Georgetown Day and parking

[Anonymous]

Hopefully parental pressure doesn't count for much when the push is to do something that makes little or no sense and that squanders resources that could be put to much better use.

[Anonymous]

As a former resident of MacArthur Blvd, I don't know what the answer is, but the GDS carpool line was insane. The backup on MacArthur stacked up for blocks. There is not a lot of parking nearby and the campus is tiny and tight, so I don't have any answers, but it is not a trivial situation from a neighborhood perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully parental pressure doesn't count for much when the push is to do something that makes little or no sense and that squanders resources that could be put to much better use.

As another GDS parent, dealing with lines that waste everyone's time (upto 30 minutes spent in the line in the last few rainy days!), backs up traffic hugely, annoys neighbors, etc I'd like to know which this poster thinks a garage would squander resources. A garage would mean that the current parking lot could actually be used for many more lanes and therefore a far more efficient car pool line. The parking lot at the moment is FULL of staff cars. There is hardly any parking available for parents. It also means that there is one car pool lane in use which makes things really really slow. A parking lot would also mean that at least some parents could use it for pick up, as long as there is a separate entrance. It would ease things up a tremendous amount.

[Anonymous]

NP here, the discussion of car pooling to GDS from Adams Morgan was truly a big deciding factor on declining the spot offered and opting for another school off Conn. Ave. At WIS upper campus they have several employees at several different spots along the drive, directing traffic, moving families along, waving slower families into temporary hold areas, etc...there must be 3 to 5 guys every single morning and a/noon. Luckily DC walks but on occasion I've been amazed at the fluidity and speed getting through the car line. Overall, I wonder why these very progressive, green-minded schools don't just invest in bus service, or inspiring families with incentives to use public transportation, etc...in the interest of the environment. Maybe an HOV system of sorts? If you drive there must be at least two students, or something?

[Anonymous]

do kids at GDS still take the metro bus to school?

[Anonymous]

Mine is one of the very few that does. After school there might be a half dozen (all middle-schoolers). In the morning, more like three.

Unless you live just off MacArthur (or along Q Street between Dupont and school), it's not a convenient bus commute. For us, it's 2 buses or bus + subway and what could be a 20 minute commute becomes 45 minutes. Not so bad in the PM, but a PITA in the AM when you have to be to school by 8, when buses aren't reliable, and when there can be a 20 minute wait between them.

[Anonymous]

I think a bus at a more central meeting point, next to a Metro stop in NW (ie near Friendship Heights most likely to work best for Maryland and NW DC residents, or possibly at the high school) to shuttle kids to the LS/MS campus would be the most likely approach to help the morning problem at least. It could be perhaps required for MS and an option for LS.

[Anonymous]

There is a shuttle bus from the HS to the L/MS in the AM. Works really well. They just added a second vehicle and I believe you can sign your kid up any time during the year.

Return trip in the PM would be a welcome addition, but MS/HS athletics makes that difficult on a variety of levels (e.g. availability of buses, kids leaving campus for home at different times). There has been some talk about a Wed PM bus because there are no MS athletics that day.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why people don't take the bus any more. When i went to GDS, a long , long time ago. Lots of kids took the D-4 and the D-6 to school.

[Anonymous]

The D-4 doesn't exist anymore. And the D-6 doesn't service most of the neighborhoods where GDS families live (e.g. only part of upper NW it services is MacArthur Blvd -- not Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, Tenley/Friendship/AU Park, Woodley Park, etc.)

[Anonymous]

To be more precise, there's still a D-4 but it's Ivy City to downtown -- it doesn't go anywhere near GDS at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The D-4 doesn't exist anymore. And the D-6 doesn't service most of the neighborhoods where GDS families live (e.g. only part of upper NW it services is MacArthur Blvd -- not Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, Tenley/Friendship/AU Park, Woodley Park, etc.)

That's too bad about the d-4. back in the old days, kids transferred from buses like the 30 or the metro to get to the D-4. It's hard to walk the walk, but if you going to talk about global warming, why not let your kids take public transportation? Why has it so fallen out of favor?

[Anonymous]

You're preaching to the choir. My kid's the one who bus-commutes and always has (that's why I know the routes).

The short answer is (a) at the lower school level most parents aren't comfortable sending their kids on the bus without a chaperone, which means that the parent's commute becomes hellishly long (at least 2x as long as it would be by car) and (b) after school a lot more kids are heading to various sports/lessons at remote locations after school than was true back in the day (when the things you did after school were generally near home).

You can still take the D-6 to the 30s busses or the Dupont metro and that seems to be what most of the middle schoolers who ride the bus after school are doing.

[Anonymous]

If the bus ran more than once or twice an hour, I would take a chance on having my kids take it. But if the bus comes five or ten minutes early than the scheduled time, they are screwed.

Sincerely,
mom who took kids to preschool via bus

[Anonymous]

Worth a try then. It comes 3x an hour (maybe even more in the morning, because then there's the D-5 as well) and it's never early. DD was late 2x in 7 years of her bus commute. We just took the bus before the last scheduled on time bus.