Here are 12 admittedly somewhat personal quibbles with the system:
1) Metro trains do not meet my definition of a "train." They are high-speed conveyances that approximate a train. They are more like "trams," those people-moving automated transports first put into use at amusement parks and other attractions. The Metro "trains" have drivers but no conductors, they lurch along an electrical track but the driver seems not to have the same controls as New York’s older, more traditional trains. Because of that, the Metro ride is herky-jerky as hell; a sudden stop can wrench your arm or throw you to the floor. These Metro drivers often can't hit their marks because of the imprecise braking controls so they will slow to a stop in the station -- fooling folks who gather by the doors -- then pull up to a second or even a third stop before opening the doors.
2) The electrical wiring along the tracks smokes frequently, so there is a constant noxious smell billowing through the tunnels that I am surprised no one complains about. You can tell it's poisonous. Last year there was an electrical tunnel fire when a train was caught between stations, and one woman died and others were hospitalized due to smoke inhalation.
3) The doors are horrible; they have no sensor mechanism to reopen if they close on something and they are so sensitive that leaning on them can cause the entire train to go out of service. And trains frequently go out of service. During rush hour, many train operators are so focused on keeping to a schedule (or are just oblivious) that they will slam the doors and move to the next stop regardless of how crowded the station is. This means that oftentimes not everyone who wants to get off gets off, and not everyone who wants to get on will get on. I've seen strollers, children, and the disabled smashed in the doors. I've seen children separated from parents, husbands from wives, and people from their bags. In July 2015 The Washington Post reported a news story about a man pulling the emergency brake outside of L'Enfant Plaza and jumping off with a 10-year-old; turns out dozens of riders helped him pull the brake because the doors had shut and separated him from his other child, a terrified 5-year-old boy.
A new recent Metro study undertaken after dozens of red light violations and near collisions shows that many Metro drivers are just tuned out. Which means riders are at the mercy of sleepwalking zombies.
4) Despite the fact of rapidly-closing doors, Metro riders are notoriously nonchalant in their movements. They have very little hustle or awareness. When those doors open, people stroll out like they have all the time in the world, and then you have to shake a tailfeather to get on so you won't be the one quashed or excluded. But people are clueless. They saunter just inside the doors and stand there, as though there aren't 30 people behind them. Tourists are the worst -- they take one step onto the train and gawk around like "Wow, so this is a train?" Or there's that guy who, regardless of how many people are getting on, insists on maintaining his spot in the doorway. I want to shriek MOVE THE FREAK INTO THE TRAIN!!! I have been known to push on occasion, something I know is awful and rude. But if there is room on the train, I don't have time for selfish, lackadaisical bullshit, I have some place to be and I'm not gonna be left on the platform because of selfishness and lassitude. A public service campaign about how to step lively could help.
5) People are just self-involved in general. The number of commuters sleepwalking along the platforms looking at their phones is legion. They have only a dim idea of where they are actually walking, they don't gauge the pace of the crowd, they don't have a sense of walking in a straight trajectory, they aren't paying attention. Metro is all puffed up and crowing about a new deal increasing the availability of cell phone signals in many stations, but I say CUT OFF ALL SIGNAL ACCESS!! Just have emergency call boxes! People don't have any common sense about what constitutes an appropriate place to check their devices, and most are just doing it to look important. Really? Really? Words With Friends or Candy Crush is so compelling that you are zigzagging and slowpoking in front of me during the height of rush hour??? Gah!! They are a shade worse than the people with the big headphones who can't hear anything in the real world, like the fact that you are coming up on their right or left while they are road-hogging. I won’t even get into the people who stop short in front of you, especially exiting an escalator, or who dart into your path without looking both ways. I want to hurt them. I have been known to step hard on the backs of their heels with my size 10 shoes. Again, get those PSAs cranking about common sense and pedestrian traffic in the Metro.
