Metro is proposing a dramatic increase in the number of express bus routes in the region and urging a fundamental change in the way local jurisdictions view bus transit.
Agency officials want to create 18 new bus priority corridors during the next six years, bringing the total number to 24, in the hope that faster and more reliable bus service will lure drivers to public transit the way rail has.
Ridership on Metro’s buses, which are notoriously unpredictable, has been stagnant during the past several months while rail ridership has continued to grow.
Metro’s proposal to create more limited-stop bus routes would affect only 14 percent of the agency’s 171 lines, but would target the busiest routes and would impact about half of Metro’s 450,000 daily bus riders.
Officials estimated the plan would add 10 million riders to the bus network a year, or increase ridership by 14 percent annually.
The agency has already implemented limited-stop service along Georgia Avenue and four other routes in Virginia and Maryland, and is in the process of overhauling its highest ridership line — the 30’s — to include two limited-stop routes.
The Georgia Avenue limited-stop line, called Metro Extra, runs every 10 minutes between Silver Spring and downtown D.C. and makes 15 stops instead of the 54 stops regular Metrobuses make along the route.
Officials estimate the service gets riders to their destinations 20 percent faster, and hope that number will increase when the District implements a new system that extends green lights for three to five seconds if a Metro Extra bus is approaching an intersection.
Since 2000, the speed of bus service has slowed 30 percent in the suburbs and nearly 15 percent in the city, a Metro report said.
Increasing the average speed for buses by 30 percent along the proposed priority corridors would be like putting 100 more buses on the road, the report said.
Metro planners are recommending adding three to four limited-stop routes each year for six years at a cost of $3 million to $4 million annually, beginning with a route along 16th Street. The proposal is to be presented to the agency’s Board of Directors on Thursday.
