EXIT THE D-4 BUS

The D-4 bus that for years took residents of the Palisades to and from downtown is no more. It has been replaced by a D-6 bus that will provide primary bus service for the Palisades. It is more than a change in number. It is also a change in route. The D-6 will follow the old D-4 route from Sibley Hospital to Union Station. But then, instead of going on to Ivy City or Trinidad, it will go out Massachusetts Avenue to the Armory. The schedule will remain basically the same—about every half hour during weekdays, somewhat more frequently during rush hour. The D-6 will run more frequently on Sunday—every 35 minutes instead of 45. The reason for the change in number and route, according to David Erion of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), goes back to complaints from residents of Burleith, Glover Park and Trinidad that the big buses on the D-4 and D-2 routes were rattling their neighborhoods and causing structural damage to their houses. So what WMATA did was to consolidate routes and change to smaller buses to meet the complaints. The D-2 bus was truncated into a feeder route between Glover Park and Dupont Circle and given some of the 40 new, 26-foot-long buses WMATA has bought. The D-4 route, again using smaller buses, was shortened to run between Union Station and Trinidad. There have been periodic rumblings of discontent with the larger buses in the Palisades, but apparently the Palisades did not raise its voice as forcefully as other neighborhoods. If WMATA gets more of the smaller buses, Mr. Erion said WMATA would be willing to consider a request from the Palisades that they be used on the D-6 route, particularly during the day when ridership is low. Mr. Erion also said WMATA would also consider a request that the terminus for the M-4 route, which is using some of the smaller buses, be changed from Sibley Hospital to somewhere on MacArthur Boulevard near the Safeway, thus permitting workers, students and residents to use the M-4 bus as a shuttle to the Metro in Tenleytown. Anyone want to volunteer to lead the crusade for better, quieter bus service for the Palisades? If so, call Cary Ridder, PCA President, at 364-5795. —J.W.F.