6) Part of the problem with people not moving into the trains is the way the cars are constructed. Trains in New York have the seating the long way against the walls, or a mix of horizontal and vertical seats, and there is a wide aisle with vertical and horizontal rails where commuters can stand and hold on. Here in DC, the older metro cars have two-fer seats stacked up on either side, auditorium style, so the aisle between is very narrow for riders to stand in and there’s often only a railing on the seats themselves to grab hold. If you're sitting you have to annoy your neighbor to get in and out of the inside seat. And the seating is one size fits all, a problem of comfort for both the plus-sized and those who must share with them. Newer cars introduced to the system last year are better, but they aren't yet ubiquitous.
7) Back to the Metro drivers -- too many abuse the public address system, haranguing commuters with ceaseless announcements and ridiculous patter. Why do they hold the erroneous belief that their post qualifies them to be radio DJs or certified city tour guides? While each station should be clearly announced, and one welcome statement at the end or start of the line is fine, enough is enough. Too many train operators make loud, florid announcements at every single blessed station and throughout the ride as well – often stating the obvious. They need their ears boxed, hard. SHUT THE F%$@#* UP! I'm not interested in tuning in to RADIO METRO! Some of us are trying to think about the day ahead or behind. Some of us are reading or catching up on e-mails. Some of us are just trying to get those last few minutes of peace before the bullshit waiting for us at work or at home.
I'm telling you, it is sheer torture to be subjected to a continuous, 40-minute loop of a shouted "Gooooooood morning, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Washington Metro Train, riding from your home depot in Greenbelt Maryland all the way to Franconia Springfield in the great state of Virginia through Downtown Washington, the District of Columbia, our nation's capital! Sit back and enjoy the ride and have a fabulous day wherever it is you are going in our fine city! We are here to serve you and hope you ride with us again! Please remember to use all the doors when you are boarding the train! I'm grateful to be here today and every day and remember: Without you there is no me! (Yes, someone actually said that yesterday.) All aboard ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and welcome to the Green line, next stop today will be [HellFire Station], the second station on our route and the great state of Maryland, traveling through the exciting and historic District of Columbia, Please remember to take all of your precious belongings with you. Watch your step getting off and make extra certain that you have a wonderful day wherever you go.... " This noisy disruption makes me want to end my life immediately, like I want to start cutting and slashing and bleeding out right in the damned aisle.
Even worse is the fact that most of these happy pappy train jockeys are clueless about how to use the microphone properly. They put it too close to their mouths so their words are unintelligible or just deafeningly loud. They let an open window whistle and shriek through it, or they place it too close to a speaker so we get painful squalls of feedback, or they just keep the microphone open all the time so we hear a constant stream of migraine-inducing noise. At the other end of the spectrum are train operators whose announcements are a feeble, incomprehensible joke. Why bother if you a) can't speak clearly, b) cut the mike on too late or off too soon, c) have a faulty intercom system, or d) failed Reading Comprehension class? (There is a stop called Judiciary Square. Pronunciations include JEW-da-sherry, Ju-DISH-oo-Warey, and JEW-dish-ree. Then there is one operator who seems to have some New Orleans-style affection and calls each stop a “stay-shee-OHN.”)
By the time I step out of the Metro, I am completely stressed out, with my ears ringing and my nerves a-jangle.
8) Speaking of incomprehensible, the WMATA insists on frequently and formally referring to those on board as "customers" rather than riders, commuters, or the perfectly logical "passengers." Being called a "customer" reminds me of johns at a strip joint or rubes at a medicine show.
9) I guess at the high prices I’m forced to pay for each ride, I should be called a “customer.” The Metro constantly complains about not making enough money due to low ridership, but the high rates it commands – and charging ever-escalating fares depending on the distance ridden – are just ridiculous. And if you have to park before getting on, look out. I live in northern Virginia; it costs me almost $16 a day to commute to work. A roundtrip fare in New York—bus or subway -- is $5.50. If the DC Metro cost less, more people would ride. But service has to be better. Metro is always repairing things, so single-tracking extends wait times for trains; no service between stations on weekends forces people onto buses to go just one stop; and outside of peak hours you will see your life pass before your eyes before a train shows up. Added to that, elevator service at a number of stops is spotty, so if you have mobility issues you are forced to get out at a station you don’t want and again wait to board a bus back to where you do want to be.
