Transit
New, better, diagrammatic Metrobus maps are here
Without much fanfare, Metro has put new, more diagrammatic versions of its bus maps online. They incorporated most of the suggestions we had given them from the draft versions, and these maps are a huge improvement over the old ones.
Mid-city section of the DC bus map. Click any map for full version (PDF).
The old maps showed a bus route that runs every 10 minutes all day in exactly the same way as one that makes 4 trips, each a half hour apart, just at rush hours. The new map makes the most important, most frequent lines thicker and more prominent. It also smooths out the paths of each route to create something that's somewhere between a completely geographic map, like the old bus map, and a diagram like the Metrorail map.
One of my main comments from the draft versions was to highlight frequent non-Metrobus lines, like the Circulator. To most riders, it doesn't matter if the bus is a Metrobus, Circulator, ART, Ride On, Fairfax Connector, etc. To their credit, the map designers took this feedback to heart, and now frequent non-Metrobus routes like the Circulator get the same thick lines as primary Metrobus routes, just in a different color based on the operator (gold for Circulator, green for Ride On, etc.)
That means that, at a distance, the maps for Maryland and Virginia jurisdictions give you a pretty good sense of where the frequent buses go:
One item that we didn't get to see in the drafts is the zoomed-in insert for downtown DC. Here's what they came up with:
The downtown network is pretty complicated, so it looks like there wasn't room to give each route its own line on the map. Instead, the map groups them, which means you still have to scrutinize the lines to see which route goes where. But it does really highlight the overall grid pattern of the bus routes downtown.
On the full DC map, lines that end downtown turn into an arrow generally pointing at downtown, and you have to switch to the insert to see where they go. It's too bad they couldn't show where at least the major lines go downtown on the non-insert map, so you don't always have to switch to the insert to get a general sense of the route.
The bus maps for Virginia, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County also have little downtown inserts of their own, these showing just the buses that go downtown from that jurisdiction. It seems like a clever way to show people riding into downtown from one of these places where their buses go and where to catch them to get back home.
Perhaps, in the future, there could be a sheet of such downtown inserts for different parts of DC, like a downtown insert of buses that go to DC west of Rock Creek park, another for buses that go east of the Anacostia, ones to Northeast neighborhoods, and so on?
All of the maps also have a single overview map that shows the high-frequency buses, and Metrorail network, for the entire region:
Below that is a table of the routes in that jurisdiction and when they run. Before, if you were looking at the bus map and considering a few different routes, you'd have to find the timetables for each route online. Now, you can look them up in the table.
It might be even better if the tables could list the average headway or some other frequency information, instead of just a dot.
Overall, Metro's maps took a huge step forward. It's also important to note that just 10 years ago, Metrobus maps were not online at all. Dennis Jaffe, the first chair of the Riders' Advisory Council, spearheaded a campaign with the Sierra Club to get free maps distributed and the map posted online. Now, a decade later, we have a far better map as well.
What do you think of the new maps?
Montgomery County bus map.
Prince George's County bus map.
Virginia bus map.
Downtown insert for the DC bus map.
Downtown inserts for the Virginia (top left), Montgomery (top right),
and Prince George's (bottom) maps.
Portion of the table from the Virginia map.
David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater. 
Comments
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1) The neighborhood names are useful for orientation/destination
2) The thick, black metro lines are great - they aren't overbearing, but show you how to get quickly from A-B on metro versus bus.
3)Different colors for regional/circulator/metro is awesome.
Something interesting that I did not know - There apparently isn't a wmata bus that runs on NY ave NW-->NE, except for the P6 briefly. There's no bus that will take you from say, 14th and NY NW to Ivy city.
by Steve on Jan 17, 2013 10:18 am • link • report
by charlie on Jan 17, 2013 10:20 am • link • report
I've been playing around a bit with the WMATA API. Analyzing predicted arrivals of my local bus lines - the L2 and the 42/43 - there are a ton of predicted arrivals that never show up, and significant driver behavior that leads to the system being unreliable. If I were WMATA, I'd focus energies there.
by Corey on Jan 17, 2013 10:21 am • link • report
Shame they will have to edit the Virginia one so extensively after the silver line opens.
by Michael Perkins on Jan 17, 2013 10:25 am • link • report
http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/stopSelector.jsp?a=wmata
by Ren on Jan 17, 2013 10:35 am • link • report
by Jasper on Jan 17, 2013 10:44 am • link • report
by renegade09 on Jan 17, 2013 10:48 am • link • report
You can select a route, direction, and stop from those drop-down menus to get information for a specific site. When you get the info for a specific stop it also lists the stop ID on the right-hand side of that little box under the phone icon.
