Chase Karbon is a staff writer and first-year MPP student.

Equity will be one of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) focuses as it implements its Better Bus redesign during the summer of 2025 after three years of community input, hearings, and draft network maps. WMATA stated that this would be the most comprehensive redesign of the Washington, D.C. bus system since 1973. Despite the dramatic changes meant to make the new bus system a system for all, tradeoffs along the way face opposition from those for whom WMATA designed the system. 

As part of the redesign, equity was listed as one of four primary goals starting with community outreach at different stages of implementation. Phase one of the project included community feedback from a five-week survey, “bus-stop chats,” and pop up events with a plurality of responses highlighting reliability and safety as their top issues. Phase two of the plan continued outreach in response to the release of the Draft Visionary Network, WMATA’s first draft of the route redesign. Pop-up events continued and another survey was released to gauge behavior in response to the draft network. Of over 1,900 people surveyed, 61 percent said the draft network was “much/somewhat better” compared to the current network, while a quarter of respondents said the draft was worse.

Phase one survey data also revealed stark racial and socioeconomic disparities among its customers. For example, WMATA found that 60 percent of Metrobus customers have low incomes, or make 200 percent of the federal poverty level, while 83 percent are people of color. Further analysis suggested that customers of color walk 52 percent farther to their bus stop and wait 22 percent longer for their bus compared to white customers. Riders with low incomes walk 71 percent farther to their stop and wait 45 percent longer for their bus compared to higher-income customers. 

The initial focus on equity and the disparities uncovered in phase one analysis led WMATA to use an Equity Focus Communities (EFC) framework to identify opportunities to promote equity in WMATA’s service area. WMATA defines EFCs as “census block groups with the highest combined percentile rankings of % low-income households, % people of color, and % people with disabilities.” EFCs include approximately 30 percent of the 4 million people WMATA serves.

Based on this approach, the redesign intends to increase high frequency routes, or routes where buses are scheduled to arrive at least every 12 minutes, in areas of the District that have more EFCs than others. WMATA has hypothesized that the 2025 proposed network redesign will especially benefit EFCs in Ward 7 and 8 in southeast DC along the Anacostia River, providing better access to job centers at all times and on all days of the week for residents in these areas. Overall, WMATA estimates that 14,000 residents of EFCs will gain access to high-frequency bus services during the weekday morning rush, while more than 58,000 residents of EFCs will gain access to high-frequency bus service in the evenings. 

However, the comprehensive redesign comes with tradeoffs that may affect the residents for whom WMATA is trying to redesign the system. For example, WMATA will consolidate 510 bus stops, or about 5 percent of all Metrobus stops. WMATA focused primarily on cutting stops that were within 660 feet of another stop, had low ridership, and lacked safe pedestrian access. These cuts are partially in response to phase-two surveys, which indicated that 59 percent of respondents prefer more direct routes with less transfers at the expense of shorter trips overall. 

The other challenge is budgetary. Tom Webster, Metro’s chief planning and performance officer, stated in May 2024 that the department was “anticipating limited resources at Metro and from the region for the next budget year,” which may result in further route consolidation. According to Mayor Muriel Bowser, for the District to accomplish its equity goals and “truly meet the people’s needs,” Metro’s budget will have to expand 35 percent, an increase of $1.68 billion dollars. 

The lack of funds has not only contributed to route consolidation but also to the gradual phase-out of the D.C. Circulator. The Circulator is a seven-route bus system that provides $1 fares (compared to $2.25 fares on Metrobus) and covers the neighborhoods of Georgetown, Adams Morgan, U-Street, Congress Heights, and Eastern Market. The Dupont Circle-Georgetown-Rosslyn route has been shut down, while all other routes will be phased out in December 2024 with full shutdown happening on December 31. 

For Circulator employees, the phase-out came sooner than expected. A transition plan that would have allowed Circulator employees to begin working for Metro did not materialize. In July 2024, 90 Circulator employees were informed they would be laid off in October and receive only $400 a week in severance pay for several weeks. Employees who began working for Metro would lose seniority and receive a pay cut. The sudden layoffs forced the D.C. Council to approve emergency legislation stating that all proceeds from the sale of Circulator buses will be funneled towards those affected.

Metrobus has established alternative routes in lieu of the phase-out, but backlash from riders and ATU Local 689, the union representing Circulator bus drivers and operators, has persisted. ATU Local 689 representatives have criticized the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Mayor Bowser for lack of communication on the sudden phase-out and its impacts on the  270 Circulator employees who will soon be out of work. Matthew Girardi, the Political and Communications Director at ATU Local 689, said that Circulator employees were guaranteed job security through 2028. However, the fiscal year 2025 budget left out funding for Circulator because ridership has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels and a projected 200 million dollars in capital investments are needed to maintain it. 

While the redesign is set to go into effect in summer 2025, funding will determine how far the District’s equity goals will go. Until then, the redesign and Metro will try to make the most of what is available in achieving the equity goals set in 2022 and completing the city’s most comprehensive transit rework in decades. 

Photo courtesy of Jack Prommel on Unsplash.

The views expressed in Policy Perspectives and Brief Policy Perspectives are those of the authors and do not represent the approval or endorsement of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the George Washington University, or any employee of either institution.