10) Many of the underground stations are impossibly dim. As someone with vision problems, I feel uniquely handicapped, like I need a flashlight. Or better yet, one of those headlight helmets for descending into mines. I’m always worried that I will slip, trip and fall. Or walk into a wall. Or bump into someone and make them fall. Or trip over a child. I worry that we all will tumble ass-over-elbows into the tracks because of one misplaced step. When I get off at a station I am frequently just following the person in front of me because I can't see a thing before my eyes adjust to the darkness. It can feel scary when I can't see the edge of the platform or the height/depth of that first step. People have piled up behind me when I stick my foot out to test if that last step is actually the last step. And it's hideous becoming that slow obstacle person that I was just complaining about above.
11) The stations are dangerous. They're nice-looking, if you like atmospherically-lit slabs of molded concrete, but the fact that the indoor ones are poorly lit and weirdly constructed makes them a hazard for everyone. A man sat, slipped and fell behind one of the low concrete walls a few months back; he wasn't found for days. Also treacherous are those terra-cotta colored hexagonal tiles used as flooring. The tiles break and wobble, they catch a woman's high heels, and they are slippery when wet. I busted my ass one drizzly morning on an outdoor platform trying to hustle onto the train, like in a slapstick movie pratfall, and as soon as I got up another lady went down in exactly the same spot. If one of the tiles goes missing, you could break your ankle stepping into the hole left behind. Supposedly Metro is replacing the tiles, but they should have gotten it right the first time. The cost of constantly replacing these gizmos is astronomical. And what's with the little kiosks on the outdoor platforms? Did no one think these through? Purportedly they are weather breaks but they are open at the bottom, letting in the wind, the rain, and the snow, so who wants to sit there? Because they are metal and plastic, in the summertime they are sweatboxes. What were these MTA people thinking when they designed this crap?
12) Security on these trains has been a joke that they’re just starting to rectify. When I rode the NYC subway, it was a regular thing to see Transit Police going car to car or posted up on the station platforms. I hardly ever see uniformed police or security officers on the Metro trains or platforms. If I see them at all, they are hanging out by the fare booth. This is a problem. In recent months there have been stabbings, robberies, and assaults on the train and the platforms. As I mentioned, many of the stations are ridiculously dim and cavernous. If there is more than one exit, they are far apart, and even then, the station may be a good distance below ground.
I was dropped off at the Wheaton Station in Maryland one fall morning and experienced an interminable and concerning escalator ride down to the station – 230 feet, in fact, the longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere! While that may be some sort of architectural marvel, it is a security nightmare. During a non-rush hour it was terrifying because a lone rider – me!-- is isolated and vulnerable, particularly at the point where you can’t see the top or bottom. If the escalator were to suddenly go out of service, anyone with a physical disability would be up shit’s creek. If a wolfpack raced down the stairs, punched you, robbed you, sexually assaulted you, knocked you down, you would be hard-pressed to pursue or even be heard calling out, and it’s a long ride to any escape or assistance. Even with video cameras available, who is watching and how soon could someone respond?
Too many spots in the underground system are ripe for riders to be preyed upon. A deal was just struck to improve safety on the Metro system through a new oversight agency, and Metro has increased the police presence – we’ll see if it makes a difference.
People want a safe, effective, reliable, moderately priced transit system that doesn’t hold them hostage to unnecessary inconveniences and human folly. Let's hope WMATA can continue to address the issues of safety in the system to help boost service and ultimately ridership numbers.
No comments:
Post a Comment