Route 1 Ride Unveils Wrap

Local transportation and elected officials gathered in College Park this morning to inaugurate the newly-wrapped Route 1 Ride bus. Officials hope that the new design will get more people out of their cars and onto public transit when they go out to explore the Route 1 corridor.

"The Route 1 corridor is a great place to live and work, full of historic amenities, a great university, and wonderful restaurants," said Aaron Marcavitch, executive director of the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area, in a press release distributed at today's event. "The newly-wrapped buses are easily identifiable, and I am pleased that more residents and visitors will have an opportunity to explore the area in an exciting new way."

The Route 1 Ride is the redesignated Route 17 bus of the Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportion TheBus system. The Route 1 Ride provides bus service between the Mount Rainier bus terminal, near the border with Washington, DC, and Ikea in northern College Park. The bus service will run Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 8:09 p.m. 

The idea behind the rebranded service is to provide a more visible public transportation link between the seven municipalities, along with the University of Maryland, which line the Route 1 corridor between the DC border and the Beltway. 

"Our residents don't see boundaries," said Prince George's County Councilmember Will Campos (D-District 2) during remarks at today's inaugural event. "They just think 'Route 1, on to the beltway, or 'Route 1, on to DC.'"

"This is something we want to add onto," said Prince George's County Councilmember Eric Olson (D-District 3). "We'd like to extend it beyond the 8 p.m. closing time. We'd like to add weekend hours."

The winning design, featuring a large paint tube resting on a wooden painters palette, was created by Jennifer Axner. The paint tube features the names of the cities along the Route 1 Corridor. Her design will appear on Route 1 Ride buses for at least three years. 

The rebranding effort has been overseen by the Route 1 Ride Collaborative, a collection of government officials, municipal and county government agencies, area non-profits and community development corporations. The group's goal is to increase ridership on the Route 1 Ride through creative branding, emphasizing the arts, culture, lifestyle and history of the neighborhoods that line Baltimore and Rhode Island Avenues.