February 11, 2025 • 22 mins
Join us as we explore Washington, D.C., using only public transit. This episode introduces listeners to the city's diverse transportation options. From the automated Red Line to quirky streetcars and bike shares, the hosts share experiences while highlighting which modes are effective and what makes the DC transit landscape unique.
• Navigating through DC's transit system using metro, buses, and streetcars
• Insights from a local expert commuter on the DC transit experience
• Automation of the Red Line and its impact on the service
• Challenges and nuances of riding the streetcar through mixed traffic
• Discussion on the popularity and alternatives within Capitol Bike Share
• Exploring the Navy Yard's redevelopment and its public transport connections
• Sightseeing highlights along the National Mall
• Comparison to other cities' transit systems and their effectiveness
• Reflection on community engagement driven by transportation initiatives
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Doors are closing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Public transit that's my way to roll On the metro.
I'm taking control.
Bus stops, train tracks it's mydaily grind, daily grind.
Public transit, it's the rhythmof my life.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This week on Transit Tangents.
We do DC in a day using onlypublic transit, from the DC
metro to buses, street cars andmore.
We cover the nation's capitaland put their transit system to
the test.
All of this and more coming upon Transit Tangents.
All right, we are here in avery chilly Washington DC, here
(00:38):
doing DC in a day using onlypublic transit.
We'll be taking buses, trains,all sorts of things throughout
the day.
Streetcar Streetcar yep Longescalators, long escalators
coming soon.
Yesterday we got in at DCA,took the yellow line,
transferred downtown to thegreen line to go stay with some
(00:59):
friends who live in the area,and we're joined by a friend
right now who is in the top 3%of Metro riders for the year
2023 here in DC.
Yes, that's my claim to fame.
Yes so this is Kevin.
Kevin's going to be with ustoday and kind of giving us some
more information on things,because Chris and I don't live
(01:19):
here.
I haven't been here since I washere on my 8th grade field trip
and I think I was here againfor a day or two as a 14 or
15-year-old.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, my first trip here I was 17, but I've been
here several times.
I've gotten a chance to explorethe metro a good bit and we
have great friends here.
Best metro in the country.
Best and prettiest metro in thecountry.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
All right, so from here we're hop on the train and
hopefully it's warmer down thereand head to Union Station.
That was fast.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, it was fast.
So we started in Dupont Circle.
We took the red line over hereto Union Station, which is sort
of a transit hub in DC.
(02:09):
Here you can catch Amtrak, youcan catch the MARC trains which
head out to sort of the Marylandarea.
You can take trains out toVirginia.
You can also take the streetcaror the Metro bus.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
One notable thing about the red line is that it is
now automated.
There are drivers actuallyinside of the cars, but the cars
are speeding up, slowing down,stopping, all on their own.
They used to be automated.
In DC a while ago there was anaccident that was unrelated to
the automation, it was a trackissue.
They stopped it becauseeveryone's afraid of that sort
of thing.
(02:41):
But the Red Line is nowautomated again as of about two
or three weeks ago and we're sothat's kind of ended December of
2024.
So pretty exciting, and it'sallowed for kind of smoother
trips on the Red Line as well asspeeding things up.
There are sections of the trackwhere, with the automation, the
trains are able to go fasternow than they were before with
human drivers.
So pretty interesting andhopefully we see something more
(03:06):
of on metros in the US andelsewhere.
All right, from Union Stationwe're going to hop on a
streetcar here that we talkedabout yesterday a little bit
with some friends.
It is a little bit of a funnylittle system.
I think We'll see how itactually is in practice, but
we're going to take thestreetcar and from there we'll
eventually head down to theNaval Yard area.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think the streetcar might have been an afterthought
to Union Station.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
We've been going through a bit of a maze here.
Why, okay, oh, we could havecome right here.
That's hilarious, okay.
The signage is terrible forthis In all fairness, I don't
think this street car is wellridden.
They definitely don't do sowell in the snow.
(03:52):
Kind of bikes and scooterseverywhere.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Lovely day for scootering.
Rip to that scooter?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
yeah, rough, alright, we've finally identified the
streetcar stop in the middle ofthe road here.
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Speaker 3 (04:19):
So we did something that most people in DC haven't
done, which is ride the DCstreetcar.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I've lived here for four years and I've never taken
it.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Little hard to find from Union Station also.
Yeah, it was, I don't know.
It's fine and all but likestreetcars that just kind of run
in mixed traffic, run into allsorts of issues, where it's just
like it's a bus, but slightlybigger.
But in many cases and on thisstreet like I've seen way more
buses go by there's way morepeople riding the buses.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah, so the challenge with this one?
It opened in 2016,.
There was a plan to make a lotmore street cars, but that plan
has been canceled, so this iskind of what DC has now, and it
runs down.
We're on H Street, h Street.
So we're on H Street, which isreally popular, Like there's
businesses or stuff to do outhere.
You can find Kevin here everyweekend.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
One weekend a year.
You can find him here.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
But the streetcar runs along the edges of the road
all the way down the length ofthe road, which presents its own
challenges.
