For the past several years, my bike has been my commute mode of choice. Traveling to the office in Rosslyn, it’s been easy for me to hop on the Custis Trail in my neighborhood to ride directly to work. Besides enjoying the fresh air and exercise, I appreciate that the ride is predictable, taking me about 20-25 minutes, one-way.
But recently, several events conspired against my usual commuting plan, and it wasn’t possible for me to bike to the office. I briefly considered my Plan B for getting to work: taking Capital Bikeshare to Metro or walking to Metro, which is about a mile from my house. I also thought about driving to work, but with all the car-free options available to me, I couldn’t justify my own single-occupant car trip just because my bike was temporarily offline. Besides, between rush-hour traffic and parking challenges, driving isn’t necessarily the fastest mode.
My teenage son, who is well versed in our neighborhood’s transportation network, suggested I use the Transit app to find the best route. What I found was a bus: the A58.
According to the trip information on the Transit app, the A58 picked up just a two-minute walk from my home and would get me to the office in about 25 minutes. It would be easy to ride the bus without having to transfer, and certainly better for the environment and my stress level than driving alone. Although I’ve had negative experiences taking buses in the past, I decided to give it a try.
How did it go? Let’s just say that I never thought that I could love a bus, but now I think maybe I do. The bus was on time. There were plenty of seats. It was warm and comfortable on a frigidly cold, rainy morning. As I rode, I responded to emails, read the news, listened to a podcast, and looked out the window. It was pleasant and relaxing. The bus dropped me off a couple of blocks from the office a few minutes before 9:00 a.m. The trip home was similarly smooth, and I ended up taking the A58 to work, round-trip, several times over the next few weeks.
New Buses = New Possibilities
I hadn’t been aware of the A58 in the past. I did some research and found out that it’s a new bus route that was established as part of WMATA’s Better Bus Network Redesign, which was launched in June 2025. The A58 connects the Seven Corners Transit Station to Farragut Square in D.C., passing through Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse, and Rosslyn along the way.
When WMATA began planning the Better Bus Network in 2022, their team hoped to create a network that achieved several goals, including more consistent, streamlined service (i.e. fewer stops) to places people needed to go. They paid special attention to improving service for Equity Focused Communities and put significant effort into obtaining community feedback, incorporating input from nearly 45,000 people that had been collected through surveys and in-person engagement.
I have known and read about the Better Bus Network Expansion for some time, but until I discovered the A58, I didn’t understand how these changes could improve people’s lives in meaningful ways.
While I know some riders have felt that route changes have not benefited them, this is the first time I’ve been able to take a direct bus to the office instead of transferring to Metro, reducing my door-to-door travel time by about 20 minutes. This extra time has made my mornings less stressful and helped get my day off to a good start.
My bike is back from the shop with a new brake cable, and I now have a new pair of super-warm cycling gloves for my winter commute (the two reasons I temporarily stopped biking). I am still happiest biking to work, but it’s nice to know I have such a great new option at my doorstep.
Use the Transit app or WMATA’s MetroPulse app to discover if there’s a new bus in your neighborhood that might make your life easier, too!
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