DC Circulator Challenge: Who is the Fastest Circulator Rider?

The DC Circulator is a bus system made up of 6 routes. Should be doable to ride all 6 routes in a day, right? We're about to find out. 3 teams of DC-area transit creators are competing to see who can ride the entire DC Circulator system the fastest. Who will win? And what obstacles will there be along the way? There's only one way to find out. This is the Circulator Challenge.
Check out my friends' channels ‪@andyontrack‬ and ‪@sammymarrco47‬
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Date of filming: May 11, 2024

[@Thom-TRA]

Who will win the Circulator Challenge? Comment your prediction below, and find out next week!

[@mikecarrington4297]

You Wii of course

[@sammymarrco47]

Can’t say 🤔

[@chriscubingclips]

I vote for Lindsey winning.... cause she didn't have to spend all day on busses. lol (JK, I hope for a Thom come from behind WIN!)

[@ClassyWhale]

With all that running around, yall were certainly getting your...circulation up! 😂

[@sammymarrco47]

Oh Caleb 😅

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Caleb remains the king of puns

[@alexanderkvenvolden4067]

Now you need to find the circulator that takes you to... The Snack Zone.

[@Thom-TRA]

I believe Lindsey provided the snacks haha

[@TheGAMWolferz]

It looks like next summer there will be no Circulator and a StreetCar with unfulfilled potential. I really hope they can find something that can at least keep the Circulator alive. 🙏

[@Cupertinorail]

wow the Amazing race TAA edition.

[@sammymarrco47]

Thanks Thom for inviting me, this was fun to film and compete in! Will Andy and I even finish, you'll have to find out in the next one. This was my first time going to Congress Heights, Woodley Park and the McPherson Sq Metro stations a great time exploring more of the city!

[@Thom-TRA]

Who knows what trouble lies ahead? I guess only we do…

[@andyontrack]

Great video Thom, I said so much fun participating, thank you for having me! Looking forward to what happens in the next installment 😎

[@Thom-TRA]

Thanks for joining! Here’s to many more collabs

[@TGrrr89]

I love seeing these transit-oriented challenges. Have you thought about doing something like this with the Metro?

[@Thom-TRA]

I have a friend who’s developing something!

[@sammymarrco47]

@@Thom-TRAYes

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

The Jefferson Memorial was designed by NYC architect John Russell Pope and built by Philly contractor John McShain. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., who had a firm with his older half-brother John C. Olmsted who co-worked on parks and college campuses across the US like LSU, Ohio State University, Oregon State University, Acadia National Park, Branch Brook Park in Newark, and the park systems of Birmingham, Cleveland, Portland, Seattle, designed the memorial landscape. The memorial is constructed of Imperial Danby marble from Vermont. The memorial's triangular pediment features a sculpture by Adolph A. Weinman, depicting the five members of the drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence submitting their report to Congress. The site ultimately selected for the Jefferson Memorial's construction was appealing at least partly because it was in view of the White House. By 1901, the Senate Park Commission, in the McMillan Plan, proposed building a Pantheon-like structure on the site that would host "the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future", however no action was taken by Congress on the commission's recommendation. In 1925, the same year a beach at the Tidal Basin was shut down, there was a design competition for a memorial for Teddy Roosevelt, with John Russell Pope winning and proposing a half-circle memorial design next to a basin, but this also wasn't acted upon by Congress (Teddy would later end up with his own memorial island dedicated in 1967 after an island purchased by the Theodore Roosevelt Association in the 1930s was authorized by Congress in 1932 and was cleared and given to the government). In 1934, after reading a book on Jefferson by friend Claude G. Bowers, FDR inquired with the Commission of Fine Arts about a memorial to Jefferson. FDR included plans for the Jefferson Memorial in the Federal Triangle project, and Congress eventually appropriated $3 million for the Jefferson Memorial. Pope was chosen as architect by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission in 1935, and he proposed several locations. One on the Anacostia River by East Capitol Street, one at Lincoln Park, one on the south side of the National Mall across from the National Archives Building (which he also designed), and one on the Tidal Basin which was of course chosen. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission preferred the Tidal Basin not just because it was a prominent site, but it also completed the four-point plan called for by the McMillan Commission. Construction began in December 1938, with its cornerstone laid roughly eleven months later by FDR himself. Pope had died in 1937 so his surviving partners, Daniel P. Higgins and Otto R. Eggers, assumed leadership for the Jefferson Memorial's construction. Although construction commenced, there was opposition to it, as the Commission of Fine Arts never actually approved any design for the memorial and even published a pamphlet in 1939 opposing the proposed design and the site. Some Washingtonians also opposed the proposed location because it did not align with L'Enfant's original plan, and because the original memorial plan was going to remove cherry trees, but said opposition diminished once revised plans identified a means for maintaining the surrounding cherry trees. It was officially dedicated on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birthday, and opened by FDR. At the time, its statue had not yet been finished due to material shortages that emerged during World War II. Instead, the memorial opened with a temporary plaster cast statue similar to the bronze statue that Rudolph Evans ultimately completed four years later, in 1947. The statue's cast was developed by Roman Bronze Works in NYC. Quotations from Jefferson's writings are on the walls of the chamber, including one on the frieze encircling the interior. An excerpt from the Declaration of Independence is located on the southwest wall. The southeast wall features a statement on the evolution of law and the constitution, which was taken from a letter written to Samuel Kercheval in 1816. The northwest wall is inscribed with a combination of six quotations taken primarily from Jefferson's "1786 Notes of Virginia" and "Summary Views," which illustrate his beliefs against slavery and the need to educate everyone. The northeast wall contains a quote from the "Act of Religious Freedom," which was adopted in 1779 and eliminated the state church of Virginia, which expresses his views on freedom of religion.