We just watched it get stuckbehind a delivery vehicle for
quite a while.
Yeah, so all in all, it's maybea novelty and good for what it
is.
On H Street it is free.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It is free Cannot be said about the rest of our
transit.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
That's fair, and where this?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
is serving.
It's actually not fair.
There's no fair.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Sorry for that.
The area this is servicing,though, it's already serviced by
buses.
So yeah, it is a free option,it's just a little slower you
never know.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I'm curious to see how it compares.
We're planning to get to KansasCity at some point.
Kansas City has been working onextending their streetcar.
Their supposedly has some kindof transit priority dedicated
lanes.
This did not feel like it hadtransit priority Definitely at
all.
There's not a few people usingit.
There's actually an extensionto the streetcar in the works
which will connect Union Stationto the Benning Road metro
(06:10):
station.
I'll be curious to watch andsee if this actually happens and
, if it does, what impact itmight have on the streetcar
ridership.
From here we're gonna walkaround the neighborhood a little
bit and then eventually we'regoing to hop on a bus towards
the Naval Yard.
But let's check out this 8thStreet and kind of close by the
Capitol Hill area.
While walking through theneighborhood we stumbled across
a bike share docking station.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Capitol Bike Share.
We call it Cabby.
It's great.
You can get like a.
I think you pay like$50-something for like a
year-long membership inunlimited use.
They have electric bikes too.
It's 95 for the year.
Um, it's really solid forgetting around some of the
neighborhoods that don't havelike metro access especially.
Um, in general, though, like alot of people like have bikes in
the city, there's really greatbike lanes, protected bike lanes
(06:54):
and a lot of the major likeroadways, um, and also there's
just wonderful biking trailsalong the city.
So you have have like MountVernon, across the river that
goes through Virginia.
You have the C&O Canal thatgoes all the way up to like
Harper's Ferry Cool.
We have the Anacostia RiverTrail that goes along the other
river and then the famous RockCreek, which is beautiful lovely
(07:14):
to have that like in the cityand you can take it like all the
way out into Maryland through alot of really great green
spaces.
But biking it's a big bikingcity.
Once a month we have DC BikeParty, just like a huge party on
wheels that just rolls aroundthe city with music and costume
and lights.
Do people take the bike share?
Yes, lots of people use bikeshare for it.
(07:35):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Cool, we would give it a shot, but a little chilly
and a little deadly because manyof the bike lanes are covered.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
nice, right now, not today.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, All right, we are kind of on the
edge of the Capitol Hillneighborhood and we're about to
catch the 90 bus to head towardsthe Navy Yards area.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, and Navy Yards area is an area that's been sort
of redeveloped in DC.
You've been in this area a lot.
We have friends there.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, there's been a lot of development.
It's where the baseball stadiumis, and so it gets a lot of
traffic for large events.
They're converting one of theold bridges into a park, which
is really interesting, trying toconnect the Anacostia side to
the Navy Yard side.
Yeah, there's a lot ofconstruction that's been going
on down there.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It'll be interesting to see some of the new
construction versus like.
We're kind of walking through alot of these cute neighborhoods
with nice, like kind of rowhomes and like dense, but kind
of like, you know, not likehigh-rise buildings.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Right, yeah, a lot of density, just low-rise density,
and you can see around aroundus.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Beautiful neighborhoods, much more modern
apartment buildings everywhere,cool, awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, we'll catch the bus here in a couple minutes.
If you haven't liked this videoor left a comment, please
consider doing so.
It helps us out quite a bit.
All right, we just got off the92 bus.
(09:05):
Chris and Kevin realized thatthey had some friends with
little kittens who lived rightnext to the bus stop.
So quick pit stop to go checkout some baby kittens.
That were very cute.
Right now, though, we'rewalking towards some of the
development in the in the NavyYard area.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
We were walking through the Washington Navy
Yards area and I happened tolook over and realize we're also
on the DC Transportation Trail,which provides history of
transportation throughout the US.
Yeah, so fun little, fun littleaccident in.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
DC and we're close to the Department of
Transportation.
So we're thinking maybe it'srelated, probably related.
Yeah, so fun little, fun littleaccident in DC and we're close
to the Department ofTransportation.
So we're thinking maybe it'srelated, probably related yes,
yeah, thank you, pete.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So we have been walking around the Navy Yards
which have been sort ofredeveloped.
It's very different than therest of DC.
Typically in DC you're going tosee like the two, three, four
story townhomes here.
You're looking around and it isall mid-level Ten story or so.
Mid-rise buildings, a lot ofoffices.
Kevin, you're very familiarwith this neighborhood as well.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, my office is down here.
If my boss is watching this.
I am checking my team'smessages, don't worry.
It's a Saturday what are youtalking about?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, exactly, but yeah, so we are exploring this
neighborhood.
We just walked by theDepartment of Transportation.
Unfortunately, we did not meetup with Mayor Pete.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, he blew us off.
No.
