Welcome, Circulator! Metro ought not be so lonely! Hop in. The water's fine.

by Dennis Jaffe on Feb 22, 2010 12:36 pm  

Oh dear - the Woodley Park-Columbia Heights-McPherson Circulator line doesn't display properly. It shows the bus veering off course at 14th and P Streets... the bus apparently then drives through several homes and offices on a hypotenuse until it hits McPherson Square at 13th and K; only then does it appear to re-find the road. Yikes!

by Adam L on Feb 22, 2010 12:45 pm  

This is great!

On a related point, does anybody have any idea what the status is of the Georgetown Shuttle -> Circulator transition? I think there is a lot to be said for extending the route up to U st. when they do this.

The idea would be to continue the current shuttle route through Dupont Circle up 18th to U st. then down U to Vermont Ave, with stops at Dupont, at 18th & U., at 16th (and maybe 14th) & U at 16th, at the U st./Cardoza Metro and at the terminal).

Such a Circulator would link the major pedestrian districts in NW (M st. Georgetown, Dupont Circle, 18th St. Adams Morgan, and U. st) each of which is now just far enough from the other to be an annoyingly long walk.

[Remember the 98 bus? this would be like a better 98 that went to Dupont and Georgetown]

by egk on Feb 22, 2010 1:12 pm  

This is great news! Keep it up Google Transit, keep it up!!

by Shawn on Feb 22, 2010 1:26 pm  

So is Google Transit displaying the scheduled time and/or the estimated arrival time using the Circulator's GPS system (like NextBus)? If it's the former, then this development is great as a trip planner but useless as to checking when the next bus is coming, and so the Circulator's bus checking website is still needed.

by A-lo on Feb 22, 2010 1:31 pm  

I second A-lo's question. I know there are *real serious concerns among riders about the accuracy of NextBus arrival times. My particular experience with NextBus arrival times has been favorable. My experience with the Circulator's distance-based prediction times has been extremely negative. I'm curious what the experience of others has been with the Circulator's arrival time predictions.

by Dennis Jaffe on Feb 22, 2010 10:05 pm  

@Dennis I agree, I have had generally positive results with Metrobus' NextBus predictions. The circulator locator system, on the other hand is either usually wrong or unintelligible. The other day when I was trying to figure out when the next Georgetown to Union Station bus was coming, it told me that the "bus is finishing previous route" for the next 5 buses. On the off chance that I do get one that displays an intelligible location, I do alright estimating about how long it will take, but I have very good spatial orientation and familiarity with the DC map. What about people who don't know where Columbia Rd & Ontario Rd is? How would they ever know what that means to them in terms of wait time?

by Erik W on Feb 22, 2010 10:30 pm