Metro and the District of Columbia are getting ready to start a system that extends green lights for three to five seconds if a Metro Express bus is approaching an intersection.
Metro has beentesting the bus-priority system near the Howard University section of its Georgia Avenue/Seventh Street express bus route and has equipped all of its Metro Extra buses with the technology.
The technology should be turned on along the full route in April, once the D.C. Department of Transportation finishes installing the devices in all of the traffic lights, Metro officials said.
“It allows a bus to actually get through an intersection to the bus stop instead of having to stop twice,” Metro planner Jim Hughes said. “It’s a small period of time, but three to five seconds at all of the lights – it makes a difference.”
The Metro Extra bus route that runs between Silver Spring and downtown started a year ago. It runs every 10 minutes and makes 15 stops instead of the 54 stops regular Metrobuses make along the route.
Metro officials said the service gets riders to their destinations 20 percent faster.
Metro is planning to run similar express service between the Friendship Heights and the Archives-Memorial Metrorail stations, and between the Naylor Road station and Washington Circle.
Officials are also considering starting express service in several other sections of the city, including along 16th Street Northwest and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Hughes said the bus-priority system could be rolled out along all of Metro’s express routes, but that the program is being run by DDOT.
A DDOT spokeswoman did not return phone calls for comment.
“Other transit properties are doing it – people want faster trips, and our attitude is that every second saved is worth it,” Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said.
Hughes said Metro has not yet compiled enough data to estimate how much time the system will save express riders.
