The Washington Post has article on using buses as an alternative to driving.
Buses may lack the hipness of subways or light rail, but they are the best hope for accommodating large numbers of new riders quickly and affordably. To harness the increased demand for mass transit, officials are turning to new ways of delivering and marketing their bus service.
When looking at public transit we need identify the major routes, then use local connections, walking, biking, and local buses to feed into those major routes. Washington has metro area already has the metro which act as major trunks, we should be looking for the gaps and filling them with express buses, bus rapid transit, light rail etc. The Washington area does best when linking buses to the metro, we need to do more with rapid bus links to make interconnected journeys possible.
It sounds likes WMATA’s Catoe gets it and is already working to this goal.
Expanding and improving Washington’s bus service is critical to shift some of the pressure off the rail system, which is packed during rush hour and has little room to add longer or more frequent trains. Catoe has proposed an extensive network of express buses that would use shoulders or bus-only lanes to help meet the region’s immediate transportation needs.