I tried to get an appointment,but no, no answer Left us out in
the cold.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yes, all right.
We walked down Navy Yards.
We got some much-needed lunchand warmth.
Now we are over at theNationals Stadium, home of the
2019 World Champions.
Wow, you're a real sports guy,aren't you?
I'm such a sports guy, yeah, atthe top of your head.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, this stadium is really close to a Metro stop,
which is really convenient andkind of the street this is on,
I'm sure, is very crowded forNationals games.
So from here we're going to hopback on the Metro.
Which stop are we getting on at?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Smithsonian.
We're going to transfer fromthe yellow and green to the
orange and blue.
Take another couple stops inSmithsonian Gotcha.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Go check out the National Mall.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
While we're waiting for the train real quick.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We'll fill you in on exactly how you pay.
Yeah, this is something we talkabout every city we go to.
If it's an app, if it's transitapp, if it's whatever, oh, here
comes our train.
Uh, in this case, you can getthe smart trip on your wallet,
on your phone, or get theold-fashioned round school get a
card very simple you just walkup and tap your phone or tap
your card yeah, nice and easy.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, you can.
Also, they usually have kiosksat all the train stations too,
if you wanted to buy a ticketwithout using your phone.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
DC Metro is unique in some cities in that it
calculates the distance youtravel and fares adjust
accordingly.
So it's not a few days based onwhere you enter and where you
exit.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
You tap when you get in, tap when you get out, if
you're interested in learningmore about DC area transit.
We also did an episode on thePurple Line coming to Maryland.
While this is very nice, chris,I think this would have been
better if it was about 30degrees warmer.
Something we haven't said yetis that at this same very time
(12:16):
we're here right now, the otheroption was to be in Phoenix.
Phoenix is presently about.
I don't actually know, but I'mjust going to go out on a limb
and say it's probably 80 degreesand sunny, it's 80 degrees
right here in my heart.
Lewis, we wouldn't have Kevinif we were in uh, exactly, if we
were in Phoenix either, butfind someone else.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So this is something we talked about on previous
episodes, when we talked aboutthe highway expansion in the US
and we talked about thetranscontinental motor convoys,
and we just came across thelittle monument that shows where
the first and second of thetranscontinental motorways or
motor convoys took off fromright in front of the white
house we just walked by thewhite house, saw some of the
(13:00):
monuments in the mall.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
um, still very chilly , but we're uh now making our
way.
We're gonna head over togeorgetown, so we're currently
at Farragut West area, okay, andwe're going to take the 33.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
33 over to Georgetown , which famously doesn't have a
Metro going through it, so theonly way to access it is walking
, biking or taking the bus.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
There also was a circulator system that went
through Georgetown.
It literally ended about twoweeks ago.
Yes, um, the dc circulator wasa bus system separate from wmata
, run by the city of washingtondc.
It was designed to connect keyattractions and neighborhoods
with frequent free service.
Due to declining ridership andbudget constraints, the service
(13:44):
fully was discontinued at theend of 2024, all day.
We've had fairly good luck withtrains and buses kind of coming
on time in general, like DC, asfar as other cities we've done
this in, is much more actuallyset up to be able to use only
public transit on a day-to-daybasis.
But we did potentially justencounter our first ghost bus.
(14:05):
Next one, it Friendship Heights.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
We're taking our friendship to new heights, wow
33, destination FriendshipHeights Station.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
The base fare is $2.25 for this bus.
It's kind of nice here.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We made it to the Georgetown waterfront.
We walked through Georgetown,which was very cute, very nice
main street, downtown area.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's basically a mall .
Speaker 2 (14:45):
It's a very nice mall , but it's a mall.
It's an open-air mall.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I said, it also gives very similar vibes to Newberry
Street in Boston if you're fromthat area.
The Domain in Austin.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
This is much nicer than the Domain in Austin.
I'm kidding, don't give theDomain credit like that.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
But definitely a lot of nice-looking spaces.
Yeah, obviously.
Also in Georgetown you haveGeorgetown University, which is
further up the road that we didnot go to.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Struggling in the cold a little bit here, yeah,
but yeah I think we're gonnafind a coffee shop and then make
our way back towards Train town, the train part of DC that's
gonna veer off into.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So also, as we're sitting here sliding around,
also behind us is Virginia,roslyn, roslyn, virginia.
The DC Metro connects quite aways into Virginia, goes all the
way up to Dulles.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Now Silver Line completion.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Which we were kind of hoping that we would fly into
Dulles so that we could ride themuch longer journey from Dulles
.
Instead we flew into DCA, whichis very seamless transfer, as
you probably saw in thebeginning of this, to get
downtown.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
But I do think, heading out towards Dulles,
we'll definitely want to featurethat in the future because what
they've done on the wholeSilver Line is at each of the
stops there's now a lot oftransit oriented development.
So in McLean and all the wayout towards Weehee, reston,
reston thank you, yeah, mcleanand then all the way out to
(16:23):
Reston and then out to theairport, so a lot of really cool
development there.