Are you talking about transferring from Metro to Bus and trying to decide whether to get off at Pentagon or Pentagon City to catch one bus route or another? I don't know if you're using a phone app or what, but you could save those stops as favorites on your phone, or write down the stop IDs for future reference.
by MLD on Jan 17, 2013 10:52 am • link • report
As Jasper mentions, it might have been worth pointing out that you want Dumbarton Street rather than P Street for the eastbound G2 in Georgetown.
by iaom on Jan 17, 2013 10:59 am • link • report
One thing that continues to amaze me is that there is no bus over the Wilson bridge.
by bajin on Jan 17, 2013 10:59 am • link • report
I'm concerned about the labeled "frequent" routes. I wish they were clearer about how "frequent" they are. I also wish there were a greater distinction between services. On the Montgomery County map, there are buses labeled as "commuter" routes that the legend says "links residential areas to employment centers," but the real story is that they're express routes that make very few stops, and that's not clear on the map.
And other express routes, like the Ride On 100 (Shady Grove-Germantown), are shown as a thick line to denote frequency (it comes less than every 10 minutes during rush hour), but it's unclear that it only makes two stops - at Shady Grove and Germantown.
These are minor quibbles, but otherwise it's a great map. I look forward to seeing it at a bus stop near me!
by dan reed! on Jan 17, 2013 11:00 am • link • report
by Neil Flanagan on Jan 17, 2013 11:05 am • link • report
by John H Muller on Jan 17, 2013 11:14 am • link • report
I imagine it would be most helpful to those new to the bus system as the rest of us likely have enough sense of direction about the buses and will use the apps.
I cosign the idea that wmata really needs to focus on arrival times.
by HogWash on Jan 17, 2013 11:14 am • link • report
Oh, wait...
by Frank IBC on Jan 17, 2013 11:17 am • link • report
Oh, wait...
Gotta keep those old trolley routes exactly the same as they were 100 years ago!
If they moved the end point to the Metro, where would the bus drivers wait around resting and miss their start times?
by MLD on Jan 17, 2013 11:26 am • link • report
by Frank IBC on Jan 17, 2013 11:29 am • link • report
They don't explain where express buses, like the S9, stop.
by Tom on Jan 17, 2013 11:34 am • link • report
RideOn never appears on the Prince George's map, and TheBus never appears on the Montgomery County map.
What that means is despite the fact that RideOn operates 2 frequent services (the 15 and the 20) to Langley Park, riders wanting to connect from the Metrobus or TheBus routes that end or pass through Langley Park can't see those routes as options.
This is especially an issue since there's no region-wide map.
I hope future iterations include connections between services across county lines (other than just Metrobuses).
by Matt Johnson on Jan 17, 2013 11:37 am • link • report
by Alan B. on Jan 17, 2013 12:06 pm • link • report
Overall it is am improvement. It also highlights the lack of connectivity north to south EOTR.
by Veronica O. Davis (Ms V) on Jan 17, 2013 12:16 pm • link • report
by Shipsa01 on Jan 17, 2013 12:22 pm • link • report
by PM on Jan 17, 2013 12:31 pm • link • report
by AZenner on Jan 17, 2013 12:40 pm • link • report
by Bob See on Jan 17, 2013 12:59 pm • link • report
I'm not really clear on why this is, though.
by Gray's in the Fields on Jan 17, 2013 1:03 pm • link • report
by Bob See on Jan 17, 2013 1:19 pm • link • report
A couple more little changes:
- the Circulator overlaps might be confusing if you didn't already know the routes, as they're less connectable
- "Seven days a week, morning to night" - what is their definition of "night?" What are the latest these lines go?
- And these are still missing clear headway standards, with infrequency of course one of the most pressing issues on any WMATA-run service. This is especially an issue for late-night and off-peak service; how do you get from Union Station to Columbia Heights at 1 AM on Sunday?
Otherwise, I like.
by MetroDerp on Jan 17, 2013 3:19 pm • link • report
One that is geographically accurate map that overlays streets and another that shows every bus stop so that people could know exactly where a bus stops at rather than using trip planner or asking the driver. Matter of fact there should be a list of every stop for every route on WMATA's site.
by kk on Jan 17, 2013 3:20 pm • link • report
by David Edmondson on Jan 17, 2013 3:38 pm • link • report
Doesn't help if you need to travel on anywhere else off of NY Ave. There are probably a dozen hotel/motels/other work places and residences off of NY Ave between the Washington Times and 14th Street and two get to most of them you would be required to take at least 2 or 3 buses if not more depending on time of day.
