Unsuck DC Metro: Metro Sucks Even if You Stop Riding

Guest · 629 weeks ago

That is great Mitch but how about training and safety departments monitoring all the time and write infractions?

What is not so funny is that pedestrians have been killed by buses and the behavior has not changed.

Dan Stessel · 629 weeks ago

Safety is our number 1 priority. Unfortunately, the rock throwers, most of whom don't even use WMATA trains or buses, seem to have found new ways to subvert safety.

5 replies · active 628 weeks ago

+6 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 629 weeks ago

Safety is highlighted when the public sounds off, then, things go back to as they were before. This is because the " network" of friends, family and cronies protect the wrongdoers. I will love the day there is diversity, fairness, oversight and ethics.
Read the current case; Brenda Whorton v WMATA. It seems the Judges in Washington DC are sick and tired of how metro does things.

Skip · 629 weeks ago

@ Dan Stressel. Okay, Dan, so your drivers flip the bird to pedestrians as they race through red lights -- who HASN'T seem this -- and you bring up "rock throwers", a completely separate issue, to deflect well-deserved criticism directed to your employees' attitude problems?! Really? Actually, your comment makes absolutely no sense, since the greatest risks to passenger (excuse me, "customer") safety are people who work for WMATA, not teen agers who throw rocks at busses. As bad as that is, that is not what this post was about. Pay attention, Dan!

+5 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 629 weeks ago

Hint: what do you think are the odds that you're replying to THE Dan Stessel?

anon · 629 weeks ago

Guest-
I think you have touched on something. We need to start a petition and get thousands of signatures and present it to the Congressmen and women of MD DC and VA and get their A----s to moving to clean up the waste, fraud and abuse and unsafe incompetence. "Clean House"!

anon · 628 weeks ago

Guest you are making a reasonable request for oversight. What will it take for the communities to do to take make a reasonable request for transportation oversight?

+20 Vote up Vote down

karah 81p · 629 weeks ago

Even if you have all of the identifying information it does not help. I had an incident with a train one time. A door opened then immediately closed (on me) startling the people on the platform who could not believe what they just saw.

While I did not have the train number (hey, I had just taken a blow to the head) I knew the exact time it left Huntington (and at that time of night it is not like they leave too often). By the time they got back to me (after several repeated follow-ups from me) the answer was that they were 'unable to determine who was operating the train'.

Umm, do these people not keep logs? Or even be able to see who was pulling a yellow line shift at that time on that day?

3 replies · active 629 weeks ago

+20 Vote up Vote down

NoNo · 629 weeks ago

Reminds me the story of that #30 something bus on Wisconsin Avenue which hit-and-run a bicycle... despite the multiple witnesses and the GPS data from the buses, WMATA always claimed they couldn't identify who was driving the bus... Metro being a Mafia, it is not surprising they cover themselves...

finch2012 84p · 629 weeks ago

That's an insult to the actual Mafia.

+5 Vote up Vote down

Stan Desselscum · 629 weeks ago

Oh, they probably found out it was one of their friends and so the "investigator" accidentally hit the delete key just as the record came up.

(Really, does anyone doubt that'd happen under the right circumstances?)

-6 Vote up Vote down

Nick V · 629 weeks ago

You're saying that the bus went through the intersection 10-15 seconds after the light had changed? No way.

7 replies · active 629 weeks ago

Anony · 629 weeks ago

My guess is this would have to be a right turn on red issue. Otherwise, the driver is just insane.

+18 Vote up Vote down

karah 81p · 629 weeks ago

I would vote for 'insane'. I have seen plenty of times where they barreled down somewhere with no turning completely ignoring pedestrians and whether or not they had the right of way.

My office is near a crosswalk. It is also near a bus-stop. The two make for a lethal combination and I routinely have bus drivers yell at me when I am crossing with the right-of-way.

+12 Vote up Vote down

guest · 629 weeks ago

this. red lights and stop signs are for the serfs and peasants, not for metro bus drivers.

+9 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 629 weeks ago

Insane, and honestly, probably ignorant of basic traffic laws and the fundamental differences between driving a bus and driving a four-door sedan. It's pretty obvious when you're on the Metro and you have train operators who have no idea how to actually operate the trains (eg stop-lurch-stop-lurch out of every station). Based on what we know of Metro's hiring standards, why should we assume that the bus driver situation is any better?

