Fare Hikes' Silver Lining: Freebies

Yesterday, we posed the half joking question "When's the fare increase to recoup the money they failed to collect from the fare increase?"

Sadly, it's sounding less and less like a joke considering the money Metro appears to be hemorrhaging because their Casio watch powered systems were ill equipped to handle the complexity of the recent fare increases.

Here's another example:

Dispatches from anonymous:

• I don't know if anyone told you about this already, but last night (Wed.) at the Vienna south parking garage, one of the two exits was completely closed off. I was parked on the 4th level and it took 18 min. to get out of the garage because the cars were bumper-to-bumper, like we were leaving a concert. The only consolation prize was that Metro raised the gate arms, and we didn't have to pay the $4.50 parking fee. This happened to me around 6:30 pm.
• Update: both exits at the Vienna parking garage were working tonight (Thurs.), but the gates were up, meaning that we left without having to pay $4.50 again for parking. Dumbasses!
• The parking gates were in the up position Friday and yesterday (Mon.) as well, which allowed us to exit without paying the parking fee. People at Vienna station are enjoying the free parking.

The Vienna station has almost 6,000 parking spaces.

What other freebies have you noticed?

Other items:
"Low level of credibility" threat made to Metro system (NBC4)
Graham says Metro Board could have done nothing to prevent crash (Examiner) WaPo take
"Wilding on wheels?" (Examiner)