96, 80, P6, are the only buses that run near NY Ave where there would be residences. The 80 does not travel on NY Ave at all so you will be walking some distance. The p6 only travels 5 or 6 blocks or it while the 96 travels about 3 blocks.
in NE the only buses that travel on it are the 90,92 D3, D4, E2, E3 all only travel on it for 1 block that leaves a large amount of New York Ave uncovered by transit. The d8 cross it via a bridge so if you try that you would be walking for atleast 1/2 mile, the B2 cross it at Bladensburg rd that's near the end of the avenue so it doesn't help much.
by kk on Jan 17, 2013 3:49 pm • link • report
It indicates the number of buses per hour across all the frequent lines. It's easy to see which buses run all night and how often.
by David Edmondson on Jan 17, 2013 3:58 pm • link • report
I agree that the near NE area (and rest of Ward 5) is under served by bus access - however, after I recently moved to Ward 5 I joined the Ward 5 listserve and was blown away by how anti-transit and anti-biking coupled with pro car-dependency a lot of the people on the list are.
Of course I'm sure it doesn't reflect the vast majority of Ward 5 residents (and there are a lot of pro-transit Ward 5 folks who even write on this blog), but after living in Wards 2 and 6 for many years, I had come to (naively) believe that that lifestyle was the zeitgeist for the rest of the city. How wrong I was (am).
by Shipsa01 on Jan 17, 2013 4:02 pm • link • report
Not every tool (map, app, trip planner) can do everything. Every tool has to balance between usefulness, usability, readability, and wealth of information. The primary purpose of a bus map is not to allow you to plan your trip precisely, it's to introduce the user to what transit service exists and in this case how useful that service might be. They have packed a ton of information on here that can get people acquainted with what service exists. If you want to know about a specific trip at a specific time, then you should be using the trip planner.
by MLD on Jan 17, 2013 4:16 pm • link • report
by Alan B. on Jan 17, 2013 4:32 pm • link • report
Oh yeah, agreed. Whenever one is doing design, it's important to find a balance between information and legibility. AC Transit's bus map, if you've ever seen it, is absolutely a mess because they try to encode too much data onto the map and route numbers.
But, had the type of data MetroDerp wanted been a priority, SF Cityscape has a pretty good way of showing it.
by David Edmondson on Jan 17, 2013 4:32 pm • link • report
Would love to see one of those for each ward or ANC. For ANC, that would be 40 maps though - too many / too much? Maybe if they could do like 12-15 that would be more doable.
by Shipsa01 on Jan 17, 2013 4:38 pm • link • report
I'm not advocating for a wholesale replacement, of course; the all-black lines and little color wedges are a little difficult to use if you don't already have a sense of the system. But I just like the thin lines and more minimalist look.
(I'm not a DC resident, actually, but when I was there for TRB just now I actually saved the new DC bus map instead of the DC Metrorail map to my computer because I found it much more useful for navigating the city.)
by Andrew on Jan 17, 2013 5:22 pm • link • report
by Andrew on Jan 17, 2013 5:24 pm • link • report
by Sean on Jan 17, 2013 8:34 pm • link • report
by The Bus Doesn't Go There on Jan 17, 2013 9:20 pm • link • report
The 96/97 is an odd duck just because they only overlap for part of the route, and the 97 only operates during peak periods. They may be important connectors, but the only part of that line that sees frequent service is the portion between Union Station and Capitol Heights during peak period, and even then the headway is like 12 minutes. On the weekends the 96 is an every-30-minutes bus. The 90-92 have much more frequent service; mid-day on the weekends it's 12-14 minute headways.
by MLD on Jan 18, 2013 8:40 am • link • report
This raises another point: I don't consider this to be at all "frequent."
WMATA promised numerous improvements to the 90/92 corridor, and signed off on the project as being "complete" last year by seemingly only implementing a single modification (headway scheduling), which I believe has actually resulted in a net decrease in the number of buses serving the corridor.
I seriously get the impression that WMATA doesn't care at all about providing good bus service in NE.
by andrew on Jan 18, 2013 11:28 am • link • report
One way to restore fiscal balance to WMATA may be to put more neighborhood routes into the HA areas to meet them where they live, encouraging them to take transportation. Ideally these would be short, frequent routes that get them to shopping districts/transfer stations where they can shop or continue their commute.
Also, the WMATA still has a problem with running long bus lines over the top of existing metro lines (38B, L1/2, parts of the D6, etc.) this is duplicative and financially wasteful.
Some of the overly dulicative bus lines in HAA areas could also be eliminated with more loops and fewer long runs.
