The first accident occurred around 11:30 a.m. at Glebe Road and 4th Street N. A minivan rear-ended a bus stopped at a bus stop, sending two people to the hospital.
The second accident happened three blocks away on Glebe Road and 7th Street N., according to Arlington Transit Services Manager Steve Yaffe.
Update at 3:00 p.m. — The driver of the van has been charged with reckless driving, according to Arlington County police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal. A passenger from the bus and the van driver were both taken to the hospital after the accident, Nosal said.
A minivan slammed into the back of an Arlington Transit (ART) bus at the intersection of N. Glebe Road and 4th Street, near Ballston, just after 11:30 this morning.
A Metro representative taught novice bus riders how to read a bus schedule, find the best route and pay bus fare. The workshop also discussed the benefits of using a SmarTrip card.
According to the Arlington Transit web site, 129 people attended the event, which was held at the Gates of Ballston community center. Attendees later visited a nearby CVS to learn how to add money to their SmarTrip cards.
Starting on Monday, April 4, the ART 41 will start running on a new weekday schedule. Buses will now run every 15 minutes during the morning and evening rush hours. Additionally, bus service will start earlier in the morning and end later at night.
Also on Monday, three new rush hour bus trips will be added to the ART 87 route. Three additional buses will leave the Pentagon Metro at 4:35, 5:15 and 5:55 p.m. Those buses will make all the normal outbound stops.
Update at 2:30 p.m. — This story has been corrected. A previous version of the story stated that the ART bus accident happened at Route 1 and 23rd Street and involved one minor injury. In fact, the Route 1 accident did not involve the bus. The bus accident happened as described below.
An ART bus was involved in an accident near Ft. Myer just before 10:30 this morning.
The SmarTrip weekly bus pass will cost $15, the same as the paper passes.
Riders will now be able to use their pass during whichever seven-day period they choose. The SmarTrip card will support the purchase of up to two weekly passes at a time.
As a result, the project — which started last summer and was originally slated to take 15 months — has been prolonged by an estimated three months. Planners will now have to redesign the relocation process. Work is not expected to resume until “late spring,” according to a letter from the county to local residents and organizations.
The delay will also affect the Metro and ART bus stops that were closed and relocated as a result of the project.
Petition Workers Indicted for Voter Fraud — Two individuals who worked on the unsuccessful effort to change Arlington’s form of government have been indicted for election fraud. William Cockerham and Cheryl Simmons are expected to have their trial dates set this morning. Earlier this year we exposed Simmons as a paroled felon, ineligible to collect the 2,214 petition signatures she claimed to have collected. More from the Washington Post.
ART Bus Lives Up to Its Name — Arlington’s transit agency has deemed its “Art on the ART Bus” experiment a success. The program placed artwork on an ART bus in connection with a new exhibit at the Arlington Arts Center. The arty bus launched on Dec. 11 and will continue rotating throughout the ART system for the next couple of months. More from the Arlington Transit Blog.
Likewise, while trash collection and some bus service will be operational on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, but just about everything else county-related — including libraries, courts and schools — will be closed.
The good news: parking meters will not be enforced on Dec. 24, 25, 31 and Jan. 1. Happy holidays, indeed.
ART Route 75 Expands on Monday — The ART 75 bus route will add stops at the Shirlington Transit Center and the Virginia Square Metro station on Monday. More from the Arlington Transit Blog.
New Ballston Burger Joint Coming Soon — Brgr:Shack (4215 Fairfax Drive) will feature grass-fed beef, home-made buns, and a selection of wine and beer. The 30-40 seat restaurant is expected to open in early November. More from TBD.
The ART 41 and WMATA 16S buses will now use a temporary stop at the Pike and South Columbus Street, just before the Four Mile Run bridge. The ART 45 bus will now stop at South Thomas Street, about a quarter mile up a hill from the Buchanan Street stop.
One resident who emailed us about the closure complained that the new Columbus Street stop was too far away and that too little notice was given about the changes. We’re told WMATA is in the process of producing a brochure to help explain the new stop locations.
Arlington’s ART bus system may stop honoring Metrobus passes if WMATA doesn’t start sharing revenue, according to Michael Perkins at Greater Greater Washington.
While regional bus providers like ART are compensated when SmarTrip holders pay for individual rides, so far there is no revenue-sharing agreement for SmartTrip (and paper) “flash passes.”
