Unsuck DC Metro: Metro Forward ... FAST!

Friday, June 24, 2011

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?

Other items:
Metro Board passes budget (Examiner/WaPo)
Metro may curb workers' hours (Examiner)
Bomb scares twice a day (Examiner)

Comments (40)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

-15 Vote up Vote down

Alger · 718 weeks ago

It's confirmation bias. People in cars see buses as a problem, so their higher viability factors in how often they are reported doing rude or illegal operations.
Just yesterday I was nearly hit by three (3!) cars driving the wrong way while I was crossing three separate one way streets. I was too busy getting out of the road to tweet their license plates.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

RedLineROFL · 718 weeks ago

The difference here is that these are public transportation drivers. They are in charge of our safety, officially. MD/DC/VA drivers are just idiots. Public transportation drivers are supposed to be trained professionals. Just like the police protect us rather than armed citizens, or the fire departments put out fires instead of a bunch of neighbors with water buckets.

+4 Vote up Vote down

SoBa · 718 weeks ago

Drivers in this area are bad, but the big difference between the crappy driver in the Honda and the crappy driver in the Metrobus is that the Metrobus driver is a public employee, paid by the taxpayers for the express purpose of driving his vehicle in a safe manner.

+1 Vote up Vote down

asdf · 718 weeks ago

Also, a bus is a LOT bigger than a Honda, and an accident would involve a LOT more people (on and off the bus). So yeah, they should be held to a much higher standard than the average driver.

+11 Vote up Vote down

The More You Know... · 718 weeks ago

The crazy part of this whole thing is breaking traffic rules and laws will get them in -less- trouble than being a minute behind their schedule. You can blame the drivers for being terrors on the road but WMATA is the catalyst.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+9 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 718 weeks ago

If the drivers who commented at the union town hall were right about Metro's bus schedules being unrealistic, this is indeed a very good point.

So what happens when they're late?

+11 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 718 weeks ago

Supervisors dress up as "McGruff" and wait at the next bus stop to scold them for being late.

+1 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 718 weeks ago

LOL, UnSuck! Forget already? If they're late, they blow past stops and don't bother picking up riders. ;-)

-6 Vote up Vote down

speede · 718 weeks ago

I've probably been ticketed for 1/5000th of the traffic violations I've made. Just sayin

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 718 weeks ago

and that makes it OK? Blatant scofflaw...shame on you.

+3 Vote up Vote down

lmnop · 718 weeks ago

I think he is saying that if they have been ticketed 733 times, those don't even come close to the number of violations they are actually making.

I think??

0 Vote up Vote down

@sarahcottontail · 718 weeks ago

I'm sure that's the case.

Everyone on the internet is so...testy.

+5 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 718 weeks ago

I think this is a lot and reflects a culture of "who cares" You know the DC police don't ticket all the violations because it looks like they don't even get paid!

Metro is a renegade state, completely free to operate by its own rules.

+2 Vote up Vote down

awefe · 718 weeks ago

I think the amount of tickets issued is quite large and points to something either wrong with the caliber of people operating the buses or the system in which they operate the buses. It's probably both.

+5 Vote up Vote down

MLD · 718 weeks ago

Metro bus and metro access provided 61.5 million miles of service last year, so 733 tickets is one ticket every 84,000 miles.

As the commenter said above, bus drivers are under a lot of pressure to meet their schedules so they catch lights they shouldn't, etc.
I've caught buses that tried to speed through lights and had to slam on the brakes: http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/4204/imag0089v...

Improvements like bus lanes and priority signaling (where signals stay green if a bus is approaching) would improve bus schedule times and make things safer.

4 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

James · 718 weeks ago

That's a skewed argument based on a skewed percentage. I see on average two or three violations worthy of a ticket perpetrated by a Metro bus driver each day that they get away with.

0 Vote up Vote down

MLD · 718 weeks ago

I wasn't trying to make a point that the rate was good or bad, just trying to point it out.

That said, I think you would agree that the vast majority of infractions by car drivers also go unpunished.

+2 Vote up Vote down

James · 718 weeks ago

See above. Metro bus drivers are government employees paid by taxpayer dollars. They should be held to a higher standard than average drivers, and the fact that Metro apparently has no problem spending untold amounts of taxpayer dollars to pay for the moving violations of their drivers is a waste of money and is part of the reason why the system's budget is as messed up as it is. If the drivers actually had to pay for these violations themselves rather than passing the bill along to the taxpayer by way of the Metro organization, I have a feeling drivers would start operating their vehicles in a safer manner.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 718 weeks ago

Statistics do not comfort me when I am trying to cross the street, with the walklight and a Metro bus tries to run me down.

0 Vote up Vote down

Dane · 718 weeks ago

Do the data tell you how many vehicles were on the road and trips taken by them in a given year? Then peg the violations to that volume and you'll see if this is an outsize problem or not.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 718 weeks ago

I wonder if Mr. T in DC was driving a DC Cab when he observed this behavior. And does he pity the fools who ride on Metro buses?

