Normally I do not bring up politics on this blog. I save my rants for other places. But Stephonee from Poorer Than You pointed this out on Twitter and it’s making me grind down my dental crowns in anger. This is an economic problem he has personally compounded by not voting for more transportation funding for DC Metro or for DC Statehood in Congress.
First off, on the same day, I chose NOT to ride Metro because it would not have been timely and convenient for me to go from DC to Rosslyn for lunch, then back to Union Station for my boyfriend to get a haircut from his regular barber and then stop by his office to visit the credit union ATM to make a deposit and then return home. A trip like that would entail for two people:
1 ride on a bus to a Metro Station (20 minutes $1.25).
1 Metro ride with transfer to the Orange Line (30-60 minutes $1.35 or more).
1 5-minute walk to restaurant (Yes, China Garden is *extremely* Metro Accessible)
1 Metro ride with transfer to the Red Line (30-60 minutes $1.35 or more).
1 15-minute walk to the barber
1 20-minute walk to my boyfriend’s office
1 bus ride back home (20 minutes $1.25, possibly a $.35 transfer if the haircut is short duration).
That’s over $10 and two-three hours of transit time on top of a two-hour lunch. Instead we paid $2 in parking in Rosslyn (I forgot about the free validated garage.) and gas money, and saved about 2 hours of time. So not cheap, nor convenient when there is a car handy.
Per the Washington Post:
A Texas congressman sent a letter Wednesday to Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. demanding an explanation for why the transit agency didn’t do more to prepare for the massive influx of conservative activists at Saturday’s march on the Mall.
Rep. Kevin Brady (R) said an 80-year-old woman and her 60-year-old daughter were forced to walk and pay for a cab because the subway system was so crowded. He said he heard many complaints from people who traveled long distances to attend the event, which served to challenge some of President Obama’s signature policies.
“Based upon numerous eyewitness reports by participants in the march, it is clear Metro did not adequately prepare for the influx of Americans traveling to D.C. for this historic event,” Brady said in his letter.
Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the circumstances surrounding the large crowds will be researched and a response will be sent to Brady. She said she couldn’t elaborate because she had not read the letter.
The Wall Street Journal’s coverage:
Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady asked for an explanation of why the government-run subway system didn’t, in his view, adequately prepare for this past weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.
Seriously.
The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington’s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.
“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,” Brady wrote. “These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”
A spokesman for Brady says that “there weren’t enough cars and there weren’t enough trains.” Brady tweeted as much from the Saturday march. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,” he wrote on Twitter.
Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs. He concludes that it “appears that Metro added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.”
Let me first say here that event planners have a responsibility to keep public services aware of their activities and inform participants about the best way to handle DC public transit. I have no idea if that was done here. But calling WMATA and advising them that there might be more people taking Metro that day is event organizer’s responsibility.
FACT: Ridership count on the day in question: Metrorail: 437,624 The following Monday: Metrorail: 704,000
1. All DC Metro area residents who are also 80-years-old or elderly veterans have to walk far for the subway system. This is not New York City as my Columbia University friends like to remind me. I heard that same complaint from a guy that runs 5mi a day and was an Army ranger. I mock him for his scrawny weak little legs. He thinks the stations are too far apart here in DC as to be useful. Why does Congressman Brady think this is complaint worthy? This woman and her daughter were ILL-PREPARED to deal with travel in DC. Which is their own UNINFORMED FAULT. Even if the event organizers did remind people to get round-trip farecards and to plan for extra time, I certainly didn’t see the DDoT signs on I-395 warning me of increased downtown traffic as they would for the Army Ten Miler or Marine Corps Marathon. I see that as an example of poor planning by the Teabagger organization.
2. All DC Metro area residents who are 80-years-old or elderly veterans have the option to ride Metro Access, but as everyone in DC knows, that service sucks. What is Congressman Brady going to do about REGULAR SERVICE FOR NON-CONSTIUENTS IN DC? Vote for DC Statehood if you want to be taken seriously by anyone living in DC.
