You Know It’s A Particularly Bad Metro Commute Home When

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by Prince Of Petworth February 11, 2016 at 8:40 am 21 Comments

metro

Thanks to Ally for sending from yesterday’s rush hour ride home:

“At Farragut West they only let u down to platform in waves bc too many ppl on platform. Wow.”

farrah

lol oh metro. never fails to fail. tsk tsk
Tyler

I stopped taking metro last year entirely. A combo of walking, busses, taxi and uber get me everywhere. I wish we all combined as dc area residents to refuse giving wmata any more money. It would be nice. Maybe just for one day at least
- mr. obvious
  
  I think if we all stopped giving wmata more money, and suddenly started a combination of walking, busses, taxi and uber, each of those alternate modes would be *significantly* less pleasant.
  - CHGal
    
    Aren’t the busses run by WMATA also?
    - ***
      
      Yes, however as WMATA is already seeing, they are losing a significant quantity of rail riders to buses (and other non-WMATA transit options), which has a noticeable impact on their revenue.
  - boybert
    
    That’s… already happening
    
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/decline-in-metro-ridership-continues-could-complicate-budget-report-says/2016/02/10/dcddc3b6-d018-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html
    
    The problem of course is that less money won’t exactly help them improve (not that lack of money is the only thing standing in the way)
Andres

I love biking in the cold weather
mtpresident

This isn’t an uncommon phenomenon at Farragut West in the evening.
MMMkay

Every time I take the Metro, multiple things go wrong. Whether it’s overcrowded platforms, broken turnstiles, multiple broken escalators, delayed trains, it’s always something.

Today, my green line train (one of the new trains, too) stopped between stations. The ventilation stopped blowing, the main lights went out, and the emergency lights went on. We sat there in eerie silence for about 5 minutes, then started rolling again with zero explanation from the driver. All he said was, “train will be moving momentarily” after we had been sitting there seemingly without power for several minutes.
- This is Awkward
  
  Pretty sure I was on that train. I also, coincidentally, missed my stop bc with all the stalling I just sort of stopped paying attention (and couldn’t see the stops out the window, either). Damn the man!
v

this is a panic attack waiting to happen
OffTheAvenue

My divorce from Metro gets reinforced every day. Not that I love driving to/from work, but at least I don’t have to deal with this daily fiasco.
LoveDCHateMetro

Save money and buy a scooter if you can!!! I’ve been in DC since 1997 and while metro actually used to be good and run smoothly, it has become a disaster in the past 6-7 years…so in 2013, I bought a 50 cc scooter (don’t need a motorcycle license) for less than $1,600. My insurance is $188/year and it rides at about 60 miler per gallon. With the money I was spending on metro, it took me about 2 years to have the scooter paid for and the best part is you can park it anywhere and on sidewalks as long as it’s a 50 cc scooter (just make sure to lock it to a pole though).
- anon
  
  Actually, in DC you do need a motorcycle license for a 50cc scooter and also need to register it and get tags.
  - Andres
    
    Get a bicycle, free workout and way cheaper. No insurance, no gas, no parking problems. And you can walk your bicycle back home when you are really drunk…
    - ***
      
      “no parking problems” – unless you are in Georgetown where they have somehow specifically engineered every vertical post to be just large enough to not fit a u-lock.
      - This is Awkward
        
        Well, this makes sense given that Georgetown is one big, congested, shopping mall. You can barely walk down the sidewalks with everyone merging in and out, en masse, between this Michael Kors and the next. If there were locked bikes on the sidewalks, where would the tourists absentmindedly loiter?
      - ***
        
        Which is why they really need to eliminate parking on both sides of M Street and make the sidewalk wider with bike racks. Also, diagonal cross-walk signals along M Street.
  - MattDC
    
    You DO NOT need a motorcycle license for a 50cc scooter, but you do need a motor vehicle license of some sort. You aren’t suppose to park it on the sidewalk within the business district.
    
    http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/images/00001/20130118172734.pdf
    
    http://www.collegescootersusa.com/maryland-dc-va-scooter-laws
    - Anonymous
      
      TBH, the MPD doesn’t enforce any laws against scooters. I drove frequently without my license plate on my 150cc Stella and always parked on the sidewalk in the CBD (usually against a two bike bollard-style rack on a wide sidewalk with zero effect on pedestrian movement).
  - MR
    
    Unless they’ve recently changed the law, no you don’t. If it’s a 50cc (or under) scooter with a max speed of 35 mph, you do not need a motorcycle endorsement. And you can park on the sidewalk. Registration, however, is required ($30).

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