Steve Eldridge, The Examiner
2007-10-01 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

District representatives on Metro’s board seem to want to have it all. They want passengers in and from the suburbs to bear a much larger share of the funding burden by paying higher fees at Metro parking garages. At the same time they want the fare for riding the buses to stay the same. These representatives seem to be reinforcing that old class issue when they talk over and over about “those having the least ability to pay should bear the least burden”. I’m sorry, but is that rule written anywhere formally?

D.C. Council Member Jim Graham calls the 50-cent proposed increase in suburban parking fees “offensive” because it’s just too low. If his constituents were being hit up for a 25 percent increase in anything that might be considered a staple, I’m sure he’d be up in arms about it. He’d figure out a way to tie that to the cost of milk and the cost of everything else that all people are experiencing these days. Maybe Mr. Graham needs to stop pitting one community against the other and start figuring out a way to make this whole thing called Metro actually work.

The population in the District keeps getting smaller, and there may be several reasons why. One of them may be the shortsightedness of the leadership that is constantly looking to the suburbs to bail them out.

Susan says she wanted to blow off some steam by writing: “I pretty regularly take either the S1, 2, or 3 (Potomac Park, McPherson Sq., Fed. Triangle) bus down 16th St., NW to work in the a.m. (usually around 8:30), and for the third time in less than two weeks I have seen bus drivers stop several car lengths back from stop to drop off passengers and then when the rest of us start walking back to that spot, they drive off— the buses are NOT full.

“Also when the buses are pretty full (with plenty of room in the back, they drive on by without stopping — although some drivers tell the people to move back or they will not be moving! Unfortunately some drivers do not have the pitch/tone of voice loud enough to be heard (what with [iPods], etc.), twice I have asked people to “please move back” and was thanked by the driver (voice lessons early on).

“I do want to note that the vast majority of drivers are very personable, polite and accommodating.

“Fare increases: Reasonable fare hikes are okay, but like anything else people expect some consideration in the service received no matter the price.

“While I am on the subject, the Metro trains are not properly timed between lines; orange/blue arrive downstairs at Metro Center the same time as the Red lines are pulling in upstairs, leading to a stampede to catch a train. I have seen people pushed and shoved in an individual’s haste to make a connection. It seems that like automobile drivers — nobody has much patience these days.”

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