D.C. Circulator buses mostly empty

The Washington City Paper has a scathing piece about the new D.C. Circulator buses: they are mostly empty. "the Circulator buses are clean and new...nothing disrupts their sleek lines--including, on some runs, the shape of a single passenger." The buses average five passengers per trip, with average weekday ridership of 3745. Busy Metrobus routes such as the 70 series and the 30 series average over 15,000 riders a day.

I work near Chinatown and I regularly see both Circulator routes. Both are routinely empty in the area. Meanwhile, half- to completely-full 70 and 71 buses roll down 7th Street, a route that one of the Circulator routes duplicates (though the Circulator stops at the Convention Center; the 70 and 71 go to Silver Spring.) I did ride the Circulator to Georgetown one day; about seven people shared the bus with me going both ways.

A nonprofit group that helps underwrite the Circulator (most of the buses' $6 million budget, however, comes from taxpayers) admitted that the north-south line will not carry many passengers unless more Circulator routes come into being, which makes me wonder why they are running mostly empty buses on a route when they knew it would get few riders. But the article answers that question: the Circulator is partially intended for "challenging Metro and the region to improve the quality of bus service."

Why not work with Metro to improve the quality of bus service? I know the folks at Metro can be a bunch of knuckleheads, and it was D.C. businesses--not Metro--who finally put bus maps on D.C. shelters. But running a batallion of empty buses down 7th Street does not seem to help anything.

Circulator boosters also complain that Metro buses lack "curb appeal" and "friendliness." Uh, okay. Give those empty Circulator buses to Metro. They could use them on the S2 and S4, which can be too crowded to board during rush hour.

Often when I see empty Circulator buses, I figure they will get more riders during the next tourist season. By then, I figure, the Circulator will be described in the tourist books and more hoteliers will know about it. I hope this turns out to be the case, because right now the Circulator is rapidly turning into a joke.