THE TROUBLE WITH LEFTISM (NOT WHAT YOU THINK)

Every once in a great while, along comes a written work that perfectly captures one's thoughts and emotions so perfectly that it almost seems impossible you didn't write it yourself. For some people it's "Catcher in the Rye," for others it's "The Fountainhead." For me it is Lyndsey Layton's "Standing on the Left? You must be on vacation" from this morning's Post.

I'm not 100% sure what all Sartre meant by "hell is other people," but I'd like to think it applies to the Washington Metro system, and even more specifically to its escalators. Layton would need another article to address everything wrong with those escalators (i.e. they are always broken) but she does enough for now by highlighting my other key gripe: the out-of-towners who insist on standing along the lefthand side of the escalator, which anyone who knows anything about the Metro knows is meant for walking. But the tourists don't know this, of course, because there are no signs that say so. Layton explains why:

Years ago, Metro bolted small metal "Stand to Right" plaques to some escalators but then removed them, concerned that the message was an implicit endorsement of walking, something the transit system officially condemns. "We advocate that people do not walk, for safety reasons," said Goodine, adding that escalators are the place where most injuries occur inside Metro stations. Escalator injuries are declining but are still a major concern, he said."Unfortunately, we have this practice, and it's universal," Goodine said. "What are we going to do? Post a pedestrian traffic cop at every escalator? We have to come up with a way to address this, but right now our policy is, to ensure maximum safety, stand, don't run or walk, on the escalators."

No! Wrong! Look Metro, if you're not going to put a "pedestrian traffic cop" at the top of the Metro, then why even pretend to have such a policy? Of course, the "Stand to Right" signs weren't replaced with "Please Stand" signs. What is this, Metro has a policy? It's like John Kerry's plan for the war on terrorism.

And it's so like a local government bureaucracy to stonewall the solution to a half-assed policy. Metro does what every other quasi-city agency I've ever dealt with (mostly Portland Parks and Recreation) does and that's nothing. Not only can they not fix their escalators, but they can't fix an escalator policy that nobody knows about. I wonder how many of them were aware of all this until today.

Downtown at Cap Lounge there's a sign up on the wall canonizing Marion Barry "Mayor for Life.". In some ways, this is still Mr. Barry's town.

P.S. Washingtonpost.com, did you notice the web site you linked to in this story prominently featured the word "hatefucked"?

P.P.S. It must transportation day at the Post, which reports on the world's first commercial maglev train, just opened in Shanghai. And guess what? Nobody's riding it! Who could ever have guessed such a thing?

P.P.P.S. No kidding it's transportation day at the Post -- did you hear about what's going on with Carter's former Secretary of Transportation?

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posted by WWB at 8:06 PM |