With apologies to the classicists among you.
For those who haven’t been following (and I’m not sure why many of you would be), yesterday, D.C.’s entire MetroRail system was shutdown for emergency repairs. Three points:
1. A whole slew of local politicians, at the county, state, and federal levels bemoaned the shutdown. Mind you, they haven’t done shit in terms of oversight or funding. But complaining, they’re good at.
2. The Washington Post editorial board, instead of complaining, could actually use its position to ask local politicians what they will do in terms of oversight and funding. Then again, Fred Hiatt, so ’nuff said.
3. While it seems drivers who could stay home did so, this should be a wake up call: as I noted yesterday, mass transit is an essential part of making drivers’ commutes better (or at least, not more awful). It’s time for them to ante up and kick in. Riders shouldn’t have to support the whole system, because it doesn’t serve only the riders, but also people in cars.
mikethemadbiologist
Traffic was ridiculous. I’m a regular red line rider; caught a ride with a co-worker that took 80 minutes to travel eight miles. He said that route normally (during morning rush traffic) takes 15-20 minutes.
Transportation funding should be apportioned based on number of people-miles served, with a bonus factor for non-gasoline solutions. We might start expanding public transit if the money in the entire transportation funding pool were allowed to flow to the most efficient projects.