Beating a Dead Horse

But I can't help reporting on the DC Metro
http://www.unsuckdcmetro.blogspot.com/


Because yesterday's paper ran a shocking article in which they noted that dead rats were found in the ticket vending machines. Ever feel like the machine just ate your money and didn't give you the appropriate credit on your smartcard? Maybe a rat inside did.
This article noted also that the bathroom breaks for the conductors were such that they felt they didn't have sufficient time to take them and keep trains on schedule so they went ON THE TRACKS in a few select spots they designated as waste dump sites in hidden corners where trains turned around, notable at Grosvenor/Stratford on the Red Line. Perhaps that is attracting rats more than anyone eating on the Metros. Ever hear of a Portapotty such as those used on boats? Excuse me, but that is just disgusting. That's what alcoholic homeless guys do-pee on the street.

And on Metro buses, which are usually quite efficiently run on schedule the operators apparently do not have training enough or cahoonas enough to tell people who walk on with a bag of McDonalds that they glibly open and nosh on to stop it. That happened yesterday as I watched some soul right under one of those signs saying-this is not a Diner don't treat it like one-unwrap a greasy Big Mac and inhale it wiping their mouth with their sleeve as the person smashed to their left tried to get a bit of distance from the smell. Like no one is watching. Because no one probably is.

Metro Police need to be out in full force in plain clothes ticketing people. The force should be doubled. Especially with the potential for homeland security threats. When a few of those ticketed McDo addicts get press, then people will start paying attention, and eating their McDonalds before they get on the bus, and not throwing sodacup trash under the seat.

I wouldn't think that this so comical except I actually was in the Moscow underground as a child, and it is spotless, and run with German efficiency. All the train systems in Europe are. Paris and London metro are lightyears better even if artistically strewn with a bit of graffitti. the London underground was so clean it served as bomb shelter for Londoners during WWII. When I say we have a third world Metro system, I mean we really have a third world Metro system in DC compared to Europe, and even compared to New York in terms of it's mechanical reliability. Imagine anywhere in Europe conductors peeing on the tracks. They would be locked up and sent to a mental asylum. In America we say- oh well- par for the course. I am not the only one who noticed apparently- there is a blog called "Unsuck DC Metro"-

PortaPotties People. Any Annapolis Boat Supply Store.

Postscript thought:
Oh, and let's talk, shall we about noise control. It is against the law to not have earphones when listening to all those fun devices that make people feel like they are in control- i-whatevers, radios, etc...Good Law. What about those half out of their mind or just supremely rude people who talk on cell phones in voices so loud you would think they were addressing half of Cameroon who needed to hear them. I love this (sarcasm) when it is in french because I actually understand them-people from Cameroon tend to think no one else does on a DC/Maryland bus- and it is not racist to note that the people who tend to not have been raised with the "this is your inside library voice, this is your outside voice" distinction seem to have all come from countries where they got thick African accents of some kind. In New York the entire bus would yell "SHUT UP!" Why are people so intimidated here.
Some people insist that the whole world wants to hear every bloody word of their profanity dotted phone conversation. There is a simple solution to this- Give the conductor a loudspeaker plug in so he can yell- "Lower Your Voice[s] or I have legal authority to confiscate your cell phone!" Now, that would be a good law wouldn't it. Then Metro can resell them and pay for portapotties. Seriously, some DC/Maryland bus rides are so exasperating the only thing missing is the chicken cages.