DC is home to some of the best tourist attractions in the country and visitors pour into the District each year to see them, many of them traveling in the comfort of motor coaches. Since it is National Travel & Tourism Week, what better time to tell you how much we love tour buses and what DDOT has been doing to demonstrate its appreciation of the motor coach industry!
In March, DDOT held a “Board a Bus” event in collaboration with the American Bus Association and Destination DC, for which Academy Bus provided a motor coach for kids (and adults!) to explore. The event provided an opportunity to inform the public about the District’s efforts to reduce diesel engine idling and share information about the importance of motor coaches to the District’s vibrant tourism industry, as well as provide safety tips for residents – all in a fun, interactive way. The Spy Museum had a hand in the festivities with a special “decoding” activity for kids to solve before winning a prize. The message they decoded? “DC Loves Buses – Get on Board!”
DDOT continued this theme, and on April 5, partnered with Destination DC, the Metropolitan Washington Council for Governments, the American Bus Association, the District Department of the Environment and over 50 representatives from the local DC hospitality industry for its annual “We LOVE Buses” initiative in which over 300 drivers from various group tour operators and bus companies were acknowledged.
The event was also an ideal opportunity to raise awareness for DDOT’s Diesel Idle Reduction campaign, and nearly 150 bus drivers received prizes and were nominated on the spot for the Driver Recognition Program, which commends drivers who exhibit positive idle reduction behavior and abide by the District’s 3-minute idling limit. To learn more about the impact of idling and what the District is doing to curb it, visit www.turnyourengineoff.org.