It would not shock me if they think "fuck you I'm a bus" actually magically LEGALLY entitles them to do whatever they want, and if not all of them can spatially place a bus on a road in their minds.

Guest · 629 weeks ago

WOW! Get the bus number and turn them in. This is outrageous!

Jason · 629 weeks ago

Whom are you going to turn them into? WMATA?

Stan Desselscum · 629 weeks ago

Can't we get a video of this behavior? Anyone here a lawyer? This is a public safety issue, sue these pieces of trash!

+14 Vote up Vote down

Guesty · 629 weeks ago

I've seen and reported buses running blatantly red lights in Glover Park and Crystal City. Nothing ever changes and nothing ever will.

+10 Vote up Vote down

Daily Rider · 629 weeks ago

Getting the bus number should be enough, but it is best to get the block number if possible. This number is usually at the bottom of the windshield on the right hand side (side with the door).

Understand it can be hard to focus on, with your life suddenly at risk and all.

+18 Vote up Vote down

hrh king friday 13 · 629 weeks ago

In MetroLand, killing another human being is probably punishable/incentivized by up to six months of paid administrative leave.

1 reply · active 629 weeks ago

anon · 629 weeks ago

....killing another human or creating a very hostile work environment so as to damage the human being for life mentally.

NoNo · 629 weeks ago

They should allow investigate the behavior of the bus drivers going north on Wisconsin Avenue, and turning right on Tenley Circle... Many time I saw some of them getting way too close to the pedestrian crossing the street...

+22 Vote up Vote down

Stan Dessel · 629 weeks ago

If you could please provide the following, so we can investigate:
GPS coordinates
satellite imagery of the offending buses in the process of running red lights
at least 4 photos of an offending bus (all from different angles)
driver's DNA sample

You're welcome!

@VeggieTart · 629 weeks ago

Like the title of a long ago Cranberries album, everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn't we?

+10 Vote up Vote down

anon · 629 weeks ago

2 replies · active 629 weeks ago

karah 81p · 629 weeks ago

What sort of an idiot would ... never mind.

guest · 629 weeks ago

OMG

+6 Vote up Vote down

One take · 629 weeks ago

DC Thunderdome buses are out of control. I once saw a speeding runaway bus barely avoid an elderly woman being pushed in a wheelchair by (no lie) a nun. You would think WMATA could easily pinpoint offending drivers if witnesses are unable to record the bus numbers. But eyewitnesses are probably too busy avoiding being hit. At least it looks like something is being done.

+1 Vote up Vote down

guest · 629 weeks ago

Give me a date and timeframe for the first one that happened roughly 2 weeks ago. For the second incident was it two buses in a row?

+1 Vote up Vote down

guest · 629 weeks ago

I need a date and rough time for the first encounter two weeks ago and was it two buses in a row for the case on 3/1?

-1 Vote up Vote down

guest · 629 weeks ago

I'm not sure if I agree with the comments today. Just this weekend there were 2 stories of train operators stopping their trains to avoid hitting people on the tracks (which I would think would be really difficult to do). Also, I have found at the metro stations it is buses stopping for me in while I'm in the crosswalk actually makes car drivers notice the crosswalk and stop...otherwise, they are the drivers who would have plowed me down.

4 replies · active 628 weeks ago

+6 Vote up Vote down

dddddda · 629 weeks ago

It's hit-or-miss with most of them. I have some very nice and courteous bus drivers, some who are just doing what they have to, and others who are terrors.

The bus stops are laid-out really poorly around my house, requiring bus drivers to make multiple lane changes in short distances. At rush hour, if they don't break the law, they will never move along their route. These are the guys I feel bad for and think they are "just doing what they have to do." FWIW most of them try to do what they have to do (turning left from the right lane, cutting people off) as carefully as they can, usually signaling and making a few false starts to let their intentions be known. I've written in to comment that one of these bus stops should be moved, and Metro just sent me some form letter about how "they consider safety and passenger convenience when locating bus stops." Sure, being let off half a block earlier might be more "convenient" for a few riders, but it's certainly not for the rest of us when the bus has to sit there for 5 minutes trying to change lanes and turn (in less than half a block), and then gives up and takes the risky maneuver of turning left from the right lane. If they moved the stop, they'd make the passengers disembarking walk an extra half-block, at most, and give the bus driver *3* blocks to make his next lane change.

