WASHINGTON – Metro has given a preliminary thumbs up to ban people from smoking at its bus stops, bus shelters and bus bays.
Metro spokesman Dan Stessel says the ban passed a Metro committee but it still has to go up for a vote before the full board.
“There are 11,400 bus stops, shelters, bus bays that our buses serve in the region but only 400 of them are Metro owned,” Stessel says.
If the ban does pass, he says, Metro will give riders time to adjust and says that transit police won’t hand out fines and tickets right away. Besides, he says, transit police have higher priorities than busting smokers.
“It’s not unusual in other cities to see smoking prohibited at the actual bus stop because you’re around folks in close proximity to you and in many cases kids,” Stessel says.
Metro wants to make the bus shelters consistent with the environment on an outdoor rail platform, where is smoking is already banned.
It’ll be a few weeks before a final vote on the ban is taken.
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