Steve Eldridge, The Examiner
2006-08-25 09:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Apparently there are positive as well as negative ways to use the Internet when it comes to the world of transportation, and here are some examples: www.traincheck.com is a service that sends Metro train arrival times to your phone in the form of a text message or an e-mail.

All you have to do is send them a message that includes the station and the line (red, green, orange, etc.) and you’ll get the arrival times for the next three trains.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work, anyway. I’m no Vin Cerf — one of the local guys who invented the Internet before Al Gore — but I couldn’t get it to work on my supposedly “smart phone.”

Nevertheless, it apparently does work for others here in Washington and in San Francisco. It was started by two guys named Bart and Frank, which is in and of itself kind of enduring, like Ben and Jerry or Bert and Ernie.

I asked them how they get the information and they said, “we have manually recompiled their entire timetable and have tested extensively to ensure that the times you get from us are the same times you get for the online trip planner.”

Why do they do this? Is it for the money? Are they getting paid (there’s no charge to the user of the information)?

“We are entirely autonomous, unbranded and uncompensated. We want people to feel empowered and Metro-rail systems to finally open their system information to people in the community.”

These guys sound sort of like Wozniak and Jobs or Gates and Allen, except for the profit part.

On the other side of the spectrum is a blog that the author calls CSI: Arlington County (arlingtonparking.blogspot.com).

It’s a list of photographs of Arlington County parking enforcement officers blocking lanes of traffic or parking in “No Parking” areas to write tickets.

The author details the location and points out what the ticket writer is doing. It’s apparently his effort to get back at “the man.”

He describes it by saying: “This site exists because the Arlington County Parking Enforcement Unit is out of control and nobody is doing anything about it. And because it's kind of funny.”

While calling these officers “jack-booted thugs” and “taxpayer-funded hypocrites who regularly break the laws they are supposed to enforce,” he does admit in his FAQ section that he may be nuts. At the same time, he does raise a couple of very valid points.

The county employs 29 traffic enforcement officials to write tickets, but only nine officers in the traffic unit are responsible for maintaining the flow of traffic.

He also points out that many of these ticket writers drive or park — with the motor running — gas-guzzling Ford F-150 pickup trucks. Given the number of hybrid vehicles the county has bought, you would think that some of them would be better transport for parking enforcement personnel.

This also goes to prove that you can find just about anything on the Internet.

Questions, comments, random musings? Write to Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.