3. Why is any of this news to Congressman Brady and his staff? The Washington Post has extensive coverage of the Metro’s myriad of problems. And the information is openly posted to the WMATA website. The problems of the Metro are systemic to the funding source. Perhaps before complaining to WMATA, Congressman Brady and his constituent affairs staff should do some more research and discover that the core funding problem is that the Washington Metropolitan Authority cannot get more funding from Annapolis, DC or Richmond, or any of the surrounding suburban counties to increase tax revenue for Metro funding.
4. From my own personal witness that day, there were not enough people to justify any change in Metro’s Saturday scheduling. There are just as many people, if not more, for regular Mall events like the Smithsonian’s Folk Life Festival or the Cherry Blossom Festival (which does have a schedule change on a Saturday but look at the massive numbers!).
5. Getting a cab in DC is hard because there are not enough medallions. What is Congressman Brady going to do about that? Does he now want to complain to the DC cab commission that the new rate fare system is too high? Because it’s way better than the old zone system.
6. “Our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.” HAHAHAHAHA!!! WMATA doesn’t make a great effort to provide basic transport for the people of DC. They want special treatment from people who don’t have rights in Congress? BAHAHAHAHA. *tears in eyes* DC STATEHOOD NOW MOTHERF*CKERS!
Ok. That is all. I swear there will regular PF blog posting again soon.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry to get you so riled up with my Twitter post!
I posted the link on Twitter because I rode the Orange Line home from work that day, with all the protesters. I didn’t ride into work on the Metro, because my boyfriend and I saw the long line for the station and decided it was a much better idea to have him drive me in. We hit no unusual traffic on the road in, so it ended up being the best idea.
Going home, I decided to try the Metro. When I arrived at the station, there was barely anyone there, so I figured the march was either still going on, or long over. About two minutes before the train arrived, protesters started pouring into the station. I have no idea why they arrived all at once like that, but it didn’t seem smart to me. If you’re walking to the station with everyone else, wouldn’t you expect that the train is going to be crowded?
The train wasn’t even really that crowded. A DC denizen on the train commented that “These tourists have no idea how to pack it in.” Yep, that was the real problem: they didn’t know how to fit people onto the train. There was a ton of room toward the center of the car, but no one standing near the doors would budge to let people move there.
I don’t see how anyone can blame the Metro for their group not knowing how to ride it. And for not planning ahead of time by, like other groups, paying for more trains.
The real reason DC will not get statehood is the fact that Marion Barry would almost certainly get elected to the Senate. Nobody wants that.
I totally agree! My sister forwarded me the article about them protesting the lack of special metro service for their own protest (ridiculous), but I rode the metro and bus on that day and it was not packed. It certainly doesn’t compare to the crush at the Mall metro stops after July 4th, etc. So annoying!
Also (I didn’t realize this until recently) Metro changed the bus to metro and metro to bus transfers – whatever way you go you get 75 cents off the second leg of your trip instead of having a 35 cent bus ride after riding the metro. I guess this makes it more fair for people who take bus to the metro, but I’ve been sticking to using the free bus to bus transfers to save some money (thank goodness for Next Bus)
vent baby, vent!
D.C. statehood is a non-starter. You should instead push for A) a Representative in the House and B) the right to vote in Maryland’s Senate elections (Maryland would probably have to agree to this, but there’s a good chance they would). There’s no chance that D.C. will be allowed statehood – absorption into Maryland or Virginia is a politically viable solution to the problem of lack of Congressional representation though.
By the way, just in case you’re confused, Congress is not the stumbling block for D.C. statehood. They passed D.C. statehood back in ‘73. Requiring 38 states for ratification, it got 16. There is no chance that D.C. statehood could muster up enough state ratifications, though there’s a good chance it could pass Congress again.
However, a more modest proposal such as a single Representative in the House and the right to vote in Maryland’s Senatorial elections could well receive enough state ratifications.
Andrew S – Interesting proposals! I for one, having lived in VA and MD, might push for absorption into another state if anyone else took that option seriously.