Wasn't this circulator to help promote tourism? Doesn't some of the funding of this come from parking garages of fees commuters pay to park?

Has anyone done a study to jump on the bus and ask how many people are tourists? My guess is that it is 1 out of 1000. Every one of my friends and family that have come to Baltimore since the opening of this Circulator have no clue about the 'free' (nothing is free in this world) bus.

The one problem with Adrienne Barnes' reply is that not everyone can check the website while standing at a stop -- like the one on Poppleton St -- where there is no digital display.

The Circulator should also post such notices ON THE BUSSES.

And one other suggestion -- which I made to Tony Greene in Transportation Services at UMB -- is to move the stop south 1 block permanently, because they construction issues at the hospital are not going away any time soon.

But I will say this: the Circulator people are much more on top of communications with their customers than MTA could ever hope to be, and I applaud Adrienne Barnes for her reply and the information.

The Circulator service has been gradually, but steadily, improving since the Purple Line opened. Still, it can be frustrating for riders to wait more than the advertised 10 minutes between buses, only to find the bus packed with other riders.

This happened to me yesterday as I wanted to board the Purple Line at the Inner Harbor stop. I checked the website before I left and made it in plenty of time, only to wait another 20 minutes for a bus already nearly full. As we packed ourselves onto the bus, the driver was all smiles, however, and said, "Oh, it'
s not that bad!" and joked, "Who's got a bottle of water for me?!" He was happy as a clam to piddly along the route at 15 mph, chatting away with the women up front like he was running for Mayor or something. Each time the bus stopped, he'd tell people who couldn't fit onto the bus "Another bus is coming right behind me. 10 minutes." Ehhhh, doubt it, was my reaction. Each stop took way too long, as he sat there chatting up the women up front and telling people to get behind the yellow line, like it was our fault there were so many of us on the bus that was running 15 minutes late.

I eventually got off that ride of absurdity and hopped on the air conditioned, much less crowded 3 bus that was right behind it. Even that driver was getting angry, honking at the Circulator clown to do more driving and less talking.

Like I said, the service has gotten a lot better lately, but some days, you just want to scream. I guess that goes for all mass transit, though, and is not endemic to the CCC only.

Why do the Circulator buses drive so slowly? It's absurd. I asked a driver this and he said "safety." But driving 10mph below the speed limit is not safe. It's ridiculous. I would love a better explanation. I can easily out-bike the circulator and on some days I can out-jog it. If they're going to advertise that it's FAST, friendly, and free, they need to give their drivers the liberty to go the speed limit.

Mr. Dresser, do you think you could get a less vague and PC answer than "safety" from someone in DOT? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's dying to know.

Not long after I posted my last comment, I saw this status update on the Circulator's facebook page:

"We know you want to get to your location and we're glad you've chosen the Circulator. Our drivers are instructed to maintain safe operating speeds that not only help insure passenger safety, but are also in-line with the hybrid-engine technology that does not have the same acceleration rates as its diesel counterpart. So sit back, enjoy the ride...no need to rush, our drivers are working to get you there safely."

So I guess the real reason these buses go so slow is that they can't go any faster! Or at least, they can't go any faster without giving up all their touted fuel efficiency. At least that's a reasonable explanation. And I guess it refutes the argument I've heard made against the Charles Street Trolley that with the money spent on its construction, we could buy a fleet of Circulator buses for the MTA to use. Imagine riding the #48 bus to Towson at 15mph!!

I must have been on the same bus as Kungpow. I really didn't think it that big of a deal--everyone seemed fit to complain it was full, but sometimes buses fill to crush load. What are you going to do?

That being said, I really do not understand why they got these 30ft Designline buses. The doors barely work on most of them, the AC is underpowered, and the buses can't accelerate quickly (as stated above), so you're stuck going 15mph.

I'm not sure they were worth the (my estimation) $100,000 to $200,000 premium over New Flyer DE41LFRs, which would also have been hybrid, 11 feet longer, and are proven to handle our rough city streets.

Agreed that some times you get crammed into a bus; it happens and you're right: what's there to do? However, yesterday, the cramming was not due to a heavy number of passengers (at least not at the time I was riding). Rather, the buses were, once again, nowhere close to 10 minutes apart, but were closer to 20 minutes apart. As a result, more passengers than normal "backed up" at each stop, swamping the one bus that showed up.

If the buses are running on time, and make the trip in a timely fashion, I can accept being crammed. I'm a reasonable person and I just stepped off and got on a less crowded MTA bus.

I think the driver's focus on flirting rather than staying on time and propensity to drive at glacial speeds that aggravated me more than usual.

I tried the Circulator for a few months and have recently given up on it, walking is almost always faster than waiting 20 minutes or more and then only to travel at foot speed, and if its too long ot walk, I'd rather ride the faster an dmore frequent MTA busses along Lombard & Pratt.

Great points by Jed, Youssef, and kungpow. I agree with so many of your comments. My guess is that whoever picked these Designline buses was aiming to get a look as far removed from a conventional bus as possible, and picked it based solely on their percieved "curb appeal." We could have gotten much more bang from buck with conventional hybrids from New Flyer or Gillig.

What I would REALLY like to know is WHY do the Purple Circulator Operators tend to make the congested Charles and Fayette Street WAY BACK AT THE PYLON when they are first in line? This inevitably blocks an MTA bus or two from getting into the stop to board riders and causes the riders on the 3, 11, 61, and 64 to often miss at least one change of the signal unnecessarily! This is probably the most used Charles Street stop! SHARE THE WAY!

The City should delay implementation of the Green Route until service improvements are made to the existing system to improve reliability and performance.

Adding to Adam's excellent question- who decided to put the circulator stops at existing MTA bus stops that are already busy? The same problem exists at the stop at Penn Station, where it tends to sit longer, and probably a whole bunch of other stops. When they first launched the purple circulator I tried to tell both the circulator operators and the city 311 line about this problem and they claimed they would let the supervisors know. I don't know if they are really trying to run a 15 mph tourist trolley, but in any case they should stay out of the way of regular folks who ride the MTA buses. I'd suggest that they should move the circulator stops to the opposite (near vs. far) side of the intersection from the MTA stops. This should help reduce the interference that also contributes to their own schedule problems.

I disagree with moving the stops, I think they should be combined so people can catch the next bus rather than miss an MTA bus while waiting for a Circulator or vice versa. However, I think these stops should be able to accommodate two buses and the first bus should use common sense and move as far up as possible.
By the way, today since stop 217 is closed, I couldn't hop on the Circulator and had to walk, guess who reached the next stop first? ME!