect severe overcrowding in the waiting areas at Union Station," a MTA alert said....
By Liz Heron | March 22, 2007; 05:20 PM ET | Email a Comment
New Metrobus Rolls Out
The bus was a new style, with a new number. The driver told boarding passengers that it made "limited stops." An electronic sign behind him displayed the name of each stop. That electronic female voice announced the name of each stop. But every half mile or so, an angered or alarmed passenger would rush up to the driver of the new MetroExtra bus operating along Georgia Avenue to tell him that he had missed the stop. "That's not my stop," he would respond. New MetroExtra bus waits downtown to begin northbound trip. (Robert Thomson) Tough being a bus driver in ordinary city driving, but this was the first day of a new service, the Georgia Avenue express created by Metro and the District Department of Transportation. Bus drivers, unlike train operators, interact a lot with their passengers as well as with traffic. I saw two do a pretty good job...
By | March 20, 2007; 06:06 AM ET | Comments (8)
New Express Bus Starts Today
Metro and the District Department of Transportation launched a new type of express bus service between the city and the Maryland suburbs this morning. You can ride the Metro Extra along Georgia Avenue and 7th Street NW between Silver Spring and the Gallery Place and Navy Memorial stations downtown during rush periods. It's one of those service innovations that I think gives us hope for creating a regional transportation system with many options for travelers. These new blue express buses will operate Monday through Friday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. and from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Click here to see a route map. The buses will supplement the regular runs of the 70 and 71 Metrobuses along that corridor, but they will skip a lot of stops. The Metrobus schedule for a trip between Silver Spring and Gallery Place calls for a 58 minute trip. On the Metro Extra bus,...
By | March 19, 2007; 08:58 AM ET | Comments (1)
Purple Line Rally Today
Backers of the proposed transitway between New Carrollton and Bethesda rallied today in front of the State House in Annapolis to show continued support for the project. Leaders of the effort have been feeling pretty good since the November elections, in which many Purple Line supporters were victorious. The change in administrations in Annapolis also suggests that planners will wind up focusing on it as a light rail line rather than the bus rapid transit system that so interested Bob Flanagan, who was former governor Bob Ehrlich's transportation secretary. These days, it's rare to find anyone refering to the project as the Bicounty Transitway, the name it had during the Ehrlich administration. Last week's Montgomery County Council hearing on transportation priorities was mostly about how much people love the Purple Line and the Corridor Cities Transitway along the I-270 corridor and how much they hate the intercounty connector. But as...
By | January 30, 2007; 08:24 AM ET | Comments (39)
Etiquette for Transit Riders?
A friend of mine from Baltimore who takes the MARC train to Washington asked me whether we've talked about the standards of behavior in crowded cars. Like other MARC riders, and VRE riders and Metrorail and Metrobus riders, she's used to traveling in vehicles where there is little or no room for passengers to maneuver. Who stands, who sits, and where? Which way do you lean to get out of the way of a conductor or passengers moving along the aisles? Can you save a seat for someone? The commuters who form the slug lines to carpool into Washington have their own standards of behavior for riding in groups, such as: Only the driver should initiate a conversation and talking on cell phones is not allowed. Who's got some practical advice for transit passengers during the everyday crowding we encounter? I'm trying to be focused here: I don't mean stand...
By | January 11, 2007; 08:57 AM ET | Comments (165)
Arlington Cutting Teen Fares
Arlington County has a smart idea: If you want people to get in the habit of riding transit, get them while they're young. Even smarter: Ask them what it would take to get them to ride. The county, always progressive on transit ideas, has a Teen Transit Advisory Board made up of 8th to 12th graders. They identified what they and their peers see as some of the hurdles that transit systems put up, and they included a lack of information (as in, when is the bus coming) and the cost of a ride. At their early sessions this summer, the teens began brainstorming about how to take down some of the barriers and they reviewed the results of a county survey of teenagers. The Arlington County Board has now responded by establishing a youth fare on its ART buses. Starting Jan. 1, the base fare for people with a...
By | December 13, 2006; 06:15 AM ET | Comments (4)
New Traffic Law for Buses
There's a new law in the District that bars drivers from passing a stopped bus on the left and then making a right turn in front of it. This applies when the bus is loading or unloading passengers and is intended as a pedestrian safety measure. This month, the D.C. police will be issuing warnings if they spot a driver looping around a bus. Starting in January, you can get a $100 ticket. The District is supposed to provide stickers that can be placed on the backs of buses operating in the city that will warn drivers about the new rule. You should start seeing them on all sorts of buses, including Metro, the Circulator, Georgetown Blue Buses, Maryland and Virginia commuter charters and Tourmobiles. The new law, called the Pedestrian Protection Bus Safety Amendment Act of 2006, was introduced in the D.C. Council by David Catania. D.C. police say...
