WMATA lies

[Keith F. Lynch]

The back cover of yesterday's _Washington Post Express_, a free
daily tabloid-format newspaper published by _The Washington Post_
and distributed at Metro stations, was a full-page ad by WMATA, the
organization that runs the greater Washington DC area Metro system.

Part of that ad said:

Metro Travel Tip

Sometimes walking a little is faster than transferring from line to
line. That's especially true downtown where Metrorail stations are
close together. Here's one example: it's only a block between
Farragut North (Red Line) and Farragut West (Orange/Blue Line).
Walking that block could be faster than transferring between lines
at Metro Center.

In today's paper, there was a letter by Shari Acree commenting on that
ad, correctly pointing out that this would mean paying two full fares
instead of one, and that the ad neglected to mention this. (For
instance a single rush-hour round trip between Vienna and Shady Grove
would cost $7.80 if one transfers at Metro Center, but a whopping
$14.70 if one takes Metro's "helpful" advice. The latter would add
up to more than $3,600 a year for a daily commute.)

So far so good. But that letter was followed by the following:

Metro's Response: According to spokesman Steven Taubenkibel, the ad
was not meant to tell riders to exit a station and transfer, but to
suggest that riders in an area with multiple nearby Metro stations
start their trip at a station that reaches their destination
directly rather than one that would require a transfer.

If that isn't a direct lie, I don't know what is.

(At Metro's "town hall" meeting I suggested that instead of digging
an expensive tunnel between those two stations, and a similar tunnel
between Metro Center and Gallery Place, that the billing software be
adjusted to bill a double trip in which a rider exits a station and
immediately enters an adjacent station as if the rider had remained
in the system. Supposedly nobody had suggested that before. That's
possible, but unlikely.)

(I'm CCing everyone mentioned.)

[John Mara]

Post by Keith F. Lynch
The back cover of yesterday's _