Mon. January 26, 2004
On Thursday, January 29, at 12:15 p.m., at 13th and G Streets NW (Metro Center station exit) the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT), Councilmember Jim Graham, and the Downtown DC Business Improvement District (Downtown BID) will unveil the first of over 300 new bus route maps to be installed in shelters throughout the District of Columbia.
“For too long, bus riders and others who might consider riding the bus found very little if any information at the stops; the bus system has been a mystery to both DC residents and visitors,” said DDOT Director Dan Tangherlini. “Now, people will be able to get information right where they need it – at the bus stop.”
“These maps will make DC a more transit-friendly city,” said Joe Sternlieb, Deputy Director of the Downtown DC BID which developed the new maps under a contract with Metro and DDDOT. “We know that ridership goes up when people have good information about where buses go and when they are scheduled to arrive.”
“As a Metro Board member, it’s important to me that people understand how to use the bus system as well as the rail system,” said Councilmember Jim Graham, who just finished his one-year term as chair of the WMATA Board.
These new full color maps show the District of Columbia bus system and highlight all the routes that service that stop. They are a significant improvement over sketch drawings of routes currently installed at bus stops. The new maps are large format (36″x 45″) based on the fold-out bus system map that Metro produces. Because the maps contain information unique to stop where they are placed, the designers had custom-made each map separately.
The maps are printed on a special outdoor laminate product. They are double-sided so they can be seen both inside and outside a shelter. The effort to create new bus shelter maps to promote bus ridership was spearheaded by the Downtown DC BID and the DC Department of Transportation with support from Councilmember Jim Graham, WMATA, and Clear Channel Adshel, the District’s contractor for more than 400 advertising bus shelters located throughout the District. Clear Channel Adshel is installing the maps at no cost to the District.