Wednesday morning I was on my way to work. I decided to take the E4 crosstown bus from Fort Totten to Friendship Heights, rather than ride the Metro all the way around. If I can make the bus connection in a reasonable amount of time at Fort Totten, I will take the E4, because the time is basically the same, and it is quite a bit cheaper. I missed the excitement on the red line, when some teenagers got on the train and it looks like they set off some sort of smoke bombs and then discharged the fire extinguishers in one of the rail cars.
There is a lot of teenage gang crime on the Metro. A lot of it has to do with the student free ride program. There was a time when students could purchase discount tokens to use on the buses when they were travelling to and from school. If they used Metrorail, they had to pay full fare like everyone else. Since that privilege has been abused, it is time to take it away and go back to the bus tokens.
Another thing that needs to happen, is there needs to be a much stronger police presence in the problem areas. There are problems around the UDC and Tenleytown areas and from Gallery Place to Glenmont on the red line, and there are regular disturbances on the lower platform at Gallery Place. Why is there no police substation at Gallery Place, when there is one at Bethesda? If you want to increase ridership, you have to make the Metro safer. Ridership is down, because people are afraid to ride Metro.
More transit police would be part of the answer. They need to be uniformed officers, as well as plain clothes undercover officers riding the trains in the problem areas, and they need to target these gangs of teenagers and young adults with a zero tolerance policy for any and all infractions of the laws pertaining to the public transportation system. In addition, there needs to be a 50% increase in the penalties for any violent crime that takes place on Metrobus or Metrorail. These teenagers who commit violent acts on the public transportation system should be charged and tried as adults, not juveniles, and they should serve hard time in an adult federal prison. Make an example out of them for their peers.
The Metro Transit Police need to enforce the no smoking, no drinking, and no eating laws more vigorously, along with the no littering law. The trains are starting to look like trash dumps. It's time to clean things up.
Friday, February 19, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Metro was running kind of slow tonight
I'm trying to figure out what was happening with Metro tonight. Normally, my transportation time from Bethesda is a lot less. Yes, I did make a detour to Union Station, to pick up a suit at Joseph A. Bank that had come back from the tailor, but after that, the timing was not great. I left Bethesda around 8:20 PM. I arrived at Union Station about 8:40ish. I went to Banks at Union Station, tried on the suit. It was perfect, and then I headed back to the Metro. Going back to Gallery Place, which would have meant not having to change trains outside in the cold weather meant a 20 minute wait. Going the other way to Fort Totten, meant a 6 minute wait. I opted for the Fort Totten option. However, once I got to Fort Totten, I had an 18 minute wait in the cold for the Green Line train to College Park. It would have been nice if the trains had been running more frequently.
My Frustration With Metro
First of all, I want to commend Metro for trying to run a good public transportation system. I know it's not easy, and you can't please everyone. There are always going to be glitches, because nothing is perfect.
That being said, here are my beefs:
1. The bus service from the Metro to where I live, College Park, MD, needs to be improved. Also, the timing from the Metro Rail to the Metro Bus needs to be adjusted. It is frustrating when you come out of the station and you see your bus heading out of the parking lot. Then you have to wait a half hour for another one. This happens 9 out of 10 times, unless the bus is running late. In addition, it makes no sense to have the Metro Rail run until 3 AM on weekends, and have the last bus leave on Saturday at 9 PM and 5:40 PM on Sunday. During the week, the last bus from the College Park Metro heading north is just after 10:30 PM. We are forced to drive to the station and pay $5.10 per day to park. That makes riding public transportation less cost effective than driving. If you want to increase ridership, you need to increase convenience and cost effectiveness.
2. Safety. There are times, and not just late at night when riding the Metro Rail is just not safe. It's also not just in certain neighborhoods. You have roving gangs of teenagers who board the trains around Tenleytown in the upper middle class section of Washington, DC, and there are frequent roving gangs hanging out on the platform at Gallery Place, who seem to think that it is their right to terrorize passengers.