So we'll definitely talk aboutthat a little bit in the future.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Go for it, did I lose ?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
it 33.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
After finishing up some coffee, we headed back out
to catch the bus.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
We saw it go by and had to do our first bit of
running for the day.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
This almost was the first episode that we did not
have to run to catch a bus.
You're good.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I'm gonna try really hard not to fall.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I almost just ate it.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
That was almost bad ate it, that was almost bad.
Wow, I'm really glad you caughtyourself.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, that would have been rough, chase it at home.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Nobody can get away from you, chase it.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
So we just got off of the 33 bus from Georgetown
after grabbing a little coffeeand we took the bus across town
to the Chinatown area of DC.
So now we're walking down tosee the Chinatown gate and then
we're going to go check outCapitol Crossing from there.
All right, everybody, this isour last stop of the day here in
dc where we are standing on uhcapital crossing, which is, uh,
(17:39):
on top of a highway.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Here we actually talked about this highway,
highway 395, 395 we talked aboutthis in the episode talking
about cap and stitch projectswhile we were at clad warren
park in dallas.
Um, this is one of the few capand stitches that has pretty
tall buildings on it, so you cankind of see these buildings
behind us are literally on topof the few cabin stitches that
has pretty tall buildings on it,so you can kind of see these
buildings behind us areliterally on top of the highway.
It goes down quite a ways.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
You can see from the other side.
There's also brand newbuildings and a highway entrance
right here.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
As well, and yeah, you would have no idea that
there is a highway here.
It was just kind of a trenchopen highway before and now
instead you have a bunch ofpredominantly offices.
There's some apartments as wellfurther down, um, that kind of
cover up the whole section.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
yeah, it's actually a very nice, uh vibrant, little
part of the neighborhood, likenice buildings offices
restaurants yeah, close enoughto chinatown and the gallery
place and a few other big namedestinations in the city yeah,
exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
From Capitol Crossing it was time to start to make
our way back to the train tohead back to our friend's place.
That was our full day here.
We've done all sorts of stuff.
We're currently at Woodley Park, which is close to where we're
staying with our friends nearbyhere we did a whole bunch today.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, we did a lot today.
We saw the National Mall, wesaw Capitol Crossing bunch today
.
Yeah, we did a lot today.
We uh saw the national mall, wesaw capital crossing.
We went to georgetown, we sawthe navy yard, we went to union
station, we did the streetcar.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
we did a lot today um , overall, I mean, uh, obviously
, bc of all the cities we'vedone this in so far, is like has
the most legit transit by far.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
yeah, and typically we do these episodes as like
you'd be surprised that thetransit's good.
I don't know San Antonio'spretty close.
No, but we did this in adifferent way.
It's not really showing youlike, oh surprise, DC's good
transit.
It's showing you DC's goodtransit and this is a good tour
of that transit Right.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And it's to show that , like the United States, can do
it when they put their minds toit.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
We really can.
I mean, if you look at thestation, the station's
absolutely beautiful.
All of the DC stationsespecially around the city kind
of have a similar aesthetic.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That is just this brutalist dream, slightly
dystopian, yeah yeah, a coupleof things that I think are
interesting in comparing to someof the other cities.
We were talking about howHouston actually had really good
headways on both their lightrail and on their buses.
The light rail, the red line,was like every six minutes.
A lot of the buses were everyeight minutes, which is actually
faster than any specific busline here.
When we're talking about buses,the difference being the
fastest is about 12 minutes.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I think 12, 12,.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, about 12 minutes.
The major difference where italmost feels like it's better
here is oftentimes there aremultiple routes that serve
similar terrain.
So while it might be every 12minutes for a specific bus,
there might be a different busthat kind of makes up for it.
So that was an interestingtakeaway, for sure.
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Any parting thoughts of what you think of your
hometowns?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Petra, yes, DC is like a dream for, I think, a lot
of people to live in, becauseit's so walkable and so
accessible.
You have 15-minute cities allover the district and everyone
that I know who lives here.
They have such a wonderfulcommunity because of how easy it
is to find friends, findneighbors, find places where you
(20:57):
can meet people.
And I think transit like reallyhelps people in the city, like
connect in a way that I don't, Ihaven't experienced in other
places.
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I think a lot of the housing has something to do with
it too.
You've got like a lot of densehousing, a lot of people living
close together, of been closetogether.
Uh, I'm currently reading, uh,the life and death of great
american cities by jane jacobs,which talks all about like, how
much, how important like streetsare, housing, all sort of stuff
, and as I was walking around, Icouldn't help but thinking
about a lot of connections thatare tied in, uh, with that book.
(21:27):
But, um, anything else you wantto add?
I think that's it all right, uh,all that being said uh, if you
have not rated this, if you'relistening or liked and left a
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(21:48):
know.
I'm sure someone will findsomething.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yes, if you want to see episodes ahead of time or
bonus content, check out ourPatreon page.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yep, that's the best way to directly support us, but
otherwise, thank you all so muchfor watching.
Looking forward to seeing youall in another city very soon.
