The X2

Carver Langston now has a second Capital Bikeshare station. A new station opened yesterday at the corner of 17th Street and Maryland Avenue Northeast. This is the second station for Carver, with the first being a highly trafficked 14 dock station at Starburst Plaza. The new station has 19 docks and is closer to the residential center of the neighborhood. It's adjacent to Aldi Food Market and near Hechinger Mall (Safeway, Ross, Modell's, Payless, etc). Thank you Capital Bikeshare!

Going, going, gone. Metro's current HQ building. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority is moving. The iconic(?) Jackson Graham Building in Judiciary Square has been the Metro HQ since 1974. However, the agency has been looking to move into a space that better fits its future: the consolidation of office spaces. They decided to sell the Judiciary Square building, a process that should begin early next year. The new HQ will be in a currently empty, c.1965 office building at 300 7th St SW in L'Enfant Plaza. This is across the street from a Metro rail entrance, near several Metro bus lines, and across the train tracks from a VRE station. The building was previously the longtime home of the USDA. It will eventually become the work home for 1,300 WMATA employees & contractors when renovations are completed, likely sometime in late 2020 or early 2021. Renderings of 300 7th St SW post-renovation. Source: WMATA. The Jackson Graham Building is in a **prime** s...

A lot has happened this summer! Here's some of what I took notice of in July and August. Follow TheX2BusDC on Twitter for real time neighborhood observations and photos. Carver is a bit safer for pedestrians. DDOT has made quite a few upgrades to 19th St NE in Carver this summer. Earlier this year, they added ADA accessible curb ramps to each intersection from Benning Road to M Street. And just in the last few weeks, they've added new pedestrian-crossing stripes as well as a new road surface to the block of 19th between I Street and Maryland Ave.  Damaged Streetcar station reopens The eastbound 3rd Street NE DC Streetcar station sat closed for nearly 15 months. A Megabus destroyed it in an April 2017 collision and the station remained closed during the construction of an adjacent apartment building. It finally reopened on August 7th, 2018. New music venue, same pies Dangerously Delicious Pies added a second floor to their shop, in the form of a new ...

This Sunday, June 24th will bring significant service changes for Metrobus and Circulator. Close to home here in Carver, the X2 and X9 buses are making midday adjustments, and for the better. From WMATA: X2 Benning Road-H Street : All weekday midday trips will operate between Minnesota Avenue Metrorail Station and Lafayette Square. To improve reliability, the time between weekday midday buses will increase from 10 minutes to 12 minutes. X9 Benning Road-H Street Limited : New weekday midday limited-stop Route X9 MetroExtra service will operate every 15 minutes between the Metro Center and Minnesota Avenue Metrorail stations. What it means: Since the X9 previously ran as a rush hour only bus, we're getting more trips downtown during the midday and lunchtime hours. This is awesome. The X9 does make several clustered stops from 19th St NE to 14th St NE, but as a limited stop bus, I generally find it much, much faster than the X2 for trips between Carver Langsto...

Just a few months ago I applauded Metro's decision to extend service hours of the X2 bus to 24/7 by adding overnight service. We may be in line for weekday midday service upgrades as well. Under a new proposal for the X2 route, WMATA would: reduce weekday midday bus frequency from every 8 minutes to every 10-12 minutes send all downtown bound buses all the way to Lafayette Park (eliminating Gallery Place as a terminal) OK, so how is reducing service on the X2 helpful? Well, that reduction would make room for the new X9 midday service. The X9 bus currently operates limited stop service between Capital Heights and Metro Center. It operates during rush hours only. The new proposal would add X9 midday service at 20 minute intervals. Buses would still run existing intervals during morning and evening rush.  If approved, all adjustments would take place in June 2018. Other proposed DC Metrobus changes include: extending the 50s buses to the new Wharf development in SW...

A shared bike parked at a tree box in Seattle's Capitol Hill. This fall and winter, we will have a new way to experience bike sharing in the District. With 440 stations, Capital Bikeshare is the third largest system in the United States, behind New York (600) and Chicago (580). For comparisons' sake, New York's Citi Bike has 10,000 bikes, Chicago's Divvy has 5,800 bikes, and DC's Capital Bikeshare has 3,700. Measuring by number of stations may be a thing of the past, however.  WTOP  and others are reporting that the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will institute a pilot program this fall featuring dockless (station-less) bike sharing. The program will start September 20 (!) and run through April 2018. These systems allow riders to find bicycles near their location, unlock the bike, ride it, and with some restrictions, lock and leave the bike in any public space within the service area. I recently visited Seattle where the city works wi...

Suburban style Hechinger Mall sits on a hill between Maryland Ave and Benning Rd NE. Concept developed by H Street Main Street. Maryland Ave NE is center, Benning RD is one the right. Late last week Bizsow reported on a new concept in for the Hechinger Mall area in the form of a pitch by city the business development program  H Street Main Street to the owners of the mall property. Important to consider: this is just a concept -- not a rendering of a planned building or anything binding. However, it is a harbinger for the future of the Starburst intersection, Benning Road NE, and H Street NE. But, wow is it a departure. The reporting is great and much more than I can elaborate on in a blog post, so: Read the full article here: H Street Group Pitches Major Hechinger Mall Development As Activity Moves Down Corridor  (Bizsow) A few tidbits: "The team has sketched a vision for the site that could include several buildings up to 11 stories tall with as many as ...

