When someone stole the catalytic converter from Bryan Goodman’s 2009 Toyota Prius in February, he realized he could get around D.C. fine without a car. There was a Circulator bus stop a 10-minute walk from his home in Anacostia, and the bus took him to his office by Union Station in 20 minutes. So he stripped his old car for parts and sold it.
“I decided not to buy another car,” Goodman, 50, said as a bus pulled up to his stop last Friday on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. “It’s really convenient to get to where I need to be.”
For Goodman, the Circulator, a city-owned six-route bus system, had lived up to its original ambition when it launched in 2005: to give locals and visitors a more convenient way to get around the city.
But after the city announced its intention earlier this month to eliminate the Circulator by March 2025 as part of a package of budget cuts, Goodman said he’ll probably need to buy another car.
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For thousands of regular riders like Goodman, the loss of the Circulator means finding a new way to commute — one that could cost them time and money.
The demise of the Circulator stems from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s (D) $21 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which would make cuts to many programs amid a projected multibillion-dollar budget deficit in the coming years. The D.C. Council will vote on the budget in May.
Circulator ridership dropped sharply during the pandemic and remained too low to justify keeping the bus service, said Sharon Kershbaum, director of the District Department of Transportation. She told The Washington Post that costs to run the service were expected to skyrocket as the agency looked to convert much of its fleet from diesel and hybrid to zero-emission electric vehicles by 2045, in accordance with D.C. law.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which runs Metro, is expected to replace some of Circulator’s shuttered service with bus lines, and the two agencies are working on a strategy to mitigate the effects of this on riders, Kershbaum said.
“WMATA knows that if there is a route that’s popular, it’s in their interest to figure out how to absorb those riders,” Kershbaum said. “I’m very confident they’re working very hard to figure out how they can adjust their routes to absorb our routes — particularly our popular ones.” She said the agency would likely finalize its plans by the end of the summer, months after the council’s vote on the budget.
Metro general manager Randy Clarke told The Post the agency is evaluating how it can integrate the Circulator routes into its network. He outlined three options: “One is, would [Metro] want to run Circulator for [DDOT] under our contracts? And another is there is no more Circulator and some of the routes end up being new Metro routes … Or we change our routes.” He emphasized that WMATA and DDOT are still in the early planning stage, saying, “We’ve got time.”
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Goodman and many other riders told The Post they were in limbo as they braced for an uncertain transit future. Kershbaum sought to reassure them.
“They’ll have new alternatives through WMATA and have existing alternatives through WMATA,” she said. She noted that other means of transportation like biking and scootering have boomed in recent years, adding, “We think that the growth in scooters and bikes is probably a part of the reason why people aren’t back on Circulator.”
Some lower-income riders have preferred Circulator’s $1 pricing, but last year Metro introduced a reduced fare program that allows people who quality for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to pay a dollar fare on Metrobus as well. Seniors and disabled riders also get this reduced fare.
“There are really rich bus options in the city that will enable people to continue to go out,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, an urban development advocacy group.
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The Circulator has long contended with low ridership on some lines. In 2011, amid a fiscal crunch following the recession, DDOT suspended two less-popular routes.
Officials hoped in 2005 that ridership would climb to 4 million people a year, or nearly 11,000 riders a day. Circulator exceeded that goal, topping 5 million riders in fiscal 2019. Then the pandemic hit, and ridership fell to just over 1 million in 2021.
Ridership on Metrobus has nearly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, according to Metro data. But only one of the six Circulator routes — the Georgetown-Union Station line — has seen a meaningful increase from its pandemic nadir, and even there, ridership is still far below pre-pandemic levels, DDOT data shows. The Georgetown line served more than a million riders last fiscal year. The Eastern Market-L’Enfant Plaza line, the least popular route, served about 160,000 riders last fiscal year.
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“It saddens me,” said Jud Kempson, 63, who uses the Eastern Market line two to three times a week. He added, “Circulator fills a particular niche to bring people downtown … I’m not sure what I would do without it.” But he conceded that the bus is often mostly empty.
Circulator doesn’t rely on ridership to sustain itself, Kershbaum said, as fare revenue made up only about 5 percent of its $40 million operating budget last fiscal year. Local tax dollars cover the difference, Kershbaum explained.
Schwartz thinks the system was destined for failure. “We’ve always been concerned about why D.C. created a redundant system,” he said. “It never made sense to us. Why would you duplicate administrative overhead? You know, staffing, maintenance, facilities, bus purchases.”
Metro itself is dealing with financial hardship and threatened to shutter some Metrobus lines before D.C., Maryland and Virginia leaders pledged to make up nearly half a billion dollars of WMATA’s budget shortfall. These cuts were avoided in the budget WMATA approved Thursday for the next fiscal year, but the agency warned in a statement there could be hurdles in future years without dedicated funding.
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Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the D.C. Council’s transportation committee, said the city should pay WMATA to run additional bus routes to replace lost Circulator service. But, Allen asked, “has DDOT put any additional money into the budget this year to for WMATA to create brand-new local routes? The answer is no.”
Wesley Glass, a tour guide who regularly uses the Georgetown route, is skeptical Metro can seamlessly continue Circulator service, given its budget woes. He says his business could be hurt if Metro doesn’t take over the Georgetown route. “It could affect if I accept [tour] assignments to Georgetown because it’s going to take so long to get there,” he said.
As for Goodman in Anacostia, he’s not thrilled at the prospect of having to buy another car, which he said could cost him $300 to $400 in monthly payments — not to mention the possibility of another stolen catalytic converter.
But he worries he won’t have much choice. The Circulator was his only speedy, direct link to work. He’s identified alternate routes, like the B2 Metrobus, but it would force him to transfer by Stadium Armory, prolonging his commute by up to an hour, he said.
“At that point,” he said, “I’ll just go buy a car.”