Yes, and with that, enjoy therest of your.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Transit Tangents Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
I was supposed to say that too, we're going to leave
in.
We're absolutely leaving thatpart in.
Doors are closing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Public transit that's my way to roll On the metro.
I'm taking control.
Bus stops, train tracks it's mydaily grind, daily grind.
Public transit, it's the rhythmof my life.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This week on Transit Tangents.
We do DC in a day using onlypublic transit, from the DC
metro to buses, street cars andmore.
We cover the nation's capitaland put their transit system to
the test.
All of this and more coming upon Transit Tangents.
All right, we are here in avery chilly Washington DC, here
(00:38):
doing DC in a day using onlypublic transit.
We'll be taking buses, trains,all sorts of things throughout
the day.
Streetcar Streetcar yep Longescalators, long escalators
coming soon.
Yesterday we got in at DCA,took the yellow line,
transferred downtown to thegreen line to go stay with some
(00:59):
friends who live in the area,and we're joined by a friend
right now who is in the top 3%of Metro riders for the year
2023 here in DC.
Yes, that's my claim to fame.
Yes so this is Kevin.
Kevin's going to be with ustoday and kind of giving us some
more information on things,because Chris and I don't live
(01:19):
here.
I haven't been here since I washere on my 8th grade field trip
and I think I was here againfor a day or two as a 14 or
15-year-old.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, my first trip here I was 17, but I've been
here several times.
I've gotten a chance to explorethe metro a good bit and we
have great friends here.
Best metro in the country.
Best and prettiest metro in thecountry.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
All right, so from here we're hop on the train and
hopefully it's warmer down thereand head to Union Station.
That was fast.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, it was fast.
So we started in Dupont Circle.
We took the red line over hereto Union Station, which is sort
of a transit hub in DC.
(02:09):
Here you can catch Amtrak, youcan catch the MARC trains which
head out to sort of the Marylandarea.
You can take trains out toVirginia.
You can also take the streetcaror the Metro bus.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
One notable thing about the red line is that it is
now automated.
There are drivers actuallyinside of the cars, but the cars
are speeding up, slowing down,stopping, all on their own.
They used to be automated.
In DC a while ago there was anaccident that was unrelated to
the automation, it was a trackissue.
They stopped it becauseeveryone's afraid of that sort
of thing.
(02:41):
But the Red Line is nowautomated again as of about two
or three weeks ago and we're sothat's kind of ended December of
2024.
So pretty exciting, and it'sallowed for kind of smoother
trips on the Red Line as well asspeeding things up.
There are sections of the trackwhere, with the automation, the
trains are able to go fasternow than they were before with
human drivers.
So pretty interesting andhopefully we see something more
(03:06):
of on metros in the US andelsewhere.
All right, from Union Stationwe're going to hop on a
streetcar here that we talkedabout yesterday a little bit
with some friends.
It is a little bit of a funnylittle system.
I think We'll see how itactually is in practice, but
we're going to take thestreetcar and from there we'll
eventually head down to theNaval Yard area.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think the streetcar might have been an afterthought
to Union Station.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
We've been going through a bit of a maze here.
Why, okay, oh, we could havecome right here.
That's hilarious, okay.
The signage is terrible forthis In all fairness, I don't
think this street car is wellridden.
They definitely don't do sowell in the snow.
(03:52):
Kind of bikes and scooterseverywhere.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Lovely day for scootering.
Rip to that scooter?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
yeah, rough, alright, we've finally identified the
streetcar stop in the middle ofthe road here.
This episode is brought to youby us.
That's right.
We don't have a sponsor oranything.
So if you want to help the showout directly, the best way to
do so is to check out our brandnew merch store or support us
directly on Patreon to help usget to more cities like this.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So we did something that most people in DC haven't
done, which is ride the DCstreetcar.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I've lived here for four years and I've never taken
it.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Little hard to find from Union Station also.
Yeah, it was, I don't know.
It's fine and all but likestreetcars that just kind of run
in mixed traffic, run into allsorts of issues, where it's just
like it's a bus, but slightlybigger.
But in many cases and on thisstreet like I've seen way more
buses go by there's way morepeople riding the buses.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah, so the challenge with this one?
It opened in 2016,.
There was a plan to make a lotmore street cars, but that plan
has been canceled, so this iskind of what DC has now, and it
runs down.
We're on H Street, h Street.
So we're on H Street, which isreally popular, Like there's
businesses or stuff to do outhere.
You can find Kevin here everyweekend.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
One weekend a year.
You can find him here.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
But the streetcar runs along the edges of the road
all the way down the length ofthe road, which presents its own
challenges.
We just watched it get stuckbehind a delivery vehicle for
quite a while.
Yeah, so all in all, it's maybea novelty and good for what it
is.
On H Street it is free.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It is free Cannot be said about the rest of our
transit.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
That's fair, and where this?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
is serving.
It's actually not fair.
There's no fair.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Sorry for that.
The area this is servicing,though, it's already serviced by
buses.
So yeah, it is a free option,it's just a little slower you
never know.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I'm curious to see how it compares.
