By brownpau
Strike one: Calling 911 to complain about I-95 traffic. Strike two: Cursing out the operator when he asks why you’re calling 911 to complain about traffic. Strike three: Voice mail greeting saying you’re working on a “very important family political project.” Joe The McCain, you’re out.
By Wayan
The view from United Premier Executive seats is so much better
For those that fly often, there is not a sense of envy with the gate agent allows First Class and elite frequent flyers to board the plane first. No, there is only lust for such benefits that are often so close yet so far away at this time of year.
See, frequent flyer status is earned annually. For United, you’ll need at least 50,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) by December 31st to maintain Premier Executive status. It may be one up from cattle class, but when you do long hauls to Europe or red-eyes from the West Coast, those emergency row seats or First Class upgrades make the flights oh so much better.
Which brings us to mileage runs – the act of flying just to maintain elite frequent flyer status. It may sound crazy, but there is a whole airline subculture focused on just such acts of desperation. And this year, at 39,200 EQMs, I’m hell-bent on earning 10,801 more by December 31, 2008.
Wanna learn how I’m doing it at no cost to me? Then keep reading…
By Ben H. Rome
Biking on Steps, courtesy of M.V. Jantzen
Lots of odds and ends for this rundown. We’ve got VRE hikes, DC bike angst, and more Metro news than you can shake a SmarTrip card at.
VRE: Looks like after some review, the VRE will not be raising fares by 15 percent in January, but only a “modest” 7 percent. Which, I’m sure for VRE households like mine is a lot easier to swallow. But it’s also more likely that we’ll see another fare hike again in July of next year. The original plan was a 10 percent bump for July along with the January spike; VRE didn’t say anything about the summer hike but with the lower rate boost in January it only makes it more likely the July hit will remain the same. Unless fuel prices drop dramatically, that is.
By Don
foggy-metro, courtesy of frozenchipmunk
Maybe the better question should be, who’s not selling any metro ads?
For the umpteenth time today my westbound train on the orange line took me past the Dunn Loring stop and an ad for Hancock, opening July 2nd. What was a movie ad that was far past its expiration date has now aged so much that it just needs a small sticker to turn it into an early DVD release promotion.
Aside from the trauma caused by an early-morning exposure to an unshaven Will Smith in a grubby hat and bug-eye sunglasses, I am bothered by this question: there’s really not someone else willing to pay a few bucks for this spot? I suppose it’s possible the studio – in a fit of optimism – bought the space for a full 3 months past the movie’s release date, but it seems unlikely to me.
WMATA’s ads are sold primarily by CBS Outdoor, though a special marketing company handles the in-tunnel ads. The take from advertising across the system is what most of us would consider a pretty notable sum – $33,000,000 in 2007. However that comprises only 2% of WMATA’s total revenues, compared to passenger revenue of 36% and subsidies of 39%.
The question is, I think – could it be higher? I’d try to get some more information on WMATA’s advertising arrangements and dig a little to see if they’re really maximizing their return but it seems they’re unlikely to accomidate me.
By Ben H. Rome
Metro SmarTrip Card, courtesy of Mr. T in DC
Metro has announced they are moving forward with their plans to eliminate the free paper-to-bus transfers, as well as the discounted rail-to-bus transfers, beginning on January 4 of next year. Discounts aren’t going away, however – you just have to have a SmarTrip card to get it.
There’s a lot of flak hitting Metro for the decision, however. Riders groups in the area have mentioned a few concerns, namely that of time and money.
By Tom Bridge
Four Line Announcements
Originally uploaded by brownpau
Paulo captured this shot of the new Metro sign format for announcements. The old side-scrolling versions are thankfully history as they were nearly impossible to read. Thankfully, Metro’s embracing some good IA these days and going for something that’s a bit more passenger friendly than the crawl, which tended to cause crowds of gawkers while the waited for the message to finish displaying.
By brownpau
Here’s a quick, fuzzy video of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty at Union Station, announcing the new Bicycle Center:
By Tom Bridge
When I saw this morning on Google Maps that New York City’s Subway system was finally part of Google Transit, I got mighty curious: What’s Metro doing to work on this? So, I asked WMATA’s Lisa Farbstein what was going on. Metro’s response, via Lisa, was “We have been working with Google, however a formal agreement has yet to be finalized.”
It would be so delightful if I could point people at Google Maps to do the routing, as anyone who’s ever used the Metro Public Transit Mapping Tool would know. C’mon Metro, if New York can do it, we can too, yeah?
By brownpau
The Union Station driveway by 1st St NE (directly above the Metro station) has been fenced off and is ready to be dug up for the upcoming Union Station Bicycle Center, a futuristic-looking glass-and-steel dome beside the Metro with secure bike racks, changing rooms, and storage lockers for DC bicyclists. DDOT expects to have the Center finished by next spring. Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
New parking stand
Originally uploaded by tbridge
You might’ve seen the new parking stands at the Courthouse parking lot, featuring space numbers, credit card machines, and time tags that you leave on your dashboard, but these machines are spreading rapidly. They showed up on Fairfax Drive near the new power substation recently, and are all marked with the “Coming Soon” text. The new boxes will transition all the meters on the street to 4 hour max meters. Many meters on the street are currently 12 hour meters, which means that they’re friendly to people who work in the surrounding area. Oh well, guess it’s just four hours for you, now!
