Unsuck DC Metro: Unlike some Other Subway Systems...

Monday, March 7, 2011

Unlike some Other Subway Systems...

"Unlike some subway systems (which will remain nameless), you don't see rats the size of house cats roaming Metro. Why not? Because we're so strict about eating and drinking in the system. So help us keep the critters away. Please don't eat or drink on Metro."

Via @chelseydc Wow. Someone missed the 'No Food On Metro' memo... #WMATA #Nasty http://twitpic.com/46lokp

@Tony_Leo No food on the metro, eh? #wmata http://twitpic.com/3vwyfh

Via @lefthandrob Words, there are none #wmata http://twitpic.com/3zvsea

Via @lefthandrob Every afternoon, north green/yellow platform @ Gallery Place, a food mess #wmata http://twitpic.com/416s6f

Via Mr. T in DC: A typical scene at the Columbia Heights Metro station: a mysterious dark puddle, likely urine, a stack of pancakes from IHOP, an empty booze bottle, and the remnants of graffiti on the granite. There are several garbage cans within a couple of dozen feet, and public restrooms in DCUSA right across the street.

From Matt:
Woodrow, the White House Mouse has a lot of cousins ... the WMATA mice. Here's a shot of one taken at Waterfront Metro. I couldn't get a good shot of the four I saw at L'Enfant Plaza. They're almost cute, unlike rats, but it was a bit alarming to see one start to climb the wall.

Other items:
BART cloth seats are nasty, and WMATA is considering them for its new cars (NYTimes)
Metro CIO suddenly quits (Examiner)

Comments (25)

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+5 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 733 weeks ago

Sarles's enforcement scheme is to get riders to police themselves. Soon roving bands of commuters will start beating people who are eating on Metro with small plastic utensils.

Gangs of unruly youth in L'enfant and Gallery Place will be tied by their thumbs to the plastic straps hanging from the safety bars.

And people clipping their nails and applying makeup on in public will be forced to eat their clippings and their tubes of lipstick.

4 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+6 Vote up Vote down

MTW123 · 733 weeks ago

I don't mind a woman applying lipstick, to me that's normal. But clipping your nails disgusts me. And I don't understand how someone can eat on the filthy metro because those pictures above made me want to vomit. Gross! Happy Monday, folks.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Sam · 733 weeks ago

Same here. The lipstick doesn't bother me (but, ladies, when you're on the train with wet hair, please don't brush it and get the person sitting behind you all wet). The nail clipping must go. Some things should be taken care of at home, like personal grooming, getting dressed, etc. Clip your nails the night before if you don't want to wake up 5 minutes early to take care of them in the morning. Or, clip them in the restroom at your workplace.

+6 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 733 weeks ago

As a woman may I also add... Ladies, use the bleepin' hand lotion at home or in the car! Do not wait until you sit beside me on the train as I can most assuredly confirm your sense of delightful scent is nothing like mine. If I wanted to smell like a fruit salad melon, I would have bathed in fruit salad. If I wanted to smell a fake alcohol-ridden flower, I would have bought the stench-ridden stuff for my bath. (For those days I do not want Fruit Salad Eud Eww.) I, for one EAT cucumbers, I do not wear them...

+3 Vote up Vote down

Anon · 733 weeks ago

This tells me that Station Managers are continually not telling ALL riders to throw away their food containers! NO FOOD allowed! The Trains all have notices "NO EATING......"
The rules must be enforced via the station entrances!

+8 Vote up Vote down

Eating · 733 weeks ago

Over the past year or so, I felt like I've noticed an uptick in the number of people brazenly eating entire meals in Metro. Based on the photos above, I see that my observations were correct.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Sam · 733 weeks ago

If there is no enforcement/punishment, then these people have no reason to consider their actions to be "wrong". I also see people eating actual meals. I was riding from Foggy Bottom to Franconia-Springfield last Tuesday around 10pm and saw a guy eating a sandwich and fries with a fountain soda.

+4 Vote up Vote down

gleeindc · 733 weeks ago

My favorites were a rider eati.g his pancakes with syrup and the man having a hot fudge sundae for breakfast. Luckily both riders were seated and the ridecwas smooth.

+2 Vote up Vote down

VeggieTart · 733 weeks ago

A few years ago, my boyfriend and I saw a whole family passing around stuff from McDeathburger while we were riding an Orange Line train. I don't knkow why we didn't say something to them, but when we got off at our stop, we let the station manager know, and he actually got a transit cop on it. Or at least appeared helpful.

@JD--there is a difference between touching up one's lipstick and doing full-on face paint. The former is okay, the latter is not.

+6 Vote up Vote down

hrh king friday 13 · 733 weeks ago

Can we also ban drunk person puke and homeless man fecees?