We're planning to get to KansasCity at some point.
Kansas City has been working onextending their streetcar.
Their supposedly has some kindof transit priority dedicated
lanes.
This did not feel like it hadtransit priority Definitely at
all.
There's not a few people usingit.
There's actually an extensionto the streetcar in the works
which will connect Union Stationto the Benning Road metro
(06:10):
station.
I'll be curious to watch andsee if this actually happens and
, if it does, what impact itmight have on the streetcar
ridership.
From here we're gonna walkaround the neighborhood a little
bit and then eventually we'regoing to hop on a bus towards
the Naval Yard.
But let's check out this 8thStreet and kind of close by the
Capitol Hill area.
While walking through theneighborhood we stumbled across
a bike share docking station.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Capitol Bike Share.
We call it Cabby.
It's great.
You can get like a.
I think you pay like$50-something for like a
year-long membership inunlimited use.
They have electric bikes too.
It's 95 for the year.
Um, it's really solid forgetting around some of the
neighborhoods that don't havelike metro access especially.
Um, in general, though, like alot of people like have bikes in
the city, there's really greatbike lanes, protected bike lanes
(06:54):
and a lot of the major likeroadways, um, and also there's
just wonderful biking trailsalong the city.
So you have have like MountVernon, across the river that
goes through Virginia.
You have the C&O Canal thatgoes all the way up to like
Harper's Ferry Cool.
We have the Anacostia RiverTrail that goes along the other
river and then the famous RockCreek, which is beautiful lovely
(07:14):
to have that like in the cityand you can take it like all the
way out into Maryland through alot of really great green
spaces.
But biking it's a big bikingcity.
Once a month we have DC BikeParty, just like a huge party on
wheels that just rolls aroundthe city with music and costume
and lights.
Do people take the bike share?
Yes, lots of people use bikeshare for it.
(07:35):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Cool, we would give it a shot, but a little chilly
and a little deadly because manyof the bike lanes are covered.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
nice, right now, not today.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, All right, we are kind of on the
edge of the Capitol Hillneighborhood and we're about to
catch the 90 bus to head towardsthe Navy Yards area.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, and Navy Yards area is an area that's been sort
of redeveloped in DC.
You've been in this area a lot.
We have friends there.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, there's been a lot of development.
It's where the baseball stadiumis, and so it gets a lot of
traffic for large events.
They're converting one of theold bridges into a park, which
is really interesting, trying toconnect the Anacostia side to
the Navy Yard side.
Yeah, there's a lot ofconstruction that's been going
on down there.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It'll be interesting to see some of the new
construction versus like.
We're kind of walking through alot of these cute neighborhoods
with nice, like kind of rowhomes and like dense, but kind
of like, you know, not likehigh-rise buildings.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Right, yeah, a lot of density, just low-rise density,
and you can see around aroundus.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Beautiful neighborhoods, much more modern
apartment buildings everywhere,cool, awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, we'll catch the bus here in a couple minutes.
If you haven't liked this videoor left a comment, please
consider doing so.
It helps us out quite a bit.
All right, we just got off the92 bus.
(09:05):
Chris and Kevin realized thatthey had some friends with
little kittens who lived rightnext to the bus stop.
So quick pit stop to go checkout some baby kittens.
That were very cute.
Right now, though, we'rewalking towards some of the
development in the in the NavyYard area.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
We were walking through the Washington Navy
Yards area and I happened tolook over and realize we're also
on the DC Transportation Trail,which provides history of
transportation throughout the US.
Yeah, so fun little, fun littleaccident in.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
DC and we're close to the Department of
Transportation.
So we're thinking maybe it'srelated, probably related.
Yeah, so fun little, fun littleaccident in DC and we're close
to the Department ofTransportation.
So we're thinking maybe it'srelated, probably related yes,
yeah, thank you, pete.
Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So we have been walking around the Navy Yards
which have been sort ofredeveloped.
It's very different than therest of DC.
Typically in DC you're going tosee like the two, three, four
story townhomes here.
You're looking around and it isall mid-level Ten story or so.
Mid-rise buildings, a lot ofoffices.
Kevin, you're very familiarwith this neighborhood as well.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, my office is down here.
If my boss is watching this.
I am checking my team'smessages, don't worry.
It's a Saturday what are youtalking about?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, exactly, but yeah, so we are exploring this
neighborhood.
We just walked by theDepartment of Transportation.
Unfortunately, we did not meetup with Mayor Pete.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, he blew us off.
No.
I tried to get an appointment,but no, no answer Left us out in
the cold.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yes, all right.
We walked down Navy Yards.
We got some much-needed lunchand warmth.
Now we are over at theNationals Stadium, home of the
2019 World Champions.
Wow, you're a real sports guy,aren't you?
I'm such a sports guy, yeah, atthe top of your head.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, this stadium is really close to a Metro stop,
which is really convenient andkind of the street this is on,
I'm sure, is very crowded forNationals games.
So from here we're going to hopback on the Metro.
