RSS FeedRiding the 30s Bus
Metro recently announced changes to the very heavily traveled 30s bus route between Friendship Heights/Chevy Chase and Anacostia (WaPo did a story on it too). It runs through both the poorest and the ritziest neighborhoods in DC – four digit incomes to seven digit incomes. I’m on a quest to use my car less so I rode the 30s to do errands between work downtown,
Heading west from downtown to
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I have no idea what he was thinking saying that in the deposition – male suit jabbering on the Blackberry.
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John works for a non-profit and you will so like him. Meet us at Town Hall at 8:30 [pm] – young thing with a Mot Razr, spiky Jimmy Choos and…ahem…noticeable cleavage. Have never figured out how women navigate the bus in heels.
- Mm-si-mm-si-mm-si-mm-si-mm-mm-si – college hipster pumping really loud trance out of her iPod – I think it might have been DJ Tiesto.
Heading east from
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We want the funk…give up the funk…awwhh…we need the funk - drunk guy singing. He worked his way through a bunch of Motown and P-Funk classics. All hail the Mothership. Great memory, terrible tone.
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You *#$@. I told you not to play with that thing or I’m going to *#$@$ your #$@%@ when I get to my mother&*#$ home – one upset, expletive filled “parent” sitting next to me.
- Hola chica…¿Que tal? Ya vengo a casa a las once – service worker with assortment of buckets and cleaning products.
DC natives will tell you 16th Street is an old invisible boundary in this town but the 30s bus ignores this border blending the east of 16th Street crowd with the west of 16th Street crowd. Maybe the line has shifted to 11th or 9th Street or something else these days. Who knew 7th Street and downtown would chart a path back towards its former retail glory? I’d like to do away with the boundary concept completely because good people are good people and they live everywhere they best can. Maybe that’s part of why I moved downtown. When it comes to DC’s future, I’m an optimist.
Have you ridden the 30s lately?
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Comments
I take the 30s to work every day, and I’ve seen and heard my fair share of crazy things. My favorite was when a man in the back lit up an enormous blunt. The whole bus smelled like pot. There was an elderly man in a suit who kept sniffing the air like a dog. “Is that marijuana? Do you smell marijuana?”
The bus driver stopped the bus, ran to the back and said, “WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!?!?!?! You can’t do that on MY bus!”
I love the 30′s.
I ride the 30s quite a bit, sometimes from Capitol Hill all the way to Friendship. I am not sure if Metro’s proposed changes will help our neigborhood. In particular making the 7th and Penn intersection even more crowded and chaotic with bus changes will not enhance passenger safety or travel speeds. The real problem with this line is bunching and inadequate service.
My favorite thing about riding the bus in general in DC is the number of people that don’t actually pay – guaranteed every time I am on the bus (which is only once or twice a month) at least one person will get on the bus talk to the drive for a little while, ride 2 or 3 stops then get off without paying.
The other type are the ones who fumble through their purse or pockets for two or three minutes pretending to look for their metro ticket or cash and slowly shuffle further back until they finally just sit down.
I’ve been a frequent rider of the 30s since undergrad at Georgetown. Then, I only rode it between Gtown and the social Safeway or Friendship Heights. Now I use it to get to Eastern Market, to Georgetown, even to work sometimes. It’s definitely interesting to see how the demographics of the riders change as you ride different segments. Rowdy teenagers tend to get on between Glover Park/Cleveland Park (there is some kind of middle school around there – not Sidwell Friends, but I think a public school). American U. kids get on at Tenleytown. Crazy people get on pretty much anywhere.
I’ve never ridden it east of Eastern Market….not sure what lies beyond.
I bet you all are wealthy folk. and I bet you haven’t thought of bankruptcy.
So please…. ride the bus. enjoy the bus. but please don’t treat it like a disney ride. i take the 42 all the time. It is filled with “bunches” of folk that watched ‘breakfast club’, ‘ 16 candles’, ‘drop dead fred’ to “get by”. you live in the city now my friend. enjoy it, and embrace it.
thanks!
3. i agree- the bunching of the 30′s is completely ridiculous.
i ride the 30′s somewhat often b/t foggy bottom and friendship heights. the furthest south i’ve ridden it is to 7th & penn. i prefer to take the circulator if i’m going to penn quarter or gallery place but it usually comes down to which bus arrives first.
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I used to take the 30 bus to work when I lived in Glover Park. I still ride it occasionally but I have to say I think the circulator has stolen a lot of the passengers.