[@adisario]

Add some challenges and you’ll have Bus Lag: The Game. Absolutely love this!

[@sammymarrco47]

Yess that would have been a fun addition!

[@SF_SPOTTER]

Ha I just got back from summer camp and this is the first video I’ve watched so excited to watch your others

[@ForeverSeptembr]

That Georgetown circulator route saved me many a time when I still lived in DC before moving out to the burbs! Good memories, I hope they don't follow through with axing them! I'm wondering if they think that proposed big wmata bus routes rework will somehow take up the slack?

[@ayindestevens6152]

Oh my the DRAMA over this race I can’t believe that Andy and Sammy got screwed by the bus.

[@sammymarrco47]

The service is being slowly made worse because they’re gonna end it, it sucks for the many folks who still rely on it. Hopefully Wmata will extend their routes to fill in the gaps.

[@ayindestevens6152]

@@sammymarrco47 ahhh the death by a 1000 Cuts route. That sucks. Btw I like your channel too.

[@chriscubingclips]

It's crazy they're planning to Axe the Circulator. I've only ever ridden the National Mall route back and forth to Union Station so I didn't realize how extensive the routes really are. As a tourist the National Mall route offers a great (if not slow) connection around the Mall. Are any of the routes sorta covered by WMATAs Better Bus redesign? If not, are people who currently use DC Circulator just out of luck once they stop running? It just boggles my mind they're willing to just throw all of it away... the busses, infrastructure, drivers, etc. This video is great by the way. Thanks for putting all this together and making fun videos for us!

[@Thom-TRA]

Nope, not covered by better bus (yet anyway). I do know (from sources I can’t reveal) that WMATA is planning to take over the fleet, so fingers crossed they take over the routes too. Preferably with a unique branding.

[@chriscubingclips]

@@Thom-TRA ahhh, well i'm glad the fleet may survive. WMATA should for sure take over (at least some of) the routes. Honestly it could turn into a win if WMATA is able to incorporate them. From my perspective at least Randy is trying to keep things moving forward.

[@anthonywarrener1881]

What a splendid idea ! Looks like fun, but the connectivity between the various Circulator routes is poor. I have used the Circulator from Union station to Georgetown, several times, and that has been good. Sorry to hear there are plans to close the system, and hopefully summer ridership will be so good that the powers that be will change their minds. Looking forward to the conclusion !

[@Thom-TRA]

It is strange how they tend to operate as their own separate entities

[@JJRol.]

This was a cool challenge, I like these long videos! It's sad how WMATA and whoever operates the circulator isn't getting enough funding. I'd expect the capital to be better. What's with the train to Addison Road at 6:12? I thought it terminated at Largo

[@Thom-TRA]

There was construction! And the circulator is operated by the DC DOT (ddot). They have RATP do the actual operations.

[@ck4426]

This was an awesome collaboration and game!!! Looking forward to the conclusion and the awesome adventures to come!!!

