A Metrobus by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

The coronavirus outbreak has sent shockwaves around the globe, across the US, and across the region. Most public gatherings have been nixed or discouraged. Although local leaders stopped short of a formal “shelter in place” order, WMATA, the region’s transit agency, has taken extraordinary measures to keep people from gathering.

While some of those measures make clear sense, others have been questioned, particularly among riders who continue to rely on Metrobus even in the face of COVID-19. I spoke to some riders to hear how the changes have impacted them.

A plethora of Metro service cuts and changes

Last week, WMATA’s Pandemic Task Force announced its initial round of reductions in the days after many people throughout the Washington region began working from home and students stayed home from school. In making that decision, the agency announced that it saw a 70% reduction in ridership across the system. The agency urged people to only use the system for “essential travel,” not exactly defining what was essential.

Two days later, WMATA tweeted out an update that left many scratching their heads and feeling offended. While informing the public that ridership had fallen dramatically—something that would be strange in normal times—the agency chose to chide bus riders for not staying off the bus.

GGWash contributor Sanjida Rangwala said via Twitter, “No one is riding a bus for fun during a pandemic,” calling the tweet “obnoxious and disrespectful.”

On the same day, about 7 hours later, WMATA announced that it would close Smithsonian and Arlington Cemetery stations due to crowds of visitors. The tweet announcing the closures didn’t mention “responsibility,” “common good,” or “shared sacrifice.”

The tweet asking blossom-watchers to not use the system didn’t invoke the words it used to shame bus riders, despite the fact the CDC began discouraging people from going to large gatherings a week earlier and that the agency itself had reserved the right to close the aforementioned stations.

There is something to be said in how WMATA singled out bus riders. 82% of Metrobus riders are people of color, and a majority are classified by the agency as low-income, those making $30,000 or less a year. We have written before about how bus service is a lifeline for residents of limited means, but in the midst of a pandemic we are seeing just how instrumental buses are in moving hundreds of people to essential locations.

Yet despite images of packed buses throughout the region, WMATA doubled down on its reductions to bus service. At 5:00 pm on Sunday evening, the agency suspended Metrobus service on all but 20 routes serving its highest ridership corridors.

What some riders experienced

This decision left hundreds of riders scrambling to make alternative plans. Tyteuna Jackson was one of them. At 3 pm, Jackson got off from her security job at Union Market, and waited for her usual 92 to Congress Heights. But it didn’t come.

“I was pissed,” Jackson said. “I didn’t know that a lot of buses weren’t running until I got off [from work].” She waited an hour for her regular bus that never came. “I had to walk to Union Station, get on the Circulator, ride to Eastern Market, get on the 30N (and it was crowded), and then walk about 10 blocks home.”

Jackson’s commute would cost about $22 one way using Uber or Lyft to get from her home in Washington’s Skyland neighborhood to Union Market, $10 more than a usual ride-sharing trip and $20 more than her usual bus ride. In the interim, she’s relying on her uncle to take her to work when he can or adding more time to her commute.

Marie Fritz told me that transportation options for her boyfriend, an essential worker at a local hospital, are a bit easier.

“Typically he’d bike 10 miles in [the] am and metro/bus home,” she told me. “In [the] last week he’s been driving. We have the luxury of a car and he can afford his deeply subsidized parking. This is not the case for many health care workers.”

Fritz said her boyfriend has thought about biking in the morning, but completing his regular commute would take hours longer without regular bus service forcing him into his car.

How other transit systems have adapted to COVID-19

WMATA may very well be reducing bus service down to a skeleton schedule out of precaution, but its peer agencies aren’t following their model.

The day before our regional agency cut back its bus service, New York City’s MTA announced that instead of reducing service it would implement a rear door boarding policy on all its buses, leaving the front entrances open only to riders with mobility issues and people riding express buses. It should be noted that Metrobuses also instituted rear bus entry as of Sunday, and are not charging Metrobus riders at this point. Chicago’s CTA continues to run on a normal schedule.

The Washington region has come to a near standstill in many regards. A large chunk of the region’s workforce is at home. Schools and universities are closed. Restaurants and bars are closed. Conferences and sporting events have been canceled. However, life continues for people who work in grocery stores, those who remain to take orders, prepare food, and deliver it, workers inside healthcare facilities, the folks keeping guard of mostly empty buildings, and those cleaning the hundreds of buildings across the region.

Things also continue for caregivers who must ensure that family members are fed, and for the elderly and disabled who need to make trips to food pantries and grocery stores.

“They need to either add more buses or make the lines run faster, because (the) majority of the people that was on the bus with me were essential workers,” Jackson said. “Grocery store employees, security, nurses.”

It is important for us to remember that the people we sometimes overlook in normal times are on the frontlines during this time of crisis. It is even more important for the region’s transit agency to remember that.

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Tagged: metrobus, metrorail, transit, wmata

Ron Thompson, Jr., formerly DC policy officer (DC TEN) at GGWash, was born and raised in Washington, DC with roots in Washington Highlands, Congress Heights, and Anacostia. He currently lives in Brookland. In his spare time, he awaits the release of Victoria 3 and finishes half-read books.