Thursday, October 14, 2010

Can we Get a Clean Sweep?

The shelter at the East Falls Church Kiss and Ride has been this way for well over a month, ostensibly because the right side pane of glass was shattered.

Granted, one pathetic shelter is far from the biggest problem in the Metro system, but apparently, the reason it has been roped, gated and coned off is that there is glass on the ground.

In our litigious society, it's easy to understand how someone wouldn't want to expose riders to potentially dangerous shards of glass, but here's the thing:

The amount of glass that's still on the ground does not remotely equal what was in the pane, so someone made a cursory sweep of the area when the glass was first broken.

But a few pieces remain, and one can surmise that they are the reason the entire shelter is STILL out of service and has been for weeks.

No consultants needed, no studies, no public comment, no pilot programs, hell, don't even replace the glass if you don't have the money, but how about this:

Get a broom!

Finish the job. Get this embarrassing eyesore tidied up!

In the time it took to string the crime scene tape around the shelter, pull the little accordion gate thingy out and then strategically place the cones, the area could have been swept clean, leaving at least a partially usable shelter. (Any of you East Falls Church riders know the shelters on the platforms are as leaky as sieves, but they're better than standing in the driving rain.)

A few days ago, when it was pouring, there were more than a few people waiting for rides who would have gladly taken a gimpy shelter to no shelter at all.

C'mon! There are some major issues facing mass transit in the DC area, but little things count, and this is an easy, no cost one to "fix."

PS. Maybe the guy who seems to like to mop the platforms DURING evening rush hour could be enlisted to help out. Just a thought.

Other items:
Triennial report by the Tri-State Oversight Committee (PDF) Examiner take/Post take
 
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Site Meter