[@car_tar3882]

I was about to comment about the fare box not working and say if I had a dollar for every MoCo ride on bus I’ve been on with a broken fare box and then I realized I quite literally do have a dollar for every broken fare box I’ve seen.

[@Thom-TRA]

Literally haha

[@teecefamilykent]

Brilliant video, I don't know who will win but meh lol lol good to see Lyndsey supervising you lol

[@PaulCashman]

Reminds me pleasantly of The Amazing Race, although I don't think any of the teams will be "Philiminated" at the end. :) (Full disclosure; I had friends who competed -- unsuccessfully -- on TAR.)

[@Thom-TRA]

Wow, that’s cool!

[@patrickpirzer4080]

Secret weapon Lindsey with two mugs of magic potion. 😊

[@Thom-TRA]

Lindsey makes everything better!

[@rikkichunn8856]

All the delays and missing buses you guys are putting up with! Now you know why I generally dislike buses.

[@sammymarrco47]

The WMATA buses run way better than the circulator, even the suburban buses too. Circulator is been nerfed because it’s scheduled to be killed.

[@trinikimmie]

So fun. It's always the lack of proper operational funding that screws up us transit 😢

[@paulgracey4697]

If Thom had added a category for bicycles I strongly believe the bicycles would have beat most of the circulator busses. I once rode a bicycle from coast to coast, So. California to Connecticut, and to prepare for riding about 50 miles every day, I spent a month of training at my Orange County home, doing out and back rides of at least 25 miles. First every three days, and eventually every day, with 50 miles or sometimes a lot more. These bike rides were in many different directions and I often followed bus routes along major boulevards. What I noticed was though my average speed when moving was around 15mph, and the busses were passing me at more than twice that speed, I was catching and or passing them at their stops. This showed me that in a metropolitan area busses are quite slow.Note that I obeyed all stop signs and traffic signals unlike many other urban and suburban cyclists, yet this speed dynamic prevailed much more often than not. My training rides amounted to about 1000 miles before the nearly 4000 miles I did on that epic and educational solo bicycle trip.

[@Thom-TRA]

What an incredible ride that must have been!!!

[@devinpaul9026]

"So how DID you get here first...?" "My channel."

[@davemcnally3627]

Really enjoying this,now got a week to wait.

[@Thom-TRA]

I promise it’ll fly by!

[@lylelanley18]

@@Thom-TRAIt won’t if we’re waiting on *some* of those buses! 😉Hats off to you, what an absolutely daunting challenge you came up with. I’ll trade you a monorail for next weeks episode now!

[@purplekhaos]

And monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington D.C.

[@Thom-TRA]

This video has generated a strange amount of weird comments where I don’t understand the context .

[@purplekhaos]

@@Thom-TRA It's a Tim Curry quote from the camp cult classic 1985 film Clue. It's worth a watch.

[@Thom-TRA]

@@purplekhaos interesting, will add it to my list

[@patrickmcatee8699]

I loved watching this challenge BUT, may I suggest that you check to see what events are scheduled during your next"Challenge".

[@Thom-TRA]

I don’t know what you mean, what events are you talking about?

[@matthewconstantine5015]

There are so many problems with the circulator, from inconsistent service, poor tracking, frequently out of service fare scanners, lack of signage/wayfinding, to routes that are ALMOST but not quite what would be useful (the Union Station stops being on opposite sides of the station is mind-blowing). But dang it, it's a handy thing in a pinch, and it's almost always super busy. Bowser just continues to display her ineptitude and complete disconnect from the people who actually live, work, or travel to the city. If she spent less time trying to get on TV or get an appointment in the Biden administration, and more time on actually getting to know her city, it would be helpful. If they actually enforced the bus only lanes, it would help. It wouldn't fix all the problems, but it would help.

[@Thom-TRA]

Yeah, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the administration’s transit decisions (like how they set the streetcar up to fail). But I do wanna recognize there are a lot of great, hard-working people working in the DC government that genuinely want to make things better. They’re just not at the top.

[@michaelb9629]

I never knew people could do that and challenge against each other with the routes to see who can travel on them the fastest. I’m excited to see the next part when it’s already up.

[@Thom-TRA]

Coming soon!