+6 Vote up Vote down

LetsBeReal · 733 weeks ago

If we want to be honest about many of the day-to-day problems on metro (especially violence and to a large extent the eating of actual full-scale meals like shown in the pic above), you'll see that it's mostly coming from those living in low-income communities (in not so PC terms: the ghetto). Yes, the yuppy latte drinkers with their coffee do get on at Clarendon, but these people aren't eating chicken dinners on the train. And no...not every low-income person is doing it.

So if targeting these day-to-day problems are what we want, I think we know where (i.e., what stations and what lines) metro needs to step up enforcement.

That being said, metro seems more concerned about the threat of terrorism, which if history is any guide, could come from anywhere (and more likely from more affluent neighborhoods).

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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VeggieTart · 733 weeks ago

It's probably easier and cheaper to have guys doing security theatre bag checks on random "customers" at random stations on random days than to have have a constant police presence in stations and on trains with or without bomb-sniffing dogs. The latter would also help root out other problems, like cracking down on the little visigoth teens and idiots eating full meals.

Of course, that would also make too much sense.

+15 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 733 weeks ago

These photos are exactly why I call the station "Brunch Avenue."

0 Vote up Vote down

dan · 733 weeks ago

Just in time for lunch! Yum yum.

-1 Vote up Vote down

Kathryn · 733 weeks ago

The mice in DC really are cute! They are a breed of field mouse that is supposed to be a little smarter than the average. They aren't very destructive. I co-existed in my house with a family of them and they never bothered us. But those piles of food are just plain gross and unsanitary.

5 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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thehemm · 733 weeks ago

Or lazy DC mice need to start scavenging faster to keep things tidy.

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Anon · 733 weeks ago

uh.. you do know how bubonic plague was carried, right?

-1 Vote up Vote down

Kathryn · 733 weeks ago

Yes, I am very aware of that....but like most large old buildings in DC, we have a family of mice. Nobody in my building is in agreement about exterminating them, so we use the electronic plug in devices to keep them out of the living areas. And a cat or two.

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Stuart Little · 733 weeks ago

I can't tell if you're kidding or serious.

Mice are cute, but their constant pooping and peeing... not so cute. They also carry some nasty diseases.

I used to look down into the subway well before trains arrived to watch the occasional mouse run by. Once, at the Dupont station, it was like a mouse marathon. I'm guessing they were scared or flooded out of wherever they were hiding, had to have been a few hundred.

+9 Vote up Vote down

HurricaneDC 76p · 733 weeks ago

If you ever do online dating, I don't recommend putting "I co-existed in my house with a family of mice" on your profile. Save it for the second date.

+3 Vote up Vote down

M-Z · 733 weeks ago

I'm amazed that with all these food photos, somehow no one managed to get a picture of a pair of seats at the end of a car with sunflower seed shells covering the floor. I'll be damned if I didn't see a car with a seat pair covered in the stupid things at least once a week.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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anonymous · 733 weeks ago

OH WHO CARES? There is no diversity in hiring and they do what ever they want!

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www.AccessTheDMV.com · 733 weeks ago

UnsuckDCMetro, I have added your site to the AccessTheDMV web directory.

We'd like to thank you for your vigilance and hard work when maintaining and upkeep with UnsuckDCMetro!!!!

All the best and we'll be keeping up with you regularly!
-Mr. Access
www.AccessTheDMV.com[youtube b1AhxkNWc54&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1AhxkNWc54&feature=player_embedded youtube] *From one of our members*

+2 Vote up Vote down

hunterworthen · 732 weeks ago

I thought all Green Line cars were dining cars? No?

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DCAreaNative · 731 weeks ago

Add drink spills to this madness. Wed 03/16, I rode the Orange Line en route to the District from Ballston and this guy with a whole Panera meal with a clear cup (movie-size) Coke brought it in to the train and put it next to him on his seat. Sitting on the opposite side of the train adjacent to this idiot, I saw it all happen. Left it in the seat, the train braked hard and pop goes the drink and spills it all over. Picks it up and hides it under his seat. Then gets off his seat and pretends to get off at the next stop. Unsuspecting riders wanting this seat are waved off by some fool who says, "yeah there's a spill there." Then the Coke spiller just moves down the train and finds a new seat. One more stop, one guy comes in, takes some tissues and wipes the seat so he could sit, without knowing about the Panera cup still there waiting for his feet to touch it or the train jerking so it could be emptied out. Seeing the egregious passivity of people, I had to pick the crap up and throw it away at the next stop and then board the next train. In my 12 years of living in the D.C. area (long before there were platform monitors), I am deeply appalled yet not surprised thanks to following this blog.