The county’s free VanGo shuttle, which lugs people around the central business district, recently scored an extra set of wheels and a longer route, Gary Stith, director of Silver Spring’s regional center, told the hood’s citizens advisory board Monday.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Small World Photos
While operating hours haven’t changed (7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday), the three buses now stop by a few more area apartment complexes:
- East-West Highway just northwest of Colesville Road, for my peeps at the Lenox Park apartments
- East-West Highway near Falkland Lane, serving Falkland Chase’s eastern and northern parcels (Wussup?!)
- 16th Street between East-West Highway and Spring Street, in case players at the Summit Hills apartments don’t feel like walking
- Spring Street between 16th Street and Second Avenue, if you’ve gotta make a Blockbuster run
- Second Avenue at Spring Street, for my home-owning homies in Woodside
- Second Avenue at Fenwick Street, on the south side of those apartments behind the Georgian Towers (Anyone know the name?)
- Cameron Street at the Tastee Diner (Holler!)
- Cameron Street east of Georgia Avenue, and again at Fenton Street, for the party people at the Montgomery Arms apartments
The VanGo bus eventually wends its way past the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center and through the temporary bus operations at the Silver Spring Metro station. From there, it dips into South Silver Spring via Georgia Avenue and hits the Metro station’s south side. It then loops back towards the apartments. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Just don’t get used to the free, air-conditioned ride, regional director Stith warned. Funding for the expanded service is only temporary, until construction on the new transit center wraps in 2010, he said.
Photos courtesy of Silver Spring Occasional Photo. Copyright (c) 2008 by Small World Photos. Reprinted with previous permission.
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This doesn’t help me get eggs at Tastee at 3AM. Eggs which may or may not have strawberry sauce in them. I call for longer hours or weekends.
This is GREAT news. I take the VanGo out to lunch during the day, but it would be nice to use it from Summit Hills, where I live.
That’s pretty awesome, and I would have loved it when I lived in SH (now, in F. Chase, so much less walking), but 7am to 7pm? I would have loved it even more at 2am when I was making my way home from the metro..
Georgia West is the name of the apartments behind The Georgian… or Georgian Towers if ya will.
Speaking of georgian towers.. and changing the topic, if anyone wants to discuss… Is there going to be an over-supply of “luxery” apartments in DTSS soon? First Georgian Towers turned into “The Georgian” and jacked up the rents in a bad ass kinda way. Next the veridian starts renting out the places due to the crappy condo market. The new building on Fidler (next to Cubanos) is doing the same thing. We already had The Lenox and that place next to silverton. And they’re all “Luxery” with ridiculous rents. Is there really that much supply of people who want to rent but still pay more than a mortgage?
I’d be interested to know what many consider to be the starting point for a “ridiculous rent.” Let’s say we use a 1 bedroom apartment as the example. Is $1500 a month and up ridiculous? 1600? 1900? or lower than 1500, like 1300? Summit Hills 1 bedrooms, for example, start at $1388, which someone might think is ridiculous, but does have utilities included, walking distance to the metro, gated community, and fairly good size apartments. Lennox Park charges $1500 for its small apartments, but they have washer/dryers and its right across the street from the metro. I think alot of it depends on what is being offer and what one is willing to pay. Cheaper places exist with less amenities and father walking from the metro. Places with ridiculous rents are more the ones that ban pets (namely dogs), don’t include utilties or a washer/dryer, are questionable in their walking distance from/to the metro, make you pay for parking on top of your rent, etc.