I used to take Metro until recently. What a nightmare it has become!

No. We never use Metro.

My house is worth nearly $1M and is walking distance (15 min?) to metro. I take it when I calculate that metro travel time (actual time + frequency of trains) will be faster than driving or biking, including time for finding parking.

Metro almost never comes out ahead--maybe once every couple of months.

And yes, I will own my "privilege" and admit that being in a position to own and operate a car buys me time.

Drive to work: 45 minutes in my air-conditioned car, sitting in a leather seat, listening to my music or the radio.

Metro to work: 25 minutes; OR, 1.5 hours; OR 1 hour, then get off at some random place, then find an Uber. In all of these, air conditioning may or may not work; I will not have a seat; and I will be listening to some jerk's music blastinf audibly out of his headphones, and/or screeching/grinding noise from the loudspeakers (if they work).

I usually drive. If I Metro to work I might arrive at 8:50, or 9:30, or 11. My job is flexible, but not that flexible. Metro does not work for professionals seeking reliable transport.

We don't.

I WAH and DH finds it much quicker to drive to Crystal City than Metro from Clarendon.

Relatives use it from Union Station when they visit from NYC or sight-see when they are here.

I uber if I go out to dinner in the city and will be imbibing. We are close that it's quicker to drive into DC.

Financier here. At the start of this thread, I was willing to believe buyers of $2.5M homes in AU Park were dumb money. By the end of it, I'm convinced those who are thinking cars will save them are dumb money. Trade accordingly!

Anonymous wrote:Our nanny won't even use the metro cause of the bums and thugs that ride it.

And since you clearly view the person who cares for your children as "less than", the fact that even she won't use the metro must say a lot!

Anonymous wrote:It is gross, dangerous and never on time. No thanks!

Commuting via car is objectively more dangerous, is worse for the environment & ,far more often than not, takes longer. No thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you people seeing all these dirty, disturbed, and impoverished people defecating in the Metro? I've lived here since 1994 and have ridden the Metro thousands of times. Once in a blue moon there's a nutjob in my train car... and what of it? Just don't make eye contact and get off and switch to the next car is you can't handle it. The huge majority of the time it's just normal people commuting. Are you THAT sensitive to seeing human frailty or instability? It messes with you so much that you've sworn off Metro completely and then makes you denigrate the people that take it? WTH?

Get your head out of the sand. People spit and urinate on trains all the time. Vermin with lice/bed bugs, eating fish, with coughs, drunks and druggies. Thugs robbing people.

Significant positive correlation between "get your head out of the sand" and racist/classist/unhinged comments on DCUM.

Metro seems to have stopped enforcing the law against eating and drinking. The trains are a lot dirtier as a result. The "broken windows" theory has some validity. When quality of life laws are not enforced, the thugs sense that no once cares including the police and they take more liberties to commit serious crimes.

It is gross, dangerous and never on time. No thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Here's the truth: people urinate frequently in the seats behind the plexiglass at the ends of the trains. These are the seats that are arranged with just 2 seats against the back wall of the train. I have heard these called "the stalls" because they get peed on so often. If you notice, even during rush hour these seats are rarely occupied. Locals know to avoid them. Unsuck DC Metro has posted some vids of people peeing on these seats. They're mostly for tourists who don't know better.

Jesus Christ you sound like such a suburbanite. Did you really google search WMATA pics to post? Have you ever actually been on a train? Because I guarantee during rush hour, those seats are taken. You can barely get ON a train at rush hour and the standing crowd is 3 rows deep for the next train. Idiot.

Anonymous wrote:Here's the truth: people urinate frequently in the seats behind the plexiglass at the ends of the trains. These are the seats that are arranged with just 2 seats against the back wall of the train. I have heard these called "the stalls" because they get peed on so often. If you notice, even during rush hour these seats are rarely occupied. Locals know to avoid them. Unsuck DC Metro has posted some vids of people peeing on these seats. They're mostly for tourists who don't know better.

?

Here's the truth: people urinate frequently in the seats behind the plexiglass at the ends of the trains. These are the seats that are arranged with just 2 seats against the back wall of the train. I have heard these called "the stalls" because they get peed on so often. If you notice, even during rush hour these seats are rarely occupied. Locals know to avoid them. Unsuck DC Metro has posted some vids of people peeing on these seats. They're mostly for tourists who don't know better.

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda to the Hill at 7am is fine, but all the other routes throughout the day are sketchy and gross. And honestly, just depressing. I prefer the solitude and comfort of my own car, listening to classical music, NPR, or Michael Savage on the way home.

Cleveland Park to Friendship Heights at 3 pm?
Farragut West to Clarendon at 10 am?
U Street to Franconia at 5 pm?

"Sketchy and gross"? Alrighty then.

Yes, your car is comfortable and you prefer it. But can you imagine the absolute gridlock if everybody,like you, chose to just drive? No one would be going ANYWHERE.

Bethesda to the Hill at 7am is fine, but all the other routes throughout the day are sketchy and gross. And honestly, just depressing. I prefer the solitude and comfort of my own car, listening to classical music, NPR, or Michael Savage on the way home.