The Safe-T-Ride: the one-way loop line consisting entirely of deviations

Loudoun County Transit Route 54 (better-known as the Safe-T-Ride) has to be the weirdest bus route I've ridden as of yet. It's a fare-free, one-way loop line consisting entirely of deviations that always stays within a 3/4 mile radius of itself. Yet still, it's nearly 4 miles long.
Map sources:
www.loudoun.go...
www.loudoun.go...
Filmed on June 19, 2024.

[@Shortline819]

More transit channels need to cover strange local transit. LC Transit is already a strange system and this route just makes it stranger! Literally only exists because Lououdn County couldn't bother to put a crosswalk in or a pathway over/under...

[@29downtheline]

I agree! I have another video involving LC Transit already filmed (featuring some of their full-size Gillig buses) and am hoping to film one on the commuter buses they run!

[@JohnWilson-hc5wq]

I don't consider this line weird. Some other cities have "mall shuttles" and similar lines. If anything, they should be more common. The suburbs of Minneapolis/Saint Paul have several "mall and sprawl" areas that could really use a service like this.

[@29downtheline]

I do think this line is helpful; I actually wish it ran more frequently! I think the odd parts are the route it uses and the fact that crosswalks or grade-separated pedestrian crossings weren’t built, like on other places of the same road. Even if pedestrian access is improved, I’d like to see this route stick around!

[@ChickemTender]

My favorite glorified crosswalk. The whole area around the bus route is about to get worse as they attempt to get funding for whatever interchange the town is trying to build between the bypass and edwards ferry/fort evans. The busses in Leesburg could get ridership, they just kinda, well, suck. Having everything converge in the downtown and having 60 minute headways kinda makes the system useless. It does make a fun system to just ride around aimlessly though.

[@29downtheline]

Apparently on some older report they said they wanted to elevate the Bypass through that future interchange, which I guess could mean the two segments of Fort Evans Rd could be reconnected together (hopefully with pedestrian access)? I haven’t ridden it, but the 70 seems like a good route, connecting downtown Leesburg, Dulles Town Center, and the NOVA Loudoun Campus. LC Transit does get bonus points for being really cheap to ride!

[@kikipuppybee]

5:51 chicken bus 🐓

[@29downtheline]

Indeed! Interestingly, the Chick-Fil-A stop isn’t even on the route map!

[@kikipuppybee]

@@29downtheline​​maybe it’s a fun surprise in case you get hungry lol