Metro Bus HORRORS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or the OP could be a responsible parent and drive their child to school. Black children in ward 8 don’t have dedicated buses to get to school so why are white residents in northwest given a dedicated metro bus?

How do you know OP isn't a black parent from the east side who is upset that their kid was left stranded at MacArthur for two extra hours today? MacArthur has a large OOB student population.

And anyway these aren't dedicated buses, these are regular city routes that serve public schools, and that exists all over the city. Many families in wards 7 and 8 take buses in along Penn Ave SE, Benning/H, K Street, etc. in order to access schools in those corridors. If one of those kids had to wait 2 full hours to board a bus to take them home, I think most of us would also be upset about that. It is not reasonable.

[Anonymous]

How far do you live from school? If he waited an hour he could have walked three miles in that time.

[Anonymous]

That’s not a horror, OP. It sucks and is indicative of public transportation. A bus horror would be violence and crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or the OP could be a responsible parent and drive their child to school. Black children in ward 8 don’t have dedicated buses to get to school so why are white residents in northwest given a dedicated metro bus?

How do you know OP isn't a black parent from the east side who is upset that their kid was left stranded at MacArthur for two extra hours today? MacArthur has a large OOB student population.

And anyway these aren't dedicated buses, these are regular city routes that serve public schools, and that exists all over the city. Many families in wards 7 and 8 take buses in along Penn Ave SE, Benning/H, K Street, etc. in order to access schools in those corridors. If one of those kids had to wait 2 full hours to board a bus to take them home, I think most of us would also be upset about that. It is not reasonable.

Regular transit users would never wait two hours for a bus. At some point you start walking, usually in the direction of your destination and/or an alternate transit option.

It was the first day. There were Metro staff all over the city monitoring how it went. They will likely make improvements over time.

Still, people should really temper their expectations. It's not a typical school bus. If a student is going to regularly use Metrobus, it's important for parents to teach them how to properly navigate the system when there are disruptions or other issues.

[Anonymous]

The C85 bus goes to MacArthur before and after school, going to Foggy Bottom.

[Anonymous]

Most jurisdictions have school buses, but DC lets students ride Metro for free so they don't have to bother with dedicated school buses. But then they don't put resources into buses along those school routes because they don't generate much revenue. The city can still say, though, that kids technically have a way to get to school using public transportation -- just not a reliable way.

Not everyone has the means or schedules to drive their kids to school and by the time you get to middle school and high school, inbound schools often aren't in walking distance. And as a public policy, we should encourage public transportation over more cars on the road.

JR at least excused tardies last year because the bus from Mount Pleasant was a frequent no show, with the WMATA app saying routes were cancelled because there weren't enough drivers. And for lots of families, the big, beautiful bus reform seems to have made things worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or the OP could be a responsible parent and drive their child to school. Black children in ward 8 don’t have dedicated buses to get to school so why are white residents in northwest given a dedicated metro bus?

Are you assuming I’m not responsible 😆 also who said my child is white??? We Black 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or the OP could be a responsible parent and drive their child to school. Black children in ward 8 don’t have dedicated buses to get to school so why are white residents in northwest given a dedicated metro bus?

How do you know OP isn't a black parent from the east side who is upset that their kid was left stranded at MacArthur for two extra hours today? MacArthur has a large OOB student population.

And anyway these aren't dedicated buses, these are regular city routes that serve public schools, and that exists all over the city. Many families in wards 7 and 8 take buses in along Penn Ave SE, Benning/H, K Street, etc. in order to access schools in those corridors. If one of those kids had to wait 2 full hours to board a bus to take them home, I think most of us would also be upset about that. It is not reasonable.

I am Black, not East of the river and I do drive to school the only issue was after school but assuming I’m white is hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The C85 bus goes to MacArthur before and after school, going to Foggy Bottom.

Thank you for this helpful comment we decided to do this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most jurisdictions have school buses, but DC lets students ride Metro for free so they don't have to bother with dedicated school buses. But then they don't put resources into buses along those school routes because they don't generate much revenue. The city can still say, though, that kids technically have a way to get to school using public transportation -- just not a reliable way.