Which stop are we getting on at?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Smithsonian.
We're going to transfer fromthe yellow and green to the
orange and blue.
Take another couple stops inSmithsonian Gotcha.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Go check out the National Mall.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
While we're waiting for the train real quick.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We'll fill you in on exactly how you pay.
Yeah, this is something we talkabout every city we go to.
If it's an app, if it's transitapp, if it's whatever, oh, here
comes our train.
Uh, in this case, you can getthe smart trip on your wallet,
on your phone, or get theold-fashioned round school get a
card very simple you just walkup and tap your phone or tap
your card yeah, nice and easy.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, you can.
Also, they usually have kiosksat all the train stations too,
if you wanted to buy a ticketwithout using your phone.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
DC Metro is unique in some cities in that it
calculates the distance youtravel and fares adjust
accordingly.
So it's not a few days based onwhere you enter and where you
exit.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
You tap when you get in, tap when you get out, if
you're interested in learningmore about DC area transit.
We also did an episode on thePurple Line coming to Maryland.
While this is very nice, chris,I think this would have been
better if it was about 30degrees warmer.
Something we haven't said yetis that at this same very time
(12:16):
we're here right now, the otheroption was to be in Phoenix.
Phoenix is presently about.
I don't actually know, but I'mjust going to go out on a limb
and say it's probably 80 degreesand sunny, it's 80 degrees
right here in my heart.
Lewis, we wouldn't have Kevinif we were in uh, exactly, if we
were in Phoenix either, butfind someone else.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So this is something we talked about on previous
episodes, when we talked aboutthe highway expansion in the US
and we talked about thetranscontinental motor convoys,
and we just came across thelittle monument that shows where
the first and second of thetranscontinental motorways or
motor convoys took off fromright in front of the white
house we just walked by thewhite house, saw some of the
(13:00):
monuments in the mall.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
um, still very chilly , but we're uh now making our
way.
We're gonna head over togeorgetown, so we're currently
at Farragut West area, okay, andwe're going to take the 33.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
33 over to Georgetown , which famously doesn't have a
Metro going through it, so theonly way to access it is walking
, biking or taking the bus.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
There also was a circulator system that went
through Georgetown.
It literally ended about twoweeks ago.
Yes, um, the dc circulator wasa bus system separate from wmata
, run by the city of washingtondc.
It was designed to connect keyattractions and neighborhoods
with frequent free service.
Due to declining ridership andbudget constraints, the service
(13:44):
fully was discontinued at theend of 2024, all day.
We've had fairly good luck withtrains and buses kind of coming
on time in general, like DC, asfar as other cities we've done
this in, is much more actuallyset up to be able to use only
public transit on a day-to-daybasis.
But we did potentially justencounter our first ghost bus.
(14:05):
Next one, it Friendship Heights.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
We're taking our friendship to new heights, wow
33, destination FriendshipHeights Station.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
The base fare is $2.25 for this bus.
It's kind of nice here.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We made it to the Georgetown waterfront.
We walked through Georgetown,which was very cute, very nice
main street, downtown area.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
It's basically a mall .
Speaker 2 (14:45):
It's a very nice mall , but it's a mall.
It's an open-air mall.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I said, it also gives very similar vibes to Newberry
Street in Boston if you're fromthat area.
The Domain in Austin.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
This is much nicer than the Domain in Austin.
I'm kidding, don't give theDomain credit like that.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
But definitely a lot of nice-looking spaces.
Yeah, obviously.
Also in Georgetown you haveGeorgetown University, which is
further up the road that we didnot go to.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Struggling in the cold a little bit here, yeah,
but yeah I think we're gonnafind a coffee shop and then make
our way back towards Train town, the train part of DC that's
gonna veer off into.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So also, as we're sitting here sliding around,
also behind us is Virginia,roslyn, roslyn, virginia.
The DC Metro connects quite aways into Virginia, goes all the
way up to Dulles.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Now Silver Line completion.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Which we were kind of hoping that we would fly into
Dulles so that we could ride themuch longer journey from Dulles
.
Instead we flew into DCA, whichis very seamless transfer, as
you probably saw in thebeginning of this, to get
downtown.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
But I do think, heading out towards Dulles,
we'll definitely want to featurethat in the future because what
they've done on the wholeSilver Line is at each of the
stops there's now a lot oftransit oriented development.
So in McLean and all the wayout towards Weehee, reston,
reston thank you, yeah, mcleanand then all the way out to
(16:23):
Reston and then out to theairport, so a lot of really cool
development there.
So we'll definitely talk aboutthat a little bit in the future.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Go for it, did I lose ?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
it 33.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
After finishing up some coffee, we headed back out
to catch the bus.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
We saw it go by and had to do our first bit of
running for the day.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
This almost was the first episode that we did not
have to run to catch a bus.
You're good.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I'm gonna try really hard not to fall.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I almost just ate it.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
That was almost bad ate it, that was almost bad.
