The District Department of Transportation has decided to scrap a program that would have forced many of D.C.’s low-cost regional buses to load passengers at a designated location near L’Enfant Plaza after news of the change was met with hostility.
“We have opted to suspend the rulemaking until we’ve had an option to review the locations and other options of the program,” DDOT spokeswoman Karyn LeBlanc said.
Bus operators and customers have said current pickup locations, which are scattered around Chinatown and other downtown hubs, are more convenient for customers and in safer, more active areas.
DDOT officials and some Chinatown residents have said the buses are loud, idle endlessly, and block entrances and street lanes.
DDOT published the new rule last month under an emergency rulemaking process that allowed them to skip the public comment process.
Bus operators said DDOT did not notify them about the change.
Richard Green, one of the owners of DC2NY, a popular service that runs between the District and New York City and picks up at Dupont Circle and 14th and I streets Northwest, said he learned of the rule by reading about it in The Examiner last month.
“We’ve heard nothing from them,” Green said.
He said his customers have copied him on more than 1,000 e-mails to District officials since DC2NY sent a blast e-mail Wednesday morning asking customers to help them lobby against the rule.
Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham said he asked DDOT officials to slow down the process and give the public a chance to weigh in on the change.
“There are merits on bothsides of this question,” Graham said. “I think we’re moving a bit too fast.”
