Washington DC/Better Bus Network
This page is meant to serve as a place to track our progress on creating new bus route relations following WMATA's approval of the Better Bus Network. The new routes will go into effect on 29 June 2025, so please don't add these bus routes until then. When you complete a bus relation, please reference the new or updated OSM element using the relation template (by using {{Relation:###}}), so that it's easy to click to open it.
Resources and guidance
All the new routes are described on WMATA's website. Only PDF files of all the routes in each jurisdiction are available. If GTFS becomes available, that may make our lives easier. For each route (each of which will need two routes, one in either direction), make sure to add the following tags at minimum:
type=route(if adding before 29 June, useplanned:type=route)route=busfrom=*to=*ref=*, which will correspond to the route code in the table below- NSI tags for Metrobus, which should be automatically available in your editor of choice
Also remember to follow PTV2 tagging guidance, which means creating a master route relation, with the two out and back routes as the members.
Regional maps of the networks (individual route profiles are linked below):
Stops
The new bus routes will prioritize frequency over coverage, and thus WMATA is planning to remove around 500 "underused" bus stops. Most of these stops have been marked with an end_date=* tag and note, and will be deleted after 29 June. This was done using a regex Overpass query of these discontinued stops on ref:wmata=* values.
Routes
Notes
According to the Washingtonian, the first letter of the route describes the area it’s in— “D” or “C” for, well, DC routes, “P” for Prince George’s County, “M” for Montgomery County, “A” for Alexandria and Arlington, and “F” for Fairfax and Falls Church. The second character, a number, describes the neighborhood the route runs in, and the third character is either a number, labeling the route within its cluster, or the letter X, to denote that it is an express, limited-stop route. You can learn more about the Better Bus initiative here.