By Ben H. Rome
Busted Ass Bus, courtesy of tbridge
Lately, strikes, cuts and hikes have one thing in common in transit around here. More specifically, the Fairfax Connector, Maryland budget woes, and VRE fare hikes.
Fairfax Connector: Today is Day 2 of the bus driver strike, where drivers are holding out for a new contract with better pension and health benefits. The old contract ended on Sunday.
Yesterday, the first day of the strike, saw 16 routes get canceled and eight others put on a reduced schedule. Servicing over 20,000 commuters a day, the strike only affects the routes serving southern Fairfax County as the striking drivers are from the Huntington garage. The Herndon-based drivers are under a different contract so there is no reduction of service from routes originating there.
By Wayan
Someone is going to have a very bad week if they don't pay up soon
Do you live in Maryland and own a Mazda 4-door with the license plate number 6EDM72? Might you have parked it on the west side of the 1200 block of Potomac Street NW on Thursday, September 11th? Then the DC parking police say you overstayed your welcome on a residential street.
They recorded the car there at 3:48pm and at 6:31pm, issuing you a $30 ticket for being parked for more than two hours on a zone parking street. Oddly, you may not know of this infraction and fine as I found your parking ticket floating through Rock Creek Park yesterday.
I suggest that you either fight the ticket (good luck!) or use the handy Online Ticket Payment system to settle with the District for the $30. But you better be quick.
No matter if the ticket escaped before you noticed it, the fine will double in 30 days if you do not respond, and after 60 days you could get the boot.
By Ben H. Rome
Pentagon, courtesy of tsmyther
The Pentagon will open the first of three memorials for the victims of the September 11 attacks on Thursday. The memorial will be available to visitors 24 hours a day.
A dedication ceremony will be given tomorrow morning; the site will open to the public in the evening.
If you’re planning on driving / commuting near the Pentagon tomorrow, there’s some things you need to know.
By Ben H. Rome
Traffic, courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik
Yesterday was “Terrible Traffic Tuesday” – the dreaded day after Labor Day when everyone in the region hits the rush hour roads after the summer stretch of vacations.
However, some good news came out yesterday for commuters from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. While it may not be as beltway-shattering as new construction projects or Metro passenger records, it’s still pretty important.
Yesterday, the council unveiled their newly revamped Commuter Connections website. Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
Apparently, the first thieves have tried to get their hands on a SmartBike. It was a complete failure, according to WTOP:
Someone tried to steal a SmartBike from the rack at the Shaw SmartBike location over the weekend, D.C. Department of Transportation spokesperson Karyn LeBlanc says.
“The person came and took the back tire and lifted it – physically lifted it over the rack – in hopes that it would snap the lock,” LeBlanc says.
The rack proved too mighty for this thief, however, and the bike did not come off the rack. SmartBikes are secured into racks by steel locks.
You’re going to have to try harder than that to get one of the SmartBikes…
By brownpau
This gets old really fast, but all three escalators at Foggy Bottom Metro Station are out once again, with only one available to act as both up and down stairs for a rush hour crowd this afternoon. GW Hatchet has details, and as usual, I was on hand to get video:
By brownpau
A Metrobus crashed into an Alexandria apartment last night. No one was injured as the resident wasn’t home and the driver had just offloaded his passengers due to a door problem — just before the bus started rolling away — but both apartment and bus appear to have been totalled. WJLA has more, and here’s some video of the scene from Associated Press:
By Brittany
photo: Adam Tuss/WTOP Photo
As shorter people across the metro area (myself included) know, the bars that run along the top of the middle of Metro cars can be quite high, leaving some to crowd around the vertical poles for security. On a full train, this was always challenging, but the problem was exacerbated when WMATA redesigned cars to have even fewer of these poles.
WTOP now reports that WMATA is looking into the issue and will begin adding nylon loops to the ceiling bars in the style seen on many other urban transit systems.
Continue reading
By Ben H. Rome
DSC_9921, courtesy of juan.barredo
Two items of interest today for commuters on both sides of the Potomac: Tysons Corner and MARC.
Tysons Corner. It’s a name that sends shivers up most North Virginian commuters’ spines. Notorious for traffic flow “issues” and the spawning of language more suitable for “R” rated movies, the Tysons area is one big, over-bloated, dysfunctional urban mess.
So can it be fixed? Is it really possible to make Tysons a more commuter- and pedestrian-friendly place to be?
By brownpau
Quick update on the Foggy Bottom Metro escalators: Friday’s mess was the result of a passenger’s footwear getting stuck on the middle escalator that afternoon, closing it down in addition to the already-under-repair first escalator, so that only one escalator was left open to serve as stairs. As of today, two escalators are open but shut down, both serving as stairs. Continue reading