Happy post 4th! Hopefully your neighbors have exhausted their supply of after-midnight fireworks and you've swept the last bits of burnt fire paper from the sidewalk. 363 days until we do it again! Looking for something new to do now that the fireworks are done? Two reminders: The After Hours photography exhibition  at Femme Fatale is back on for another week. The extended run for this show from Marie Emerson means you get another four days to check it out. Head to the Femme Fatale pop-up at 1371 H St NE today, Friday, and Saturday until 10 PM, or Sunday until 6 PM. Free. Capital Fringe starts today! Here's a short write up of the basics , but all you really need to know is that it runs for two weeks at venues across the District and it represents the best in timely experimental theater, poetry, and performance art. July 6-23. Multiple venues & pricing options. And one last bit of news about our beloved X2 bus: It now runs 24/7 ! This helps a tiny tiny bit to...

Metro/WMATA enters a new phase next week, starting Sunday June 25. Long debated structural changes are coming and we'll have to adjust to the new normal of less service and higher fares. Whether the performance rates improve will be one of the big questions, but Friday morning's Red Line meltdown was *not* a good omen. Here are some of the biggest changes.  Biggest news for Carver/Benning Rd/H Street NE : Bus fares for regular routes, including the X2 and X8, will now be $2.00 (up from $1.75).  The X2 bus will run additional late night service until 4 AM, daily. Late night service will include ~30 minute headways. Metrorail will close at 11:30 PM on weeknights (M-T). Sunday rail service will end at 11:00 PM.  Friday and Saturday night rail service will close at 1:00 AM. Minimum and maximum rail fares during peak hours will be $2.25 and $6.00, respectively.  Minimum and maximum rail fares during non-peak hours will be $2.00 and $3.85 respectively....

The 3rd Street NE Streetcar station is was struck by a bus. Yesterday, a Megabus crashed into the eastbound 3rd Street Streetcar station. It's not clear what caused the collision, but as far as I know, there were no injuries, which is amazing. From various photos on Twitter, it appears that the bus jumped the curb with its right side wheels, hit & destroyed the rain shelter on the station platform, and heavily damaged the raised curb bumper.  This happened mid day yesterday, so I have to reiterate that not one person was injured . That's wild and welcome news, considering the circumstances. Streetcar resumed travel less than three hours after the crash. However, trains are skipping this station and will be for the foreseeable future.  Read more:  UPDATE: Streetcar Service Resumes After MegaBus Hits Platform (DCist) In transit rock-paper-scissors match, Megabus beats DC Streetcar (Greater Greater Washington)

A few months ago, I was surprised to learn that Metro was adding a second bus route that would serve National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. National Harbor is a mixed-use real estate development geared towards hotels and entertainment. It comprises about 2 square miles and is adjacent to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The existing route ( NH1 ) connects National Harbor to the Southern Ave Metro station on the DC border. The new NH2 route appears to offer a slightly faster route from here in Carver Langston. Last week I decided to try it out. The NH2 bus arrives at National Harbor by way of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and makes stops in Virginia including King Street Metro station, which was my connection. Here's the whole journey in Storify form, but the bottom line is the trip from Carver Langston to National Harbor took 1 hour and 18 minutes from boarding the X2 bus to hopping off the NH2 at the casino, which is the first stop at National H...

The Georgetown Business Improvement District instituted a cool new program earlier this year that creates more space for pedestrians in one of the city's busiest shopping neighborhoods.  On weekends from April to November, the 3200 block of M Street NW will have widened sidewalks. Basically, a lane of automobile parking has been eliminated on the north and south sides of the street and temporary metal crowd control barriers are placed in the street, blocking a lane and separating auto traffic from pedestrians. My initial observations: 1. The extra space was noticed.  I've been to Georgetown on a busy weekends and yes, I noticed the extra sidewalk space on this weekend. You can mark the difference by simply walking the 3100 and 3200 blocks of M Street back-to-back. The flow is much smoother on the 3200 block. You don't get stuck behind slow pedestrians or window shoppers, and walking two or three abreast doesn't cause pedestrian traffic jams. 2. Bikers th...

The DC Department of Transportation will hold a meeting to discuss the Environmental Assessment for the streetcar's eastward expansion. The meeting is on Thursday May 19 . Details from DDOT are listed below. One of the reasons the development for streetcar is so important is that people should have some level of confidence that, when necessary, they can rely on a transit alternative to Metrorail or Metrobus. This is especially pressing since there are now planned delays and closures due to the SafeTrack initiative . Driving is one alternative, but so are walking, biking, car share, taxis/ride share, and now, streetcar. So, if your normal mode can't work today, well, there's always a backup, and a backup to that backup. Some redundancy in transit is OK ( some ). The basic plan is to extend the streetcar line from its current eastern terminus Oklahoma Avenue NE down to the Minnesota Ave Metro station, the Benning Road Metro station, or both. With this mild expansion, t...

Cross-posted on The 42 Bus End of the line: Oklahoma Ave NE. Our trip from Union station to Oklahoma Ave took 21 minutes. My best guess: no fares until 2017. Maybe people are catching on: park inside the red lines. There are only 8 stops for now. The car barn and maintenance facility aren't quite complete just yet. 26th & Benning Rd NE. Saturday's trains were packed with curious riders, young and old. Lots of kids, because who doesn't love trains? The streetcar "turning around" (really just the operator moving form one end of the train to the other) near Benning Road bridge.