Wow, I'm really glad you caughtyourself.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, that would have been rough, chase it at home.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Nobody can get away from you, chase it.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
So we just got off of the 33 bus from Georgetown
after grabbing a little coffeeand we took the bus across town
to the Chinatown area of DC.
So now we're walking down tosee the Chinatown gate and then
we're going to go check outCapitol Crossing from there.
All right, everybody, this isour last stop of the day here in
dc where we are standing on uhcapital crossing, which is, uh,
(17:39):
on top of a highway.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Here we actually talked about this highway,
highway 395, 395 we talked aboutthis in the episode talking
about cap and stitch projectswhile we were at clad warren
park in dallas.
Um, this is one of the few capand stitches that has pretty
tall buildings on it, so you cankind of see these buildings
behind us are literally on topof the few cabin stitches that
has pretty tall buildings on it,so you can kind of see these
buildings behind us areliterally on top of the highway.
It goes down quite a ways.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
You can see from the other side.
There's also brand newbuildings and a highway entrance
right here.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
As well, and yeah, you would have no idea that
there is a highway here.
It was just kind of a trenchopen highway before and now
instead you have a bunch ofpredominantly offices.
There's some apartments as wellfurther down, um, that kind of
cover up the whole section.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
yeah, it's actually a very nice, uh vibrant, little
part of the neighborhood, likenice buildings offices
restaurants yeah, close enoughto chinatown and the gallery
place and a few other big namedestinations in the city yeah,
exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
From Capitol Crossing it was time to start to make
our way back to the train tohead back to our friend's place.
That was our full day here.
We've done all sorts of stuff.
We're currently at Woodley Park, which is close to where we're
staying with our friends nearbyhere we did a whole bunch today.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, we did a lot today.
We saw the National Mall, wesaw Capitol Crossing bunch today
.
Yeah, we did a lot today.
We uh saw the national mall, wesaw capital crossing.
We went to georgetown, we sawthe navy yard, we went to union
station, we did the streetcar.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
we did a lot today um , overall, I mean, uh, obviously
, bc of all the cities we'vedone this in so far, is like has
the most legit transit by far.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
yeah, and typically we do these episodes as like
you'd be surprised that thetransit's good.
I don't know San Antonio'spretty close.
No, but we did this in adifferent way.
It's not really showing youlike, oh surprise, DC's good
transit.
It's showing you DC's goodtransit and this is a good tour
of that transit Right.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And it's to show that , like the United States, can do
it when they put their minds toit.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
We really can.
I mean, if you look at thestation, the station's
absolutely beautiful.
All of the DC stationsespecially around the city kind
of have a similar aesthetic.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
That is just this brutalist dream, slightly
dystopian, yeah yeah, a coupleof things that I think are
interesting in comparing to someof the other cities.
We were talking about howHouston actually had really good
headways on both their lightrail and on their buses.
The light rail, the red line,was like every six minutes.
A lot of the buses were everyeight minutes, which is actually
faster than any specific busline here.
When we're talking about buses,the difference being the
fastest is about 12 minutes.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I think 12, 12,.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, about 12 minutes.
The major difference where italmost feels like it's better
here is oftentimes there aremultiple routes that serve
similar terrain.
So while it might be every 12minutes for a specific bus,
there might be a different busthat kind of makes up for it.
So that was an interestingtakeaway, for sure.
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Any parting thoughts of what you think of your
hometowns?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Petra, yes, DC is like a dream for, I think, a lot
of people to live in, becauseit's so walkable and so
accessible.
You have 15-minute cities allover the district and everyone
that I know who lives here.
They have such a wonderfulcommunity because of how easy it
is to find friends, findneighbors, find places where you
(20:57):
can meet people.
And I think transit like reallyhelps people in the city, like
connect in a way that I don't, Ihaven't experienced in other
places.
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I think a lot of the housing has something to do with
it too.
You've got like a lot of densehousing, a lot of people living
close together, of been closetogether.
Uh, I'm currently reading, uh,the life and death of great
american cities by jane jacobs,which talks all about like, how
much, how important like streetsare, housing, all sort of stuff
, and as I was walking around, Icouldn't help but thinking
about a lot of connections thatare tied in, uh, with that book.
(21:27):
But, um, anything else you wantto add?
I think that's it all right, uh,all that being said uh, if you
have not rated this, if you'relistening or liked and left a
comment on the video sorry,that's getting really loud if
you have not rated this, ifyou're listening or liked and
left a comment on the videoSorry, that's getting really
loud If you have not rated thison your favorite podcast
platform or liked or left acomment on the video, please do
so.
We love hearing from folks.
If you live here in DC and youthink we missed something or
we're totally wrong aboutsomething, definitely let us
(21:48):
know.
I'm sure someone will findsomething.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yes, if you want to see episodes ahead of time or
bonus content, check out ourPatreon page.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yep, that's the best way to directly support us, but
otherwise, thank you all so muchfor watching.
Looking forward to seeing youall in another city very soon.
Yes, and with that, enjoy therest of your.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Transit Tangents Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
I was supposed to say that too, we're going to leave
in.
We're absolutely leaving thatpart in.
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