Not everyone has the means or schedules to drive their kids to school and by the time you get to middle school and high school, inbound schools often aren't in walking distance. And as a public policy, we should encourage public transportation over more cars on the road.

JR at least excused tardies last year because the bus from Mount Pleasant was a frequent no show, with the WMATA app saying routes were cancelled because there weren't enough drivers. And for lots of families, the big, beautiful bus reform seems to have made things worse.

It's not about revenue. Bus doesn't generate much revenue anywhere.

They have to think about how to best serve the entire region under considerable resource constraints. Bespoke routes just for the schools in the wealthiest ward are generally not going to be the way to do that.

[Anonymous]

Where you want to go is 2 different bus lines? Sorry And you're right, it's going to get cold and you have to make sure the bus arrives on time.

[Anonymous]

OP these comments are nuts. I used to commute from Alexandria VA to NE DC via metro + bus and there were some super frustrating days like this. Definitely contact your council person and advocate for more buses at rush hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most jurisdictions have school buses, but DC lets students ride Metro for free so they don't have to bother with dedicated school buses. But then they don't put resources into buses along those school routes because they don't generate much revenue. The city can still say, though, that kids technically have a way to get to school using public transportation -- just not a reliable way.

Not everyone has the means or schedules to drive their kids to school and by the time you get to middle school and high school, inbound schools often aren't in walking distance. And as a public policy, we should encourage public transportation over more cars on the road.

JR at least excused tardies last year because the bus from Mount Pleasant was a frequent no show, with the WMATA app saying routes were cancelled because there weren't enough drivers. And for lots of families, the big, beautiful bus reform seems to have made things worse.

It's not about revenue. Bus doesn't generate much revenue anywhere.

They have to think about how to best serve the entire region under considerable resource constraints. Bespoke routes just for the schools in the wealthiest ward are generally not going to be the way to do that.

If the city expects students to use public transportation to get to school, shouldn’t the city provide that transportation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most jurisdictions have school buses, but DC lets students ride Metro for free so they don't have to bother with dedicated school buses. But then they don't put resources into buses along those school routes because they don't generate much revenue. The city can still say, though, that kids technically have a way to get to school using public transportation -- just not a reliable way.

Not everyone has the means or schedules to drive their kids to school and by the time you get to middle school and high school, inbound schools often aren't in walking distance. And as a public policy, we should encourage public transportation over more cars on the road.

JR at least excused tardies last year because the bus from Mount Pleasant was a frequent no show, with the WMATA app saying routes were cancelled because there weren't enough drivers. And for lots of families, the big, beautiful bus reform seems to have made things worse.

It's not about revenue. Bus doesn't generate much revenue anywhere.

They have to think about how to best serve the entire region under considerable resource constraints. Bespoke routes just for the schools in the wealthiest ward are generally not going to be the way to do that.

This is DC bureaucracy at its finest. If you ask DCPS about transportation, they hand you a
Metro card and say its WMATA's responsibility. But WMATA says transportation for kids isn't their priority.
This kind of thinking makes the city dysfunctional. I hope you enjoy the federal takeover!

[Anonymous]

This also happened to our MacArthur freshman waiting at the D94 stop by Dupont Circle in the morning. Three full buses passed the waiting Ellington, Hardy and MacArthur students. 40 minute wait (plus the travel to Dupont and travel on the D94) for a 14 year old trying to navigate the city. Not a HORROR, but not great, DC.

The old bus (D2?) started at Dupont Circle so everyone could get on. Now kids get on whereever the D94 starts and it is full by the time it gets to Dupont. Could have been anticipated by bus route planners, one would think.

We need the D94 bus to run more than every 10 minutes during student rush hours if it is full. We also need more bus routes to MacArthur, or a dedicated line from either Dupont or Foggy Bottom. I would have advocated for this anyway but now that I have been to the school and seen the very small parking lot, it is insane to think that the current transportation options are workable.