There are assaults and robberies that occur on a regular basis. I seen things happen, and I've also seen those fine products of our social engineering industry jump over and squeeze through fare gates without paying, right in front of a station manager, who does nothing. Metro needs to deploy more uniformed transit police at the problem areas, and start using more undercover plain clothes officers to deal with these teenagers. Also once there are apprehended when committing these crimes, they should not be dealt with as juveniles. 16 year olds and over are adults, no matter what the law says. They should be tried as adults, and there should be enhanced penalties for committing violent crimes on public transportation systems. Sending a 16 year old "up the river" for 20 to 30 years serves two purposes. First of all, it takes that miscreant off the street for a long time. While they are in prison, they can not commit any more crimes, unless it is a crime against another prisoner. Secondly, it sends a message to their peers. Taking this one step further, make their friends attend the sentencing hearing, as the judge makes an example out of them.
Besides the schedules and the crime, my other main beef is the cleanliness of the Metro Rail cars. When I first moved to DC in 1979, Metro was spotless. The police vigorously enforced the no eating, no drinking, no smoking and no littering laws. Today the cars are full of trash, people sit and eat sandwiches, drink drinks, and then throw the bottles either on the floor, or in the case of the teenagers who cause the problems, at passengers. Start enforcing the law with the small things, and there will be less to deal with with the big things. It worked in New York with "Stop and Frisk" and "Broken Windows." We need some of that here in DC.
That being said, here are my beefs:
1. The bus service from the Metro to where I live, College Park, MD, needs to be improved. Also, the timing from the Metro Rail to the Metro Bus needs to be adjusted. It is frustrating when you come out of the station and you see your bus heading out of the parking lot. Then you have to wait a half hour for another one. This happens 9 out of 10 times, unless the bus is running late. In addition, it makes no sense to have the Metro Rail run until 3 AM on weekends, and have the last bus leave on Saturday at 9 PM and 5:40 PM on Sunday. During the week, the last bus from the College Park Metro heading north is just after 10:30 PM. We are forced to drive to the station and pay $5.10 per day to park. That makes riding public transportation less cost effective than driving. If you want to increase ridership, you need to increase convenience and cost effectiveness.
2. Safety. There are times, and not just late at night when riding the Metro Rail is just not safe. It's also not just in certain neighborhoods. You have roving gangs of teenagers who board the trains around Tenleytown in the upper middle class section of Washington, DC, and there are frequent roving gangs hanging out on the platform at Gallery Place, who seem to think that it is their right to terrorize passengers.
There are assaults and robberies that occur on a regular basis. I seen things happen, and I've also seen those fine products of our social engineering industry jump over and squeeze through fare gates without paying, right in front of a station manager, who does nothing. Metro needs to deploy more uniformed transit police at the problem areas, and start using more undercover plain clothes officers to deal with these teenagers. Also once there are apprehended when committing these crimes, they should not be dealt with as juveniles. 16 year olds and over are adults, no matter what the law says. They should be tried as adults, and there should be enhanced penalties for committing violent crimes on public transportation systems. Sending a 16 year old "up the river" for 20 to 30 years serves two purposes. First of all, it takes that miscreant off the street for a long time. While they are in prison, they can not commit any more crimes, unless it is a crime against another prisoner. Secondly, it sends a message to their peers. Taking this one step further, make their friends attend the sentencing hearing, as the judge makes an example out of them.
Besides the schedules and the crime, my other main beef is the cleanliness of the Metro Rail cars. When I first moved to DC in 1979, Metro was spotless. The police vigorously enforced the no eating, no drinking, no smoking and no littering laws. Today the cars are full of trash, people sit and eat sandwiches, drink drinks, and then throw the bottles either on the floor, or in the case of the teenagers who cause the problems, at passengers. Start enforcing the law with the small things, and there will be less to deal with with the big things. It worked in New York with "Stop and Frisk" and "Broken Windows." We need some of that here in DC.
My First Posting
Welcome to the Transit Conservative blog. I will use this blog to advance public transportation issues. I have been a big fan of public transportation for years. Even though I live in the suburbs, I am urban at heart. I just wish that I could afford to live in the city. Stay tunes for more blog posts as time goes on. Also at this time, I am expected to inform everyone that Google and Blogger use cookies. This announcement is required by the European Union. I do not employ any cookies on my own.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)