I spent a lot of time this summer analyzing WMATA’s Better Bus initiative and how it would impact students who rely on public bus service to get to school. Working for commuting students in the District, it was clear the shortcomings of the transit system often lauded as one of the best in the country. Those who live in DC, like me, are used to hearing about yearly budget shortfalls, where our government is expected to pick up the bill or risk losing service. This isn’t really a choice for the nearly 400,000 people who rely on the trains every day, so we negotiate, and in the end, we pay.
Studying the Better Bus network is a lesson in where the trains don’t go. There are only two metro stations in Ward 8, an area with 87,043 people. 44% of households in Ward 8 don’t have a vehicle, and high schoolers in the area travel an average of 3.9 miles to school, above the citywide average of 2.6. Without adequate transport, 3.9 miles is a harrowing distance in a city designed with only 10-mile-long borders.
What happened to the D.C. Metro?
This is a basic history of Metro expansion, not including the 2022 addition of the Dulles International stop over a 26-mile drive away from Metro Center. Yet, Greenbelt’s station is nearly half that distance, only 14 miles on the road; Branch Avenue is only 12 miles distant. In Prince George’s County, only one stop passes the Capital Beltway, and it only nearly passes it as the terminal stop of the silver and blue lines: Downtown Largo. Twenty stops bound for Montgomery County and Northern Virginia pass this barrier. The title map shows this best; just see how far lines other than the Green Line travel across the region.
The Metro was built deep into wealthy communities in DC’s suburbs. In 1959, a Mass Transportation Survey plan was drafted. Its 33-mile-long rail proposal only included Montgomery County and a line into Alexandria, VA. This year, Montgomery County was the wealthiest county in the continental United States, with an average household income of $36,560. Prince George’s County had about $7,000 less income per household and no planned rail access.
If the system looked the same way in Prince George’s County as it did in Montgomery County, it would make a U from Laurel to Bowie. This might seem outlandish for a system that only ventures as far as Greenbelt and Largo, but it was once in the imagination of Metro planners.
There was a time when the D.C. suburbs would have been nearly equally serviced. The 1968 map reflects the immediate construction plans and the future expansions. The only stations Prince George’s County would gain are those to Largo. The Red Line was once planned for Germantown, but while that also didn’t come to fruition, their original proposal was much more complete and deeper into the County.
The System Today
A great article from the Washington Post summarized that Metro Stations and their vicinity “remain havens for the rich”. The economic disparity is captured well in one quote from that article: “Between 2012 and 2016, households near D.C. Metro stations had a median income of $93,022 — about $20,000 above the city’s median household income of $72,935.” Metro access is a vital transportation artery for families without cars, but this with the wealth concentrated around these stations, there’s a bubble around each of these stations that creates prohibitive costs for walkable public transit.
Maybe you imagine public transportation as the great equalizer and common space, as it was first imagined in New York City a century ago. It’s not hard to think that people struggling under rapid gentrification and a $2,295-a-month average one-bedroom rent would greatly benefit from affordable public transit. D.C. offers a 50% discount on rides for those eligible for SNAP benefits. Seniors receive the same discount. It seems that WMATA wants to exercise the Metro system as an equalizer for those who can’t drive, but as the system is laid out, few low-income people can afford to live near a station and Seniors alike.
Projects like the Maryland Purple Line make new attempts to expand service and improve public transit, but these efforts face a daunting history of developing transit as a convenience rather than as an equity driver. A Prince George’s County-focused project, it aims to expand a system that seemed long finished with increasing commuter access in the County.
Next time you ride the Green Line from College Park, having to ride the shuttle there or take the walk, remember the Metro's history and ensure that it’s not the end of the line for developing public transit that works for the people.
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