Students who took the GUTS bus to Dupont Circle last weekend were in for a not-so-pleasant surprise. According to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille, Georgetown tested for the first time a new weekend Dupont route in which buses set out in the opposite direction of their destination before looping around the west end of the University, taking the Whitehurst Freeway, and heading northeast on New Hampshire Ave. The tentative route, which Bataille said is currently being monitored and adjusted for safety and effectiveness, takes approximately 20 minutes in non-rush hour traffic—three times as long as the current route. Even more alarming, the University thus far has not solicited the feedback of students and University employees—the people who use the bus every day—in their consideration of a change that would pose a great inconvenience for all GUTS riders.
According to Bataille, the University has taken neighbors’ concerns into account in its effort to “find routes which provide the greatest safety on campus and put the least amount of traffic on neighborhood residential streets.” Ron Lewis, Chair of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, supports the potential reroute.
“We are happy to work with the University on transportation routes that follow main arteries and avoid residential streets … The University did mention to us that they want to experiment with their routes along these lines, and we encourage that process,” he said.
According to Lewis, several Georgetown residents have complained that the vibrations from the GUTS buses rattle the old, wooden foundations of their houses, causing structural damage. If the complaint sounds familiar, that’s because neighbors made the same argument last year when they lobbied successfully through the ANC to have part of the Dupont GUTS bus line rerouted. A certain hypocrisy pervades the ANC’s views, however, as neighbors are willing to put up with vibration-causing city buses that regularly drive through Georgetown. Why? Probably because they’re convenient for the residents.
“The Metro buses are different,” Lewis said. “They run less frequently and … serve the whole community, including the residential areas.”
Clearly, the ANC does not have the best interests of Georgetown students and employees in mind when making its recommendations, which makes the University’s role as an advocate for campus interests even more important. Employees of the University and the Hospital regularly make use of GUTS buses in order to get to and from work every day to make their livelihoods. These people deserve prompt service from GUTS because every minute they waste riding on a circuitous bus route costs them critical work and family time.
So far, the University has fallen short in this regard. In January, the Voice reported that residents living along the Dupont and Wisconsin GUTS routes were lobbying for Georgetown to include a rerouting of buses through the Canal Road exit in the University’s upcoming 10-year plan. If the University caves once again to the pressures of the ANC and makes this ridiculously circuitous Dupont route permanent, its message will ring loud and clear: the qualms of a vocal few outweigh the needs of thousands of students and employees.
