“Tour Buses continue 2 block bus lanes and cause traffic nightmares”

Columns

by Prince Of Petworth July 7, 2016 at 3:00 pm 16 Comments

bus block

Sarah writes:

“tour buses trying to turn @ very narrow Euclid/ 9th. One of many

Bus hit parked car yesterday & continue blocking bus lanes. Safety a concern.

continue 2 block DC bus lanes & traffic nightmares

why are tourist buses using Sherman/ Euclid as staging area, blocking traffic & wmata bus stops? Too dangerous on narrow Euclid.”

jch

Are those tour buses or commuter buses?
- anon29
  
  I used to live on that block on Euclid. Not sure why those buses use that route. I’m guessing that it is to access the freshman dorms at Howard, but not sure. The street he turned on leads directly to the dorms. I saw a bus hit a parked car at that intersection when I was living there too.
- TX2DC
  
  I’m fairly confident those are buses chartered by school/church/social groups during their summertime visits to Washington. I see these buses often around the National Mall and Smithsonian Museums, always offloading what appear to be tourists. I noticed several buses from this same company parked on Sherman Ave, between Euclid and 9th St NW, on my way to work this morning. Maybe they are using this neighborhood as staging area between drop offs/pick-ups? As we all know, parking is very limited downtown.
- FridayGirl
  
  They’re definitely a commuter bus company, but what they’re being used for in this case is unclear. That is kind of an odd area for a stop.
  - nevermindtheend
    
    They’re contractors – they run many trips for MTA, for example, but also run all sorts of charter service.
jumpingjack

They’re probably commuter buses (http://martzgroupva.com/category/schedule-route-updates/), but this is a weird staging area – they pick up all over downtown.
.
A friend lives in San Francisco, right off Alamo Square (where the Painted Ladies are). Her block on a small street was constantly clogged with idling tour buses blocking an entire lane of traffic. It took several years to get them banned.
anon

They are in the neighborhood because they seem to be using that empty Howard parking lot next to the fire station. There were probably 20-25 of them parked there yesterday morning when I was going to the track.
Anon. no. 5

We could apply this complaint to pretty much the whole district, especially during rush hour when they and delivery trucks are parked not on the curb, but blocking an entire lane of (should be moving) traffic.
Rracosky

We had this problem last summer on 15th Street between P and R Streets. They were tour buses idling. When the neighbors came out and told them they couldn’t idle there, they remained but shut off the engines. When we came back out and starting taking pictures of the bus license plates, they got agitated and asked what we were doing.. We said we were taking pictures to send to the police as they were not allowed to park there. That moved them. Had to do it a couple times over the next week or so but then we didn’t see them again.
- ET
  
  I definitely think that buses do what they can get away with until someone makes it more challenging. The city won’t/hasn’t come up with a good or better staging situation(s) for the multitudinous of buses so they go where they can I guess.
  - jch
    
    Buses should be using RFK for parking after dropping off groups of commuters/tourists. It seems this year there has been an uptick in tour buses using neighborhoods and other venues as illegal parking places. There have been more buses parking in illegal spots along Hains Point and when they move out of their spots, they have been creating dangerous situations for cyclists and joggers.
nevermindtheend

http://www.godcgo.com/home/group-travel/motorcoach-operators.aspx

“If you would like to speak to DDOT’s Motorcoach department, contact Jameshia Peterson.”

She may be able to help you.
V

Courtesy Tow! I’d love to see that in person
Sarah

I’m the person who alerted popville to this issue. It seems the empty lots on Sherman are being rented to a variety of couch/ bus companies for staging. It started this weekend and we thought it was for the 4th but it continues. There must be about 30-40 buses in the lots in the morning and on 9th waiting to go into the city and then they all return between 5 and 6 and drive onto Euclid blocking traffic. They are also blocking the bus stop on Sherman. I’ve called 311, informed the councilwoman and Jameishia at DDOT but they continue. It’s becoming a real safety issue too as we have a lot of kids traveling on the street to use Banneker pool.
KBT

Yeah I was hoping it was for some event at Howard or something — noticed the last few nights while biking past on Sherman on way home. Several have been parked on the street which means I need to go into traffic on my bike to get around — no fun :(
Jimbo

Be sure that these buses are observing the DC Emission Laws and not hanging out idling. Last year DC GOV made a big deal how they were cracking down on these buses idling. The city really should do a better job enforcing these federal laws. I constantly see these buses idling at the curb for lengthy periods – either for the drivers comfort or absolute lack of knowledge. DC LAW is buses cannot idle more then 3 min. or 5 min. if under 32 degrees – this includes school buses. On hot sunny days the levels of ground level ozone increase greatly.

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