Metro Forward ... FAST!

I've posted numerous stories involving reckless bus operation, and there have been several embarrassing pictures of booted Metro vehicles. Reports of poorly driven buses are a near daily occurrence on Twitter.

In 2010, Metro vehicles, including MetroAccess, accumulated 733 traffic violations for a total of $65,500 in fines. Almost 500 of the citations are for speeding, according to data provided to Unsuck DC Metro through a freedom of information request.

The majority of the citations are marked as unpaid, but many are marked as "forwarded," which a letter accompanying the data says "means that the ticket was sent to the operator's supervisor."

Eight tickets are for $300 or more, all in DC. Some of these are labelled speeding and others as "traffic signal." According to the MPD website, the highest speeding fine listed, 26-30 miles per hour over the speed limit, is $250. Wonder what speed brought down a $350 fine. All of these are marked "not paid."

Based on the tag numbers, some vehicles have up 3, 4, 5 and up to 6 violations each.

So here's the question: Is this actually a relative few citations given Metro runs hundreds of buses and other vehicles every day, or is this just the tip of the iceberg proving Metro has a lot of renegade drivers out on the streets?

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