Get Around Washington D.C. on the Circulator
Using this Cheap Mode of Public Transportation in the U.S. Capitol
© Kat Long
Dec 29, 2008
Tourists and locals in Washington, D.C. can take advantage of the Circulator, the city’s relatively new and cheap public transportation option, to quickly get from one attraction to another without long waits or hassles. Visitors attending the inauguration festivities for President-Elect Barack Obama will find the Circulator much more efficient than a car for getting around the capitol.
Washington does have a subway and bus system--the Metro. But the lines are designed to carry passengers from the suburbs of Maryland and Northern Virginia into the city center, and are less effective in shuttling tourists from locations within the city center. The bus system is also difficult to decipher, as maps of the entire system are nonexistent and individual route maps are only available on the routes and adjacent subway stations themselves, making planning a journey in advance practically impossible.
The Circulator solves both problems: with only three routes within the city center, the shuttle connects the most-visited attractions in and around the National Mall, eliminating a great deal of long-distance walking between sites. It’s also cheaper than the Metro system: the least-expensive off-peak Metro fare is $1.35 for subway and bus, while a fare on the Circulator is only one dollar for adults, fifty cents for seniors and disabled passengers, and free with a transfer from a Metro bus (thirty-five cents with a subway transfer). Day passes and bulk tickets are also available.
Circulator Routes
The Circulator has three loops:
- The Georgetown-Union Station route runs west/east from Wisconsin Avenue and 34th Street NW to Union Station in Northeast Washington, primarily along Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Avenues. This route passes through the tony Georgetown area, the West End business district and landmarks including Lafayette Park, the White House, the Old Post Office Pavilion and FBI Headquarters before reaching the Union Station terminus. Buses run every ten minutes from 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. daily. Additional night service extends the Georgetown terminus to Whitehaven Street/17th Street NW until midnight on weekdays and until 2 A.M. on Friday and Saturday nights.
- The Convention Center-SW Waterfront route runs north-south along 7th Street NW between the Washington Convention Center at 7th and O Streets NW to the waterfront in southwest Washington , passing by the Washington Convention Center, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, Chinatown and L‘Enfant Plaza. This route operates every ten minutes from 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. daily.
- The Smithsonian-National Gallery of Art route loops around the Mall, with stops at every Smithsonian museum. This route eliminates the long walks between museums and monuments, such as the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, and individual galleries, but only runs on weekends from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
The Circulator is operated by a public-private partnership between the District Department of Transportation, the Washington Metro Area Transportation Authority (which operates the Metro system) and DC Surface Transit, Inc. The idea for the low-cost shuttle originated in 1997, but became a reality in 2007.
The Circulator can be easily recognized by its red and yellow buses and its frequency of service. Visitors to the Washington area--especially for Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, which promises to be crowded--should ditch cars, cab rides and traffic jams in favor of this cheap and user-friendly transportation option.