By | December 7, 2006; 08:56 AM ET | Comments (17)
Tunnel Talk
We had a good discussion the Live Online session this afternoon, but as usual, I couldn't get to many of the questions that came in. Some people have very specific questions and I just don't know the answers off the top of my head. There were some questions and comments about the rail to Dulles project, stimulated by the decision last week to abandon the idea of building a tunnel through Tysons Corner and instead construct an elevated railway. One person asked me about the schedule for construction following that decision, so I checked with Post staff writer Alec MacGillis, who's been all over this story. He said the ground breaking, which initially will mean moving utilities and some other work that's not very dramatic, is now scheduled for late next year. It has been pushed back partly because of the now-concluded tunnel debate. Under the current schedule, the rail...
By | September 11, 2006; 02:50 PM ET | Comments (9)
Don't Be a Victim of Bad Planning
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on transportation issues during a Live Online discussion at 1 p.m. today. We might spend some time talking about transportation politics. In Maryland and the District, tomorrow is primary day, the decisive voting in many local contests because of the overwhelmingly Democratic registration in some areas. During the past month, I've gotten many questions and comments regarding the Purple Line in Montgomery and Prince George's counties and about pedestrian and traffic safety everywhere. Virginians won't vote until the general election in November, but we did have a big political decision last week on transportation: Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) decided he could not back a proposed rail tunnel through Tysons Corner because the federal government probably woudn't agree to pay part of the project's cost if the tunnel was chosen. So instead, the new Tysons Metrorail line will be elevated. That was hardly...
By | September 11, 2006; 08:51 AM ET | Comments (6)
Purple Line Politics
Mayors, congressmen, state senators, delegates, county council members and just plain candidates attended a rally this morning in Langley Park to advance the cause of the Purple Line, a proposed transitway that would link Bethesda and New Carrollton. I've been at this University Boulevard-New Hampshire Avenue intersection for three separate events this summer that involved the transitway. The first was a tour of the transit route with Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan, the second with county executive candidate Steve Silverman and the third today the rally sponsored by a coaltion of transit and trail advocates and business leaders who want to see a light rail built to ease east-west traffic and the Capital Crescent hiker biker trail preserved and extended. Backdrop to a rally. (Robert Thomson) It's very encouraging to see such interest focused on the transitway right now, before a big election, when it really counts. For people in...
By | August 15, 2006; 12:42 PM ET | Comments (47)
Purple Line Prose
This summer, I've taken two tours of the proposed route for a transitway across the Maryland suburbs. One was hosted by Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan and the other by Montgomery Councilmember Steve Silverman, who is a candidate for county executive in the Democratic primary. Flanagan wanted to show us how difficult it will be to build the Purple Line between New Carrollton and Bethesda. Silverman wanted to show us why we need it. Attitude is an interesting thing. On the Washington region's big transportation projects, it often counts for a lot. I remember when the Springfield Interchange reconstruction and the Wilson Bridge project ran into various forms of financial trouble. There were times when I thought neither one would survive. The intercounty connector highway looked dead for years. But it turns out that when politicians really believe something can and should be done, it gets done. The Rail to...
By | August 9, 2006; 05:00 AM ET | Comments (14)
Riding the DC Circulator
From Dr. Gridlock: Just got back from a test ride on the DC Circulator. I'm now a fan. It would be a bargain at the normal fare of a dollar, but you can't beat today's free ride, part of the celebration of the service's first anniversary. There are three routes through the center of Washington. I took the east-west route, starting my trip at 16th and K streets NW, riding down to Union Station and then looping back to the service's westernmost point at Wisconsin Avenue and M Street in Georgetown. Interior of the DC Circulator. (Robert Thomson) Now I know my experience so far is limited, but I can tell you that buses came along very frequently -- definitely within the advertised range fo five to 10 minutes apart. The only way I noticed you could tell that today's ride is free is to see the red cover on...
By | July 28, 2006; 01:39 PM ET | Comments (2)
Ride the Circulator for Free Today
From Dr. Gridlock: Good day to check out the downtown bus routes known as the DC Circulator. Today, it's free. Part of the celebration of its first anniversary in service. Normally, it's a pretty good bargain: $1 flat fare. There's an east-west and a north-south route and a loop around the Mall. The east-west runs between Georgetown and Union Station and the north-south between Water Street and the Convention Center area. Buses run every five to 10 minutes, so there's no posted schedule. The vehicles are a very interesting design, not typically seen around here. Think I'll go out and try one now. Curious about whether the passengers are tourists or locals or a mix. Seems like it would be very useful to both....
By | July 28, 2006; 11:03 AM ET | Comments (9)
