Busing part 2

B30 bus to BWI from Greenbelt Metro Station.

The Sprawl & Crawl column in the Examiner criticizes the B30 bus to BWI Airport, referencing the Post article. The Post article was also critical of the 5A which provides service from L'Enfant Plaza to Dulles Airport, although there the criticism was a need for more buses, and often late service. (Which I have experienced myself.) The Examiner column says the B30 bus is a stinker cost-wise.

The column said that there is an average of 6 riders per busload on the B30, and I've never experienced a ride on the bus with so few riders.

Maybe because I ride these buses (and the B30 provides a necessary link if you want to take public transit to Baltimore and bring your bike along... see "Getting to Baltimore (and Artscape) with a bike") I would like to suggest that again, this is an issue of marketing and better "Transit Waiting Environments ."

Both are great deals compared to the cost of taking a Shuttle bus. You can get to each airport for about $6 each way via subway+bus, which is about 1/4 the price of alternative methods. Plus, the B30 runs on weekends, when MARC doesn't. (Amtrak does but it's a lot more expensive when just going to the airport.)

I do think it's a question of marketing, both in general, and at the airport. There needs to be promotion throughout the airport to build awareness, as well as in the Metrorail system. Plus, the bus stop at BWI Airport is gross, it's hard to find, and takes forever to walk to. It's not much better in its own way than the 4th and H Street NE bus stop pictured below.

Maybe my dream in academia is to rewrite this textbook: Marketing Public Transit. It's going on 20 years old...

Index Keywords: transit