[@dontaviansmallwood7889]

Dc metro bus challenge 🤔🤔🤔

[@Thom-TRA]

Oof that would take months

[@dontaviansmallwood7889]

@@Thom-TRA 🤔every way to every airport by transit challenge mmm bwi Dulles and Regan airport mmmm🤔

[@rbrouns9569]

What an epic challenge.

[@Thom-TRA]

It was a lot of fun!

[@d8meister]

What a great idea!

[@Thom-TRA]

Thanks!

[@charlescrawford7039]

Regardless, the DC Circulator may be history in year or so. There is a lack of interest to fund it.

[@Thom-TRA]

Yes, thank you for repeating what was said in the video

[@history_leisure]

13:19 Schrödinger's Circulator

[@AndreiTupolev]

So what sort of frequency are they supposed to run at? Is it like one of those every half hour at best jobs?

[@Thom-TRA]

Every 10. It’s mentioned by Sammy when they’re in Georgetown.

[@sammymarrco47]

Every 10 in theory

[@jonathanbott87]

When there's low ridership - there's two paths to take. - figure out why people aren't riding it - maybe terrible tracking and unreliable arrivals needs fixed - or they can gut it / scrap it and penalize everyone that relies on it

[@Thom-TRA]

And sadly, option two is a heck of a lot cheaper…

[@jonathanbott87]

So, the DCCC? 😂

[@josephmassaua5486]

first and last because DC is cutting some routes of the circulator...will be gone by march

[@djpetesake]

I vote nobody wins because the last bus never shows up

[@history_leisure]

20:24 said by the one in a fairly heavy jacket

[@CurtYT202]

Isn’t the circulator operated by RepDev? The same one who operates the Fairfax Connector ?

[@Thom-TRA]

Circulator is operated by RATP (Paris Metro), Fairfax is operated by Transdev. Both are French.

[@AndreiTupolev]

1:55Security slowly approaching on the background 🤭😒

[@Northern_Idaho]

You already know Thom’s team is going’s to win, since he managed to get Trains are Awesome to be in his team.

[@history_leisure]

Is it unfair of Lindsey joining part way through? No, its obviously the National Mall route ending earlier than the others that's unfair

[@nelsonramos5826]

Man that's so 😭

[@CornontheNob]

THERE IS NO WAY!!! On the CTA trains there are also mullivad vpn ads and on dc metro as well??!!! Also, u should do a challenge where whoever rides the cta l the fastest gets snths

[@Thom-TRA]

Those ads are everywhere now. It’s funny because now it kind of feels like they are watching you, even though they’re saying they’re not.

[@CornontheNob]

Yeah so true

[@CornontheNob]

Also, have u seen those pace busses where the livery is just a ad

[@TheGAMWolferz]

We don’t need the Avengers, this is Best Crossover Ever.

[@deaventuraconkikomas4281]

Cool

[@airbus7373]

Well I thought I had the record for longest wait for a frequent route at 40 minutes for the 28A, which should come every 12 minutes. And many also called an Uber instead lol. Fortunately the bus that finally showed up was one of WMATA’s retrofitted ones with new vinyl seats

[@Sugarmountaincondo]

Sorry, I will have to unsubscribe to your channel now. I joined it to watch trains and I have a "Golden Rule" that whenever one of my KZbinr's goes off script, it is time to leave. I just quit 2 yesterday because 1 wanted highlight delivery of dog food on a pallet when I joined to watch his steam train and another for highlighting her mother's kitchen makeover when all I wanted was authentic Italian recipe's. So, enjoy your bus ride and I won't see you on the other end, win or lose.

[@Thom-TRA]

My guy. You subscribed two months ago. I’ve been making videos (including about buses) for 10 years. “Off script,” what do you even mean? I write the script. Thing is, we KZbinrs get to make what _we’re_ interested in, we don’t owe _you_ anything. You feel like you need to announce you’re leaving whenever someone doesn’t give you what you want from them (aka you’re “Golden Rule.” Trust me when I tell you, your departure doesn’t bother me or anyone else as much as you think it does.

[@HeatherLandon227]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Someone lost the game LOL.

[@funtonite]

Good riddance! We don't need the negativity!

[@lylelanley18]

@Sugarmountaincondo what’s your damage, Heather?

[@flenomusic]

20:45 😀

[@sammymarrco47]

Kinda creepy dude…

[@flenomusic]

@@sammymarrco47