A publicly subsidized but privately run local bus service that provides convenient and affordable transportation to otherwise hard-to-reach areas in Washington for a buck a ride is now in jeopardy. District officials must view anything that works well as suspect, given the ongoing discussions by Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration about discontinuing city funding for the widely popular D.C. Circulator. The brainchild of the city’s local business improvement districts, the Circulator’s 29 cheerful red buses run seven days a week between Union Station, Georgetown, the Washington Convention Center, the Southwest Waterfront and other destinations. The buses feature limited stops and consistent 10-minute wait times, which is why 10 million people have ridden them since their debut in 2005. The Circulator has also been recommended for expansion by the D.C. Department of Transportation’s own 10-year planning process.

So why are the red buses on the chopping block? Faced with the necessity of making significant cuts to a bloated budget he inherited, Mayor Vincent Gray seems unable to identify programs that provide city residents with the highest cost-to-benefit ratio. Since 80 percent of Circulator riders are D.C. residents, 57 percent use it to commute to work, and almost half earn under $40,000, cuts will have an immediate negative effect on their mobility. A more cynical explanation is that Gray is just floating the idea of cutting subsidies to the highly popular Circulator not because he intends to do so, but as a way to force city residents to accept an otherwise unpalatable tax increase.