S/O What should MoCo do about parking in downtown Bethesda

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

What are you talking about? Are you posting from Loudon county?

https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/bethesda-circulator

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

They are hard to miss, big red buses (often empty) that do loops around downtown Bethesda. You must not walk around much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

Are you saying that nobody with money will transfer from the Purple Line to the Metro? Or that nobody with money will transfer from the bus to the Purple Line to the Metro? Of course they will, if that's a good way to get there.

I don't know if there are a lot of people who go from Bethesda to Wheaton, though. Wheaton isn't a big job center. Bethesda is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

That is what circulator buses do. They circulate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

What are you talking about? Are you posting from Loudon county?

https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/bethesda-circulator

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

They are hard to miss, big red buses (often empty) that do loops around downtown Bethesda. You must not walk around much.

Yeah, PP is not very qualified to talk about Bethesda and public transport if they were unaware of the BIG RED BUSES with "Bethesda Free Circulator" that drive around Bethesda constantly. I'm guessing PP also doesn't know there's a great app to track the location of each bus along the route either. Or how the route was changed about 2 years ago to go by more residential areas to people can get to the Metro more easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

That is what circulator buses do. They circulate.

Yes, but they are very often empty despite being free of charge. Whereas the Ride On buses taking people to/from the Bethesda and Friendship Heights Metro are not, even though they are a ridiculous 2$/ride. Bethesda needs some better transportation specialists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

What are you talking about? Are you posting from Loudon county?

https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/bethesda-circulator

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

They are hard to miss, big red buses (often empty) that do loops around downtown Bethesda. You must not walk around much.

OK snark always advances a discussion.

The places the current circulator serves are all very close to the Bethesda Metro - I don't think any part of the route is more than half a mile from the Metro. Since the bus is presumably slow and doesn't get you very far it is no surprise that no one is using it.

Or that someone like me who uses public transit in this area (and recognizes the image of the bus) has never bothered to look it up - this route has really limited utility.

Also I'm not sure it is comparable to the DC Circulator routes which again are simple linear routes (for the most part) that run over routes several miles long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

What are you talking about? Are you posting from Loudon county?

https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/bethesda-circulator

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

They are hard to miss, big red buses (often empty) that do loops around downtown Bethesda. You must not walk around much.

OK snark always advances a discussion.

The places the current circulator serves are all very close to the Bethesda Metro - I don't think any part of the route is more than half a mile from the Metro. Since the bus is presumably slow and doesn't get you very far it is no surprise that no one is using it.

Or that someone like me who uses public transit in this area (and recognizes the image of the bus) has never bothered to look it up - this route has really limited utility.

Also I'm not sure it is comparable to the DC Circulator routes which again are simple linear routes (for the most part) that run over routes several miles long.

It wasn't snark, simply a statement of fact. They're not new and they do run pretty frequently, hence, my statement that you must not walk around downtown Bethesda much (using public transport almost once a week does not seem like a lot to me, as I commute from Bethesda daily). I agree with you that simple linear routes might make them more desirable, which would be good, given that they are free of charge and our tax dollars are funding them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

Are you saying that nobody with money will transfer from the Purple Line to the Metro? Or that nobody with money will transfer from the bus to the Purple Line to the Metro? Of course they will, if that's a good way to get there.

I don't know if there are a lot of people who go from Bethesda to Wheaton, though. Wheaton isn't a big job center. Bethesda is.

People of means will transfer from the Purple Line to Metrorail though studies have shown that the percentage of people who use public transit drops dramatically when they have to transfer, even between train lines. But people of means, who have cars, aren't going to take a 20 minute train ride from downtown, wait 15-20 minutes for a Ride-on bus that then takes them another 20-30 minutes to cover the last two miles to their home. But shorten the wait time and bus ride time and make the ride free and you will attract more people who have options - and I'm not saying no people of means ride the bus in Montgomery County but as a long time Ride-On user I'm usually the only white person on the bus. Of course because the Purple line is so much faster it will induce some new bus to rail transfers but there will still be missed customers if the bus options aren't improved.

And you are revealing your UMC bias here - there are tons of service jobs in both Wheaton and Bethesda and Montgomery County is opening up a big government service center in Wheaton in a couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We dont' need fast bus service from Bethesda to Wheaton. That's what the Purple Line will be for.

The Circulator buses work well to get people around Bethesda, and to/from the Metro. If you want to go Metro station to Metro station, then take the Metro. That's not the point of the Circulator bus.

No it is not - the Purple Line goes to Silver Spring not Wheaton. So someone would have to transfer again which no one with means will do.

So yes the bus times from Bethesda to Wheaton should be improved, even with the Purple Line coming. And it also doesn't make to take Metro from one suburban station to another - that is actually in part what the Purple Line is for.

