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That's fine, but I'm just wondering why you're so fixated by this. Why not jaywalking? Or people who proceed too quickly through revolving doors? People who don't to come to full stops at stop signs? Or who don't drive with their hands in the 10 and 2 position?
Why escalator walking? Is there so little to occupy one's time in Orlando that one is forced to spend time pondering the escalator riding habits of the residents of far-away cities?
Well, I'm not really fixated it on it, but if someone else starts a thread on it, I will respond with my views like everyone else
Do you understand what it means to have a monopoly over a service?
That's completely irrelevant to this discussion. WMATA is a governmental agency; it is not a for-profit institution. Its charter is not to make money; its charter is to provide transit services. It answers to a Board of Directors named by the three jurisdictions in which Metro operates (MD, VA and DC). The Board of Directors holds Metro accountable for its operations, which includes maintenance and operations of the system. It is responsible for all maintenance throughout the system. Metro's leadership is held accountable for derelictions in such duties--witness the recent ouster of its former head, John Catoe.
I am incapable of breaking this down for you any further than this. The level of ignorance you possess with regards to all things DC-related makes me question whether you ever lived in this city; it's practically impossible to believe.
That's completely irrelevant to this discussion. WMATA is a governmental agency; it is not a for-profit institution. Its charter is not to make money; its charter is to provide transit services. It answers to a Board of Directors named by the three jurisdictions in which Metro operates (MD, VA and DC). The Board of Directors holds Metro accountable for its operations, which includes maintenance and operations of the system. It is responsible for all maintenance throughout the system. Metro's leadership is held accountable for derelictions in such duties--witness the recent ouster of its former head, John Catoe.
I am incapable of breaking this down for you any further than this. The level of ignorance you possess with regards to all things DC-related makes me question whether you ever lived in this city; it's practically impossible to believe.
Well okay, you're entitled to your point of view. How WMATA is structured is beside teh point--my point is that they have a monopoly over ridership and unless people sprout wings and don't need Metro anymore, they can pretty much get away with anything they want (or don't want to do, like maintenance). There aren't multiple subways competing where the bad ones will be driven out of business.
All of these escalator outages pose a major god damn safety threat. If there was a terrorist attack or a fire or anything bad really, a lot of people would die simply because they wouldn't be able to get out of the station quickly enough. Remember the Dupont Circle farce a few weeks ago? The floor of the station where the escalators were was completely packed since two were out of service... and that wasn't even an emergency situation.
WMATA needs to be sued, or maybe have an Iraq pulled on them. Take out every person in charge and put someone new in there, preferably with brains.
Suing them wouldn't help. They are already out of money, which is why the escalators are always broken -- that's my guess anyway. I do, however, feel so bad for the tourists who have to walk down the massive flight of Dupont Metro stairs when the escalator is out. It's not fair to older people with leg problems or children. I mean, the short escalators getting up or down to a platform aren't a big deal, but the Dupont Q Street entrance is ridiculously long. (It's been broken the past two weeks and also pisses me off when I'm commuting to work, but oh well.)
Actually, the real problem is people walking on the escalators. That's what causes them to break down. The "stand on your right walk on left" custom/rule whatever it is is just darn dangerous. It's so dangerous, in fact, that Japan has banned all walking on escalators:
The is only one way to fix this mess and that is to privatize the service. Some of the most efficient train services I have used around the world are privatized, with both their efficiency and quality demonstrating the positive of doing so.
Last time I saw trains and stations as old as they are here, was in the 70s. It's like a time warp using the DC Metro.
Well the solution seems clear. Lets start a "stand on the left" campaign. Problem solved.
That's already been addressed--standing to the left causes an imbalanced load (more wear and tear, messes up alignment)
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