When you don't think things through, the car is often favored

Chartered Bus
Originally uploaded by Eric Harmatz

Flickr image by Eric Harmatz. WMATA's first priority should be efficient mobility.

In 2005, I flew out to Portland for the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference. Unbeknownst to me, there was a big demonstration in DC, and at Greenbelt station, where I disembarked to take the B30 to BWI, dozens of charter buses stopped there and the passengers got off to get on the subway. The station was a madhouse of people and signs. People who don't know how to use the ticket machines take a long time to use them...


Today's Post reports in "Where Do You Park 10,000 Charter Buses?: Getting Riders to Swearing-In A Trickier Puzzle for... " about planning for the accommodation of charter buses for the Inauguration and moving the patrons from their disembarkation point to the National Mall. As Dan Tangherlini, City Administrator, said:

"Finding a big piece of tarmac to park buses isn't the main issue," Tangherlini said. "Getting people from that chunk of pavement to where they want to be -- that's where the big issue is going to be."

Sadly, I didn't find comments from a WMATA planner very intelligent:

The transit agency will run an unprecedented 15 hours of consecutive rush-hour rail service on Inauguration Day. Even so, Metro officials say they can accommodate only 4,700 buses, or roughly 235,000 people, at Metrorail station parking lots, according to senior planner Jim Hughes. More than that would overwhelm the system. Although Metro has about 60,000 parking spaces at 42 stations, charter buses take up two regular spaces, and Metro also wants to keep spaces open for the region's nearly 6 million residents.

Instead of using two parking places to accommodate 2-8 people in two cars, why not use two parking places to accommodate one charter bus carrying 55 people?

After all, shouldn't we be encouraging and rewarding smart transportation choices?

People should be taking buses to the Metro stations. The parking lots at line endpoint stations such as Vienna, Greenbelt, Largo, New Carrollton and other end points should only be able to be used for buses for the Inauguration.