jejjala.com

things i hate about metro

Since I’ve moved to DC, I try to walk everywhere. I seldom take the metro within the city, and only if I’m sick, tired, or the weather is especially bad. (Coincidentally, I’m covered by all three today.) This leaves trips between Maryland and DC, which I still take with shocking regularity, as basically my only travel that requires metro.

The following is a list of things I hate about the DC metro:

• Random, poorly explained delays and ’scheduled maintenance,’ e.g., it’s raining outside, so my train will be 15 minutes late. WTF? This is pretty much a daily occurrence.
• My SmartTrip card only works once every seven swipes, which ordinarily is no big deal. However, when there is a long queue of people trying to get in/out behind you, they tend to get irritated if you dawdle in the turnstile.
• The same SmartTrip card always carries a balance of $5 that I can’t seem to use no matter how hard I try. Anytime I get below $5, it suddenly will show a negative balance; when I recharge it, the $5 magically reappears. It’s infuriating.
• The trains stop running at midnight or before on weekdays. Anytime I’m out in Maryland, I have to clockwatch to make sure I don’t miss the last train home, which is at exactly 11:33 PM from College Park on the green line (just so you know.) I call this game ‘metro cinderella.’
• 90% of the bus routes are useless for a multitude of reasons.
  • They’re almost always late. Or early. Either way, unless you catch them at exactly whenever-the-fuck-the-driver-makes-the-stop o’clock, you’ll miss it. They’ve never heard of GPS apparently.
  • If you are lucky enough to catch the bus—I’ve taken to setting my watch to MST (Metro Standard Time)—they take forever to get where you’re going because there are way too many stops, often one stop per block, which is just nuts. Who can’t walk more than one block to catch a bus?
  • Routes that ARE useful, such as the crosstown ones that fill in where the various train lines don’t connect, often don’t run enough times to make them worthwhile.
  • Even though a bus trip costs only $1.25, it’s still not worth it. 99% of people who ride the metrobus are pleasant, perfectly socialized transit goers. It’s the remaining 1% that makes it intolerable: Mr. Sings Off-Key, Mrs. Digs Through Her Coin Purse and Hold Up Everyone Else, Mr. Curses Uncontrollably and Loudly, Sir Smellsalot, etc. The list goes on. The worst is the guy who argues with the driver while he’s trying to drive the flippin’ bus! I’ve seen That Guy get thrown off once or twice in my day.
  • It’s easy enough to use metro’s online Trip Planner to get where you need to go. Figuring out how to get back isn’t always possible, though. From my experience most buses don’t have route schedules on board. And if you have the patience to navigate metro’s voice recognition phone line, go ahead. But by the time you figure it out, you could have just walked.

I’m sure I could think of more stuff, but it’s just the little things that, if improved, would encourage more people to ditch their cars in favor of public transportation. As riding the system becomes more expensive, which it has over the last year, service should be improved and expanded. It will never happen, though. Forget break even, metro is a money losing operation. The Post delights in documenting the system’s foibles periodically (here, here, here, here, and here just from the past couple weeks.)

It just sucks that whenever I vacation in other cities, I always marvel at how great their transit systems are as compared to DC. I used to be the only person I knew that didn’t drive. It’s one of the few moral stands that I’ve taken and on which I never wavered. Cars are demonstrably bad for the environment. They’re dangerous and account for large numbers of fatalities yearly. Their use indirectly supports unscrupulous, yet highly profitable oil companies.

So despite my litany of complaints about metro, I wouldn’t even consider the alternative. I’m willing to put up with these shortcomings for now and hope that they get their act together eventually.

can you spare some change?

Obama in College Park, Md. on Monday, 2/11

conan vs. colbert & stewart

Since I have nothing better to do than watch late night TV lately…

Part 1:

…parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and the denouement:

butterflies

back to work (for the moment)

So I forgot that I had signed up to help proctor UMUC’s mid-fall distance education final exams today and this weekend. After making a big deal about quitting and never looking back, I feel a bit sheepish to have not even lasted a whole week away from that place. Ah, well.

In other news, I saw Atonement earlier this week, and I’ve now seen all five of the year’s Oscar nominated films for the first time ever. It was depressing. And Keira Knightley is annoying. And gaunt. It’s also a pet peeve of mine when one part is played by multiple actors over the chronology of a movie. There’s always a gimmick to lend the appearance of cohesion between the different actors, e.g., they all have the same hairstyle throughout. Who has the same haircut when she’s 13, 18, and 60? No one, that’s who. Oh, it was a good movie by the way.

I wish I would’ve read the book first, however. I’ve read Saturday and The Daydreamer and enjoyed them. I purchased Atonement as an audiobook back when I used to walk to and from work everyday, but I never got around to listening to it. Audiobooks are the lazy man’s regular books.

I think this marks the first time that I’ve been paid to write a bjournal posting in that I’m currently still ‘on the clock.’ Take that, UMUC! Work is for suckers.