And there aren't any Circulator buses in Bethesda or even any circulator type buses serving Bethesda

What are you talking about? Are you posting from Loudon county?

https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/bethesda-circulator

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

They are hard to miss, big red buses (often empty) that do loops around downtown Bethesda. You must not walk around much.

Yeah, PP is not very qualified to talk about Bethesda and public transport if they were unaware of the BIG RED BUSES with "Bethesda Free Circulator" that drive around Bethesda constantly. I'm guessing PP also doesn't know there's a great app to track the location of each bus along the route either. Or how the route was changed about 2 years ago to go by more residential areas to people can get to the Metro more easily.

NP. That app is not "great." It is better described as occasionally functional and typical of MoCo technology offerings. I am howling at least 3x a week when the app says a bus is 5 minutes away and I get to the bus station just in time to see it pull away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

That is what circulator buses do. They circulate.

Yes, but they are very often empty despite being free of charge. Whereas the Ride On buses taking people to/from the Bethesda and Friendship Heights Metro are not, even though they are a ridiculous 2$/ride. Bethesda needs some better transportation specialists.

Every time I've ridden them, I've never been alone for at least part of my ride. They actually keep statistics on usage and it's fairly well-used.. 1,200 riders per day:
https://www.bethesda.org/sites/default/files/u14/Annual_Report_2017-2018_BUP.pdf

To put that number in perspetive, Bethesda's metro station sees, about 10,000 boardings per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, but they are very often empty despite being free of charge. Whereas the Ride On buses taking people to/from the Bethesda and Friendship Heights Metro are not, even though they are a ridiculous 2$/ride. Bethesda needs some better transportation specialists.

How would you know that they are empty? 34,560 riders per month doesn't sound empty to me.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/transit/bethesda-circulator-monthly-ridership-increased-by-more-than-50-percent-in-last-decade/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Fair enough - not sure how I missed as I use public transportation in Bethesda almost every week. Still odd to not have a 2-3 linear routes - for example the Bethesda commercial corridor along 355 is .8 miles long so why not just run a straight route from Bradley to the National Library of Medicine? Or better yet just have a bus running every 10 minutes between Friendship Heights and Medical Center that stops on the street at the Bethesda Metro so it keeps moving?

And then maybe a second linear route out Old Georgetown to Suburban which would give you a nice connection to the NIH jobs on the west end of Campus.

Instead the existing route is a very inefficient figure 8 - sure it covers most of Bethesda but I bet that is one slow bus route with all of those turns and running on all the side streets.

That is what circulator buses do. They circulate.

Yes, but they are very often empty despite being free of charge. Whereas the Ride On buses taking people to/from the Bethesda and Friendship Heights Metro are not, even though they are a ridiculous 2$/ride. Bethesda needs some better transportation specialists.

Every time I've ridden them, I've never been alone for at least part of my ride. They actually keep statistics on usage and it's fairly well-used.. 1,200 riders per day:
https://www.bethesda.org/sites/default/files/u14/Annual_Report_2017-2018_BUP.pdf

To put that number in perspetive, Bethesda's metro station sees, about 10,000 boardings per day.

That is pretty low ridership for a route with that frequency - if the schedule is right they are running about 96 buses a day so that means about 12 people per run. One of the lower frequency buses I ride in DC carries about 7,000 people a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That is pretty low ridership for a route with that frequency - if the schedule is right they are running about 96 buses a day so that means about 12 people per run. One of the lower frequency buses I ride in DC carries about 7,000 people a day.

Good grief. Frequency is certainly a major factor in ridership, but it's not the only factor.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm. I am a daily metro rider. I appreciate having a parking garage near metro. I usually take a bus to metro but it’s not always practical—for instance, if I need to stay at home with kids in morning for a two hour delay, there is a 30 minute gap between buses. Or if I need to pick up kids for a doctors appointment after school, taking bus to my house then getting the car to drive to the school adds 30 minutes. So on those days I park in the county lot at Bethesda. Without that, I would have to drive into DC on those days.
Sadly, I do not live within walking distance of Bethesda metro—those houses are insanely expensive! The Circulator is close to worthless for me, as it doesn’t go into the neighborhoods or even near them, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmmm. I am a daily metro rider. I appreciate having a parking garage near metro. I usually take a bus to metro but it’s not always practical—for instance, if I need to stay at home with kids in morning for a two hour delay, there is a 30 minute gap between buses. Or if I need to pick up kids for a doctors appointment after school, taking bus to my house then getting the car to drive to the school adds 30 minutes. So on those days I park in the county lot at Bethesda. Without that, I would have to drive into DC on those days.
Sadly, I do not live within walking distance of Bethesda metro—those houses are insanely expensive! The Circulator is close to worthless for me, as it doesn’t go into the neighborhoods or even near them, right?

Yes, of course you do. It's convenient for you! Totally natural and understandable. But that doesn't mean it's a good thing for the county in general to have lots of parking for Metro riders in Bethesda. The disadvantages outweigh the advantages.