Do you feel safe taking your kid on the metro?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to the zoo last weekend and took the metro in. Admittedly, I haven't been on the metro in the past 5 years (before I had kids). I was shocked at how many people on the metro seem like they are half out of their minds. Screaming to themselves, smelling like feces, clearly on something, etc. I felt so uncomfortable having my kids near them and I regretted not just buying a zoo parking pass.

Maybe the metro has always been like this, but I never noticed before I had kids. Do you guys skip the metro if you have young kids?

That's how suburbanites see urban centers because they aren't used to that environment. Its very much a country mouse visiting his big city cousin.

Downplaying real crime and safety issues on metro and couching it in cutsey and dismissive language helps no one. People being shot on platforms during rush hour, stabbed in stations during rush hour, including major hubs like MC and LP did not happen in the past. A woman was just stabbed on a green line train at 5pm by stranger at NY on a day there were games at Nats Park and Audi.

Even "city mice" to borrow your term, deserve better than that.

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/04/woman-critical-stabbed-green-line/

That stabbing, by a stranger with a record, happened on a Sunday afternoon with lots of LE and crowds for baseball and soccer in the area.

Ride metro but be alert. Gel pepper spray is not a bad idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been riding metro daily for almost 30 years and I feel safe. A few times a year I change cars do to someone who is high or drunk etc..but that is about it. The new fare gates may help keep kids from just jumping in to just fool around which might make further improvements.

Kids ride free, although many of their parents use their student cards, from the light colors that flash. Still see loads of kids jumping new gates or sliding through. I avoid the system right after school lets out, same as always.

Sorry, what? (a) this is absolute nonsense, and (b) why are you so invested in other people's business that you are scanning the color of the lights on the fare gates when they get on the train?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went to the zoo last weekend and took the metro in. Admittedly, I haven't been on the metro in the past 5 years (before I had kids). I was shocked at how many people on the metro seem like they are half out of their minds. Screaming to themselves, smelling like feces, clearly on something, etc. I felt so uncomfortable having my kids near them and I regretted not just buying a zoo parking pass.

Maybe the metro has always been like this, but I never noticed before I had kids. Do you guys skip the metro if you have young kids?

Ugggh

[Anonymous]

My kids love riding on metro. But! OP, I completely understand where you are coming from. I commuted with a baby for about six months and I swear every train ride included someone reeking of pot or smoking next to my kid in a train car (!!!) or pee in an elevator or other nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Metro went really downhill during and after COVID. I say that as a daily Metro commuter, pre and post COVID. It goes in line with the general observation that people seemed to have forgotten how to act in public during COVID and that rule enforcement was lax on the metro when ridership dropped. There is a lot more issues with homeless soliciting on the metro, teens fighting or assaulting people, and general uncleanliness (openly smoking on the metro and, in one foul case, a homeless man defecating all over his seat and the floor around him that spread.) I never experienced this in the 15 years pre-COVID, and all of this in the last 3 years.

With that being said, while it's gotten worse, it's the minority of the time I spend on the metro and these are issues that you see in most other major public transit systems. I do feel safe taking my kid on the train, and we use it regularly. She'll need to learn to navigate the system if she's growing up here.

This is accurate. I think a lot of posters are invested in their urban lifestyles and refuse to see, at least admit, the obvious. There are definitely more people evading fares, panhandling right outside the stations or turnstiles, sleeping or nodding out in the seats, and otherwise behaving erratically or even in a hostile manner on the trains. It’s not at a level that dissuades me from riding Metro, but my guard is up generally in a way that wasn’t the case pre-Covid.

And the situation on the streets in downtown DC is similar. It’s like some people lost their support networks and then their minds, and now just wander around like angry zombies.

[Anonymous]

I ride it with my kids semi regularly and it's usually fine
Yes, a few times we've switched cars, but I think that is also a good lesson to learn.

[Anonymous]

The last time I rode with my kids, 4 teens (actually more likely preteens) were jostling each other and one accidentally ended up falling onto an older woman’s lap. She was startled and shrieked, and the group turned on her and started threatening her. It was very tense and the entire car emptied and moved to another car at the next stop.
I’d take them again though.

[Anonymous]

Metro is too expensive for 4 people. It costs as much as parking. And I’d much rather drive.

[Anonymous]

we’ve felt safe on metro with kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to the zoo last weekend and took the metro in. Admittedly, I haven't been on the metro in the past 5 years (before I had kids). I was shocked at how many people on the metro seem like they are half out of their minds. Screaming to themselves, smelling like feces, clearly on something, etc. I felt so uncomfortable having my kids near them and I regretted not just buying a zoo parking pass.

Maybe the metro has always been like this, but I never noticed before I had kids. Do you guys skip the metro if you have young kids?

That's how suburbanites see urban centers because they aren't used to that environment. Its very much a country mouse visiting his big city cousin.

Downplaying real crime and safety issues on metro and couching it in cutsey and dismissive language helps no one. People being shot on platforms during rush hour, stabbed in stations during rush hour, including major hubs like MC and LP did not happen in the past. A woman was just stabbed on a green line train at 5pm by stranger at NY on a day there were games at Nats Park and Audi.

Even "city mice" to borrow your term, deserve better than that.

Meh. You're still more likely to die in a car accident.

[Anonymous]

My kids take the red line every day. No reports of issues like OP's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to the zoo last weekend and took the metro in. Admittedly, I haven't been on the metro in the past 5 years (before I had kids). I was shocked at how many people on the metro seem like they are half out of their minds. Screaming to themselves, smelling like feces, clearly on something, etc. I felt so uncomfortable having my kids near them and I regretted not just buying a zoo parking pass.

Maybe the metro has always been like this, but I never noticed before I had kids. Do you guys skip the metro if you have young kids?

That's how suburbanites see urban centers because they aren't used to that environment. Its very much a country mouse visiting his big city cousin.

Cities shouldn’t be like this. I’m fine riding public transportation all over Asia and most of Europe, but every time I use it in the US, there are mentally unstable people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I'm happy to see that our experience doesn't seem to be the norm.

We took the silver line to the red line. Silver line (especially East Falls Church) was the one with the issues for us. We were on it around 8am on Sunday morning.

I think the PPs are right about public transportation being a good life skill. We will try again.

I ride the metro pretty regularly, and haven't seen what you see, but I'm in the city and usually stay within the city. Maybe things are worse out in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been riding metro daily for almost 30 years and I feel safe. A few times a year I change cars do to someone who is high or drunk etc..but that is about it. The new fare gates may help keep kids from just jumping in to just fool around which might make further improvements.

Kids ride free, although many of their parents use their student cards, from the light colors that flash. Still see loads of kids jumping new gates or sliding through. I avoid the system right after school lets out, same as always.

Sorry, what? (a) this is absolute nonsense, and (b) why are you so invested in other people's business that you are scanning the color of the lights on the fare gates when they get on the train?

The gate lights up in front of me when there are people moving through, I can see the color, kwim? Kid goes over, adult uses student card. Not uncommon. Get out more.