MORE ON THE NEW D-6 BUS

A November letter from PCA President Cary Ridder to Richard White, general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority:

As you know, the long-term closure of Q Street bridge in Georgetown has complicated the important role of the D-6 bus in providing public transportation to those of us living in the Palisades neighborhood. The D-6 bus service has become more erratic than ever and no longer provides reliable service to the Metro at DuPont Circle.
As a result, we feel more isolated than ever when it comes to public transportation. We feel that the time has come for Metro to come talk with us about what can be done to improve the bus service to the Palisades area.
We should not repeat the situation where the D-4 bus was supplanted by the D-6 without any notice or consultation with the neighborhood.
We have some ideas we would like to discuss with you, such as:
- splitting the D-6 route at Union Station, thus permitting the possible use of smaller buses on our residential streets;
- restoring the D-9 bus route that was so popular in our neighborhood, perhaps by changing some the route of D-5 buses to go down Whitehurst Freeway instead of through Georgetown.;
- changing the terminus of the M-4 bus to the middle of our neighborhood, perhaps at the Safeway store on MacArthur Boulevard.
That way, you would provide an alternative for our residents to reach the Metro by taking the M-4 to the Tenleytown Station. We would welcome any thoughts you may have for improving our bus service.
The next step is to come and reason together, exchange ideas and see what we can do to restore public transportation back to those glory days of old when the #20 trolley clanged its way through the Palisades.
Do give us a call and let us set up some time when we can sit down and discuss improvement in our bus service, particularly during the logjam created by the closing of the Q Street Bridge.
—C.R.

Help Our Traffic Problem (continued from Page 1)

We need a Traffic Chair who will coordinate the activities of the other traffic committee members, attend the monthly meetings of the Second District’s Citizens Advisory Council and report on those meetings to the PCA Board at our monthly meetings.
In addition, we are looking for people to take responsibility for specific areas of concern.
We need someone to work on public transportation issues for the PCA, in particular to work with the city to improve our bus transportation service. We also need someone to work on traffic issues, such as obtaining speed bumps for heavily-traveled neighborhood streets, insuring that the radar gun is being used in this neighborhood and getting appropriate street and traffic signs placed where needed.
Another area of concern for the PCA is parking—where should parking be limited and how. And, finally, we need someone to track the road construction that is constantly occurring in this neighborhood and to work on getting sidewalks installed where there are none.
One man has done all of this for the past few years and he needs a break! Please call to volunteer.