I continue to advocate to a hub and spoke system using the subway as the way to get into/across town, and the buses as a way to get people around a neighborhood and to get people into the system (deciding to leave their cars behind for short neighborhood trips).
by name on Jan 18, 2013 12:20 pm • link • report
I think the inclusion right on the map of the schedule information, at least for MD/VA, is terrific. As you pointed out, providing route frequency would be a really useful addition, and seemingly easy to make, at least with a good number of routes.
I'm particularly glad to see that Metro was responsive to Greater Greater Washington with the suggestions made. As difficult as it may be to comprehend, attaining that (in general for advocates) has long ran into resistance at Metro. Further improvements to these maps could be made if Metro made more effort to solicit and incorporate feedback from less map-savvy riders, and dare I say current non-riders, on their readability.
by Dennis Jaffe on Jan 18, 2013 12:35 pm • link • report
Of course it would probably help if WMATA could actually set and then adhere to standards like that.
And speaking of the 96, it's downright criminal how infrequent that comes. If you want to get from U Street or Logan or anything along Florida to Union Station without a ridiculous transfer (last night: 40 minutes to go five stops total), the 96 is a godsend. But it's never, ever there.
by MetroDerp on Jan 18, 2013 1:11 pm • link • report
Agreed, the 90/92 service is lacking given the amount of traffic the entire corridor could generate. But really 12-minute headways on the weekends is about as good as it gets on any WMATA bus line. On the weekdays service is better with 7-8 minute headways during most of the day.
I agree that they should adopt more of the recommendations from the 90s bus study (http://www.metrobus-studies.com/90s/90s.htm); this corridor could really use express service.
by MLD on Jan 18, 2013 1:12 pm • link • report
With this spoke and hub system what about the areas in DC not near a metrostation ?
@The Bus Doesn't Go There
There used to be a bus that crossed he Wilson Bridge discontinued years ago. I dont want to say it but there being no bus service there could be financial.
When looking at the price it would be from Southern Ave or Branch Ave(closes stations in Maryland) to King Street, Huntington, or Eisenhower Ave would be way more money for WMATA than bus fare would be and the same from Bethesda, Medical Center, Friendship Heights or Tenleytown to Virginia.
----------
Re 96/97
I just wish the 97 would run more than just rush hour. The bus route that preceded the 97 ran the exact same route the 97 does and was a regular bus that ran daily called the 40.
I think a better idea for the 90/92 and 96/97 would be for the two lines to swap routes in Noma and along North Capitol.
Send the 96 down Florida Ave and then North Capitol to Union Station while sending the 90/92 down New Jersey Ave and then New York Ave to its regular route at Florida Ave in NE; that way you would avoid the backup at North Capitol and New York Ave that currently happens with buses.
by kk on Jan 18, 2013 11:17 pm • link • report
bus lines ran in the immediate area, and if the map showed Flex car stations
and Capital Bikeshare stations and bike lanes in the area too.
by pat b on Jan 19, 2013 9:17 pm • link • report
What would WMATA show competing services
by kk on Jan 20, 2013 12:27 am • link • report
to help people understand what the options are.
by pat b on Jan 20, 2013 12:37 am • link • report
Meant to say "Why would WMATA show a competing service"
What ever happening to riders researching about the places they want to go.
When I went to Moscow, Osaka, Cairo and Athens I had no clue about how to get around nor did I speak the language. I took the time to go look things up; tourist could do that here there is no need to spoonfeed anyone when they could research it themselves via the website, via looking at a map or by a combination of both and the trip planner. Its just that people are lazy and want everything given to them.
by kk on Jan 20, 2013 11:16 am • link • report
If you don't want more people using metro and the bus system, that's fine.
However trying to reeingineer people is a losing cause.
My suggestion is aimed at trying to help the average person, not you.
by pat b on Jan 20, 2013 11:41 am • link • report
by David Edmondson on Jan 20, 2013 11:48 am • link • report
Traveling the world has nothing to do with being informed, the point about other places was due to the lack of English and still being able to figure it out while here English is spoken and people should be able to figure it out
If a person is a tourist or simply a person that has never ridden the Metrorail or Metrobus before the first thing one should do is find go to there site and figure it out. As much time as people spend on Youtube or Facebook they certainly have time to do things but the priority is not there.
WMATA has a trip planner all it takes is a address, major place or streets and it can figure it out so any reason why that is not done is on the person not the service unless you can not use the trip planner due to a disability.
The average american does not by the way work, raise children and juggle school at the same time.
by kk on Jan 20, 2013 5:24 pm • link • report
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