Metro’s definitely seen better days. The Washington Post had a lengthy piece in Sunday’s edition documenting the massive problems facing the system: aging infrastructure, missing leadership, a broken safety culture, amongst others. Metro’s been trimming the fat to balance budgets for a while, and it now looks like they’ve been cutting into the bone and impeding the system’s ability to function. WTOP notes that several internal and external candidates for the soon-to-be vacant General Manager position have turned it down.
At the same time, the Post managed to document the role the system plays in the daily lives of those living and working in DC.
At the same time, one of WMATA’s new Federally-appointed board members, Marcel Acosta, is asking for input from riders over at Greater Greater Washington. In looking at some of the responses in the comments, you can’t help but notice people speaking out about how Metro enables car-free lifestyles; how crucial good transit service is to urban life.
Indeed and I’m afraid DC’s political leadership doesn’t fully understand that. Reductions in service really do diminish the quality of life for the carless, which in Washington includes not just the poor, but many middle class people, too.
Agreed. The kinds of service cuts that Metro has floated are far more damaging than even significant fare increases.
Combine that with Metro’s long term maintenance issues, a somewhat rudderless vision of where to go next, and the current lapse in safety culture, it’s not promising combination.
As this video shows, car free living is a fact of life – transit is a requirement. It’s not some nice benefit for riders.