Then there's the guy who almost hits me every morning, because he REFUSES to not turn right on red at one particular intersection, and he DOES NOT care if someone is crossing or another vehicle has the right of way. In that short stretch, there's a light and 3 stop signs, and I watch him barrel through each of them almost every day. That guy's going to kill someone.

Stan Desselscum · 629 weeks ago

Are the good drivers in VA, MD, or DC? If it's VA, I'm not surprised. MD I can't say one way or the other, and DC... well, they're probably not so good.

anon · 628 weeks ago

Metro Buses are not allowed according to Metro rules and regulations to turn right on red.
If you do not like Metro's safety rules that have been established, you then have to speak to the person who makes up these rules. - Mgmt.

anon · 629 weeks ago

Hey guest -
that is because they are moving the trains slower. You can stop and control a bus and if you can't you shouldn't have the job. What happens when people highlight these issues; metro management protects these offenders and babies them. These offenders need to be disciplined or fired.

+9 Vote up Vote down

karah 81p · 629 weeks ago

Rather than showing up in orange vests, which everyone can see, I would love for safety inspectors (assuming what they were) to wear usual clothing. Be 'secret shoppers' and observe the buses when they think they are not being watched. Of COURSE they will know to slow down if someone with an orange vest is watching them.

Alternate idea: get random people rather than metro peeps to stand near troublesome intersections with orange vests and clipboards. :)

2 replies · active 629 weeks ago

Another Nick · 629 weeks ago

Freight railroads do this, I'm told. Engineers and track gangs know to look for the unnatural green vest.

+1 Vote up Vote down

anon · 629 weeks ago

Hey Kara-
The safety inspectors from metro? Ha!
Did you know QA at Metro are men that vote each other in and if you are not voted in you don't get the job as QA. It is that bad. These jobs are never posted for all to apply. You would have to crack this "Network" to correct all the problems at metro. You have Union and Company in bed and they are in a club; Black Masons and Black female Eastern Star chapters in Wash DC.hold the highest middle manager positions and promote each other. Supervisors are masons and eastern stars also and Union members are big time Masons Lodge Members who promote, assist and help promote each other in jobs and positions. Good luck! Even Congress endorses this protocol.

+5 Vote up Vote down

Anna Christie · 629 weeks ago

I used to cross 7th St and G St NW at lunch multiple times a week to go to the gym. At least two or three times a month a Metro bus would barrel through the intersection a full 3-4 seconds after the light had turned red. Didn't matter that there were pedestrians in the crosswalk with a walk signal. After a while I started taking down the exact time and both the bus and route number. Not once did it matter. I contacted Metro over a dozen times with EXACT information and only got form responses back.

The best part is there was almost always a cop car at the intersection when it happened. Too bad they were only there to get Chipotle or McDonalds, and not to do actual police work.

MsKat · 629 weeks ago

Nobody here speaking of the bus driver issues has mentioned getting the number on the front of the bus. If you don't get that number they have on the front they will tell you they cannot tell who the bus driver is. A few years ago when I worked in VA the bus I caught going home or to work from the station usually had the worst bus drivers-once a driver attempted to curse me out after arguing that I hadn't rung the bell (and I had), another was late because she got off the bus and went to get a pizza then didn't go get the rest of the passengers (pretty sure if I hadn't been standing there when she got off she wouldn't have gotten me either), and yet another who was always late then attempted to pull off really quick on a rainy day with a wet floor after I got on the bus, because I had mentioned that she was late all the time and the others were not. I got that number in the front of the bus each time, along with when the bus was supposed to arrive (so you might have to look at the schedule online to see when that bus was due before you complain), the bus number and bus stop etc...in each case that driver was removed from that route. Don't know what happened to them after that but I know that things like being taken off a route before time to switch and complaints from pedestrians and riders do stay in their employee records and they do get fired if they continue to mess up (that info has come from more than one Metro employee that I know). So along with the date and time make sure you get that number in the front window (easier if you are not on the bus than when you get off) if you really want Metro to do anything. They likely will not get back to you but there will be some kind of result. Now, can anyone help me find out what happened to over $25 of fare on a card that has simply disappeared? I wrote them twice and no response yet-trying not to call them...

3 replies · active 628 weeks ago

Guest · 629 weeks ago

"Don't know what happened to them after that..."

Probably a union-sponsored paid vacation.

MsKat · 629 weeks ago

Quite possible! But, if they were pulled from their route and called to the office to hear about a customer complaint, which each of these drivers were, at least they know it can happen again and likely will if they keep messing around.