Adjustments to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal that defunds the K Street Transitway and increases fees on rideshares going downtown have further emboldened the mayor and other local officials to press on with plans to revitalize downtown D.C.
On Monday, Bowser, D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Everett Lott and several others converged on Franklin Park in Northwest to demand that the D.C. Council reallocates funds to a multiyear construction project intended to set up dedicated bus lanes and bike lanes along the K Street corridor and portions of L Street.
During the committee write-up process last week, the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, chaired by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) moved more than $100 million in capital funds intended for the K Street Transitway to fund the Free Bus program that council members approved during the latter part of last year.
In another move that perturbed Bowser and others, the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Works and Operations, chaired by Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), approved a for-hire vehicle congestion management program that adds a $2 surcharge to rideshares heading downtown.
The funds collected from the surcharges would fund 24-hour bus service under the Free Bus program.
In her remarks about the budget changes, Bowser said that the Free Bus program wouldn’t be successful if buses are unable to navigate congested roads. The $2 rideshare surcharge, she added, further discourages District residents, especially those who travel downtown to go to work, from hopping in Ubers and Lyfts.
“Forty percent of the people traveling east and west used K Street buses,” Bowser said. “People don’t like buses when they’re stuck in traffic — even when it’s free. Wider sidewalks and dedicated sideways will make traveling safer. The transit model is the first of its kind in D.C. and it’s not an overstatement about how it will transform transportation.”
K Street Transitway Under Fire
Plans for the K Street Transitway gelled together during engagement with residents, community leaders, transportation officials and business owners. Before funds had been taken away, construction had been anticipated to be completed by 2027.
Features of the K Street Transitway, which will stretch between 12th Street and 21st Street in Northwest, include protected transit lanes, dedicated center bus lanes intended to prevent traffic-related delays, platform and median separation, two car lanes in each direction, and boarding stations for bus riders.
Bike riders counted among those dissatisfied with the current design due to what’s been described as a flagrant absence of bike lanes.
While the markups unanimously approved by the council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment — which includes Allen and Council members Christina Henderson (I-At large), Matthew Frumin (D-Ward 3), Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), and Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) — defunds the K Street Transitway, it also allocate funds for a transit redesign.
The transitway as it currently stands has a supporter in Pinto, who said she has spoken, met with or reached out to all of her council colleagues about finding other funding sources for the Free Bus program.
“It’s imperative that downtown comes back,” Pinto said. “We need to take recovery seriously. Without dedicated investments in our budget, we will continue to face future budget cycles with hard decisions. We can’t afford to stop thinking about tomorrow when it comes to downtown.”
During its first vote on the full budget on May 16, the D.C. Council will decide whether to strike down or move forward with the markups coming out of Allen and Nadeau’s committees.
Nadeau’s office confirmed that Nadeau and Pinto have been attempting to connect. A spokesperson told The Informer that Nadeau called Pinto before the release of her committee report, and left details about the adjustments in messages, but hadn’t been able to directly speak to the Ward 2 council member.
Allen said he and Pinto had also been playing phone tag over the last week. In defending his committee’s decision to defund the K Street Transitway, Allen said District residents have raised concerns.
“One of the things I’ve heard consistently from a lot of folks is that DDOT continued to make changes that move [the K Street Transitway] away from being a transitway,” Allen said. “It’s a freeway [with] seven lanes for cars and folks felt this is not what downtown needs. It’s not a transformative design. It’s my hope and goal to have DDOT come back with a design we can get around, but it’s got to be a design for the downtown of the future.”
Competing Visions for D.C.’s Future
The Free Bus program became a hot-button budget season issue when the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) released its revised revenue estimates that showed a projected loss in revenue for the next couple of fiscal years.
To the chagrin of Allen and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, OCFO’s projection excluded the Free Bus Program. Initially scheduled to launch this summer, the program would’ve established fare-free Metrobus travel and the expansion of after-hour bus service.
Shortly before presenting her budget proposal, Bowser wrote a letter to CFO Glen Lee requesting that he also consider in his financial assessment of the Free Bus program free access to MetroAccess for paratransit riders. Other questions revolved around changes to reduced fares for SNAP recipients, and whether funds from the Kids Ride Free program would offset the cost of the free bus fare program.
On Monday, Bowser expressed doubt that the arrangement made by Allen and Mendelson to fund the Free Bus program could keep the K Street Transitway project alive, even with money set aside for a redesign. She described such a move as a threat to downtown D.C.’s development — and D.C.’s economic future.
D.C.’s Comeback Plan, as Bowser has called it, aims to bring 15,000 new residents — and a bevy of amenities and businesses along with them — downtown within the next five years. It’s been framed as a response to the pandemic-era exodus of businesses from downtown, Shaw, Logan Circle and Georgetown.
Even as several businesses left downtown, April Richardson counted among those who set up shop. Richardson, the owner of D.C. Sweet Potato Cake, opened up her storefront along K Street in 2021, partially out of inspiration by the racial justice protests that erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd’s police-involved murder.
Richardson counted among those who stood in full support of the K Street Transitway, calling it a vehicle for economic development that will ensure her business, and others businesses downtown, can stay afloat.
“How can D.C. be on the comeback without innovation and forward thinking?” Richardson questioned. “It was always K Street that was out of reach for me and other microbusinesses but now it’s a reality. A movement is about making a decision to get things done and show people a vision. We rely on our leaders to guide us through shadows of doubt, and [Bowser] has earned our trust.”