WASHINGTON D.C. Motorocoach and tour bus drivers may drop-off passengers at the national museums along the Capitol Mall as long as they do not idle too long and leave the area after the last rider gets off.

Thats the latest word from U.S. Park Police, which indicated it was not aware of reports the National Park Service no longer was allowing buses to discharge passengers on the mall. (See June 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.)

'If they drop people off and then pull right out, that should not be an issue,' said police spokesman Sgt. Robert Lachance, whose agency enforces parking regulations along the mall.

He said drivers are allowed -- at this time -- to discharge their passengers at designated drop-off locations on Madison and Jefferson drives as long as they do not violate other traffic regulations, including those that limit to three minutes the time a bus may idle and prohibit parking in designated drop-off locations.

Chuck Andrews of World Strides, the largest operator of Washington D.C. tours for students, said last month that contract drivers employed by his company had complained that police were issuing tickets for dropping off at the museums and advising them that the only place they could drop-off now was at the Indian Museum at the east end of the mall.

'They have stopped issuing tickets now and we dont know why,' he said. 'They have been very silent about it.'

Its possible the drivers were ticketed for idling too long or not hot-footing it out of drop-off points after discharging passengers. Drivers sometimes park for brief periods in drop-off spots to allow passengers to leave the coach and take photographs, which could subject them to traffic citations.

While a formal announcement was never made of a ban on dropping off passengers at individual museums, Bill Line, a spokesman for the park service, acknowledged last month that for security reasons some changes had been made to drop-off and parking rules, but he said he was not prepared to discuss them in any detail.

Instead, he said a press release would have to be prepared and would be issued within a few days. None was released on the issue, however, and Line later sent a release that was issued in March that told of the southside access to the Lincoln Memorial reopening to tour buses following the construction of a drop-off location for the Lincoln and Korean War memorials.
Line was on vacation earlier this month and not available to comment on the latest developments.