The Riders
The more than 150 people who testified at six public hearings last week were a cross section of the region’s bus riders, with speakers wearing everything from suits and jeans to khakis and Metrobus uniforms. Some carried sheaths of petitions crowded with dozens of signatures from others who couldn’t attend. For some, the buses provide their only transportation option, while others said they chose to ride buses for the environment or to save money. Here are some of their stories:
Janice Clinton
“You don’t care whether I live or die,” said Clinton, who is hearing-impaired and partially blind. The cuts would force her to walk in the dark along a road to get to an alternative stop.
Clinton relies on the C12 and C14 buses to get from her Carriage Hill apartment in Prince George’s County to her job at Kaiser Permanente in Falls Church. The commute already takes her about an hour, with one bus ride and two train trips. But, she said, the proposal to end her line means she would have to leave by 5 a.m. to get to her job by 7:30 a.m. “Where is my money going? Where is it for me?” she testified. “You either care about the people or you don’t.”
Martha Wiethorn
The Maryland resident testified that the elimination of her bus route, the D5, would cost her money, time and hassle.
Her current trip runs from Montgomery County down MacArthur Boulevard to within a block of her job as a receptionist downtown. The alternative route that Metro suggests would entail a longer walk to catch a bus, then two train trips, she said, adding an hour to her 45-minute or longer commute. “It’s one thing to walk five blocks,” she said. “I’m not walking two miles to wait at Sibley Hospital to catch a bus at eight in the morning.” She estimates she also would pay about $60 more a month, with her $2.50 round-trip fare more than doubling to $5.70.
Lisa Johnson-Parris and Nina Russell
The mother-and-daughter pair from Fort Washington testified together about the proposal to reroute the P19 and P17 buses to the Southern Avenue Metrorail station on the border of Prince George’s County and the District. They called the Southern Avenue station a “rough” area where they wouldn’t feel safe. “We’re worried about our safety, and a lot of women here are,” the mother testified. “I don’t want to be a statistic.” Her teenage daughter said she would rather drive.