+3 Vote up Vote down

anonymous · 718 weeks ago

It would appear most law enforcement probably thinks its not worth writing up Metro since they don't seem to have paid the tickets. For that reason, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

governmentbasement 70p · 718 weeks ago

I was thinking the same thing. Whats the cost benefit?
I'm also guessing that most of these infractions are speed and red light cameras. Not sure a DC cop will pull over a bus full of people, except when they hit a pedestrian or cyclist.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Daily Rider · 718 weeks ago

Remember, we pay these operators good bucks to be professional drivers. Speeding, red light violations, and offensive behavior should be rare for them; much more so than the general public.

Does an accumulation of tickets have any effect on CDL status?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

@bgriffler · 717 weeks ago

Depends on the state (where's the citation, what state is your license from) and the infraction itself.

+1 Vote up Vote down

James · 718 weeks ago

I'd love to see a WMATA boycott organized for just one day. There would need to be lots of 'get the word out' efforts and planning. But if the effort was coordinated enough, it would be nice to try and send a message like this.

Work from home, carpool, ride your bike, whatever....but maybe this would be a good way to make Metro pay for all those traffic tickets they've ignored.

+3 Vote up Vote down

One take · 718 weeks ago

Some time ago, I was on the J bus going from Silver Spring to Bethesda - @rush hour on a rainy cold day. The driver was flying. He ran the light at Connecticut Ave, cut off a few people and did a rolling stop at about 40mph at a stop along the way, with people waiting, and didn’t even stop. I think he even splashed a few of these poor souls.
The only thing was missing was Tina Turner all decked out in chain mail.
I actually feared that we were going to crash that day. This kind of goes with the territory say in Rajasthan (first hand experience), where they sometimes even fit a good 10-12 people on top of the bus and careen down dirt roads at about 95mph, but not in Silver Spring. I just wanted to get to Bethesda without getting into a disastrous wreck!

+7 Vote up Vote down

stupidraidersfan 80p · 718 weeks ago

Their goal should be zero tickets. Understand that is not going to happen. So if and when a ticket is issued it should either be paid immediately or appealed. Ignoring it only compounds the problem and leads to more fines and boots.

0 Vote up Vote down

Doug · 718 weeks ago

I seem to see a lot of this on the H8, enough so that I've nicknamed it the Hate Bus. Was on it recently, and the driver honked nonstop going through busy Columbia Heights.

0 Vote up Vote down

lmnop · 718 weeks ago

So does WMATA pay the tickets or does the actual driver pay the ticket?? I thought it was impossible for WMATA to find out who is driving a bus at a specific time

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

iolaire 71p · 718 weeks ago

Why would you think that the tickets are paid?

0 Vote up Vote down

Orange line rider · 718 weeks ago

I wondered the same. Is WMATA 'excused' from paying the tickets?

+1 Vote up Vote down

HurricaneDC 76p · 718 weeks ago

I sincerely think WMATA is a jobs program for former convicts. Not that I think ex-cons shouldn't get jobs, but it's like they're picking the absolute worst ones.

fuck WMATA

+1 Vote up Vote down

John · 718 weeks ago

I rode the S2/S4 lines for about 8 years, 2x per day. These days i'm taking the Green Line. I rarely saw traffic violations by drivers and the only instances drivers used the horn were when a car was doing something stupid. As for speeding, it was very rare, presumably mostly due to the sheer volume of traffice on 16th.

People on here (often rightly) rage over bus driver behavior anf violations but that was never my experience.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Kat · 718 weeks ago

@John, I ride the S lines every day and have noticed the same thing. I wonder if they just give us better drivers? I doubt people are making up these stories. For the most part in my travels I have good bus drivers, except for the occasional slamonthegas-slamonthebrake ones.

0 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 718 weeks ago

These drivers are "Metro's Finest" as my neighbor puts it!
It takes the creme of the crop to act this way. They probably speed to work too. How about firing some drivers who have these habits?
Oh yea.. "...you must believe in slavery"
What I want to know is..... there a deal to hire dc residents as bus drivers? Why do we always see black bus drivers? With the 50,000 plus salary I know a lot of others men and women apply,

0 Vote up Vote down

Richard · 718 weeks ago

Is Metro getting the benefit of these comments?
I like this website, but sharing our feelings about this problem is not enough to make a change. Anyone out there willing to start an actual public transportation advocacy group? I'll join.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

dddddda · 717 weeks ago

Metro has replied frequently on this board, and now they've got their new PR guy monitoring us (he replied to a thread just a few days ago). Local news stations also regularly pick up stories from Unsuck.

A true rider advocacy group, with professional staff engaged in improving Metro full-time would probably be helpful. The issue, of course, is getting organized and getting funding. I'd join. I'd donate. But I have a job and a million other things to do, and am not a professional advocate/organizer anyway. That's the situation I think most Unsuck readers are in.

0 Vote up Vote down

anon · 717 weeks ago

So you mean other than the WMATA Riders' Advisory Council?

0 Vote up Vote down

Whatup · 717 weeks ago

First time to this site and I guess my issue isn't all that bad. this morning 7Y bus (7:15am #2476 I think) thru Fairlington, the driver had no idea which turns to make, even asking "which metro stop do I go to", nor did he know how to enter the HOV lane. I actually looked to see if he was weraing a Metro uniform!

From the looks of this site though ... maybe I should just shut up and not complain :)