A New Tool For Accountability (UPDATED)

Do you ride Metro? Are you frustrated with all of the issues Metro has? Do you wish that you could give Metro a visual aid to show its failings? Well, TBD.com is launching a new map tool that will do just that ... provided you give the details. So the next time your station escalator isn't working, or the train is late, or that stupid ticket machine keeps eating your hard-earned cash, don't be timid -- go to the map and lodge your complaint.

Ah, but sorry Metrobus riders. It doesn't seem that you have a voice on this new mapping tool. At least not yet, anyway.

UPDATE: 08/23/2010 12:12: Okay, it so it isn't a map. But it is a step in the right direction for the lower-profiled Metrobus riders.

An Unfortunate Situation, A Broken Unspoken Rule

I've been a Metro rider (Metrorail and Metrobus) both during peak and off-peak hours. Never was I ever concerned about safety while on (or in) the Metro system. That is because there has always been an unspoken rule about the Washington D.C. Metro System ... crime stays on the streets and out of public transportation. We, the law-abiding public and the criminal underground, have always had a truce on the rails and in the buses.

Until Friday night.

These kids ... and they were kids, not "young adults" ... broke that truce. They abused the trust of everyone. And they reinforced the reason that D.C. has a curfew law.

They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and made an example of. Their "parents" need to whoop their asses. This new generation of thugs and bangers need to learn to respect the truce on the Metro system and keep their ghetto actions on the streets.

Rainy Day Metro (Or, My Underwater Adventure)

I take Metrobus to and from work every day. When probable, I take Metrobus to get into the city proper. I do this for three different reasons:

1. It saves gas and wear-and-tear on my car.
2. The Metrorail station is too far to walk.
3. A Metrobus stop is right in front of my building.

I generally don't have any complaints about the bus. It's been fairly reliable (although a bit erratic during non-rush hours) and, in my experience, been fairly clean and safe.

But the ride home from work today was different. My bus was ... how shall we say ... not up to snuff. I understand that Metrobus funding, even more so than Metrorail funding, leaves much to be desired. I understand that some buses in the Metrobus fleet are a bit long in the tooth. But when, on a rainy day such as today, the bus is leakier than the Bush Administration ... well, I think it's time to retire that bus.

I submit to you the following for evidence:

PEOPLE'S EXHIBIT A

Notice how the metal bar is rusted and pulling from the roof. This, my friends, is the breach in the bus. This is the origin of the waterfall. This is dangerous.

PEOPLE'S EXHIBIT B

See that white streak along the left side of the blue roof (near the hand hold)? Water!

I know what you're thinking. So what? So water's dripping from the ceiling. At points it was just dripping. At other points it was ... um ... more than dripping. Which leads us to ...

PEOPLE'S EXHIBIT C

These seats were across-ish from me. Both seats, if you look closely, have pools of water in them. I counted about 11 seats on the bus with such pools of water, making them unusable. This bus had 1/3 of the seats unusable on a busy bus during rush hour. Unacceptable!

And just so that you can see more clearly for yourselves, here, my final exhibit, is a closer look at one of these seats.

PEOPLE'S EXHIBIT D

This was one of the smaller pools. You would seriously need a squeegee and a beach towel to dry these seats off enough to make them useable for passengers.

Seriously, Metro, let's do something about this, huh? I know Metrorail gets most of the love, but you've got a large ridership on Metrobus too. How's about you not forget about us people either?