Metro Sucks Even if You Stop Riding

Illustration from this Flickr

From Max:

In January, my wife and I moved from Virginia to DC, which allowed me to stop using WMATA and instead start jogging to work. But now, instead of dealing with the Orange Crush, I have to start worrying about reckless bus drivers.

Almost daily at the intersection Columbus Circle NE and E St. NE (part of the Union Station circle) WMATA buses will run red lights and come plowing through the pedestrian crosswalk.

And we're not talking a second or two later or trying to catch a yellow, it can be up to 10-15 seconds after the light has changed and pedestrians have the crosswalk signal.

It also shouldn't come as a surprise that the drivers feel that it's our fault that we're in the way of them breaking the law.

One encounter about two weeks ago involved a driver who came through about 10 seconds after the light had turned and promptly gave me the finger, which I returned.

Unfortunately, I wasn't about to get the bus number. However, the same situation happened the morning of March 1, with two buses running the light and the second bus was #2340 at around 8:00.

One of these days, if it hasn't happened already, these drivers are going to hit and kill someone and currently WMATA's response has been (again, not a surprise) that they'll "look into it."

However, I did seem to notice after one complaint that there was a group of people standing around in WMATA-like safety vests watching the intersections so maybe there was some action taken but if it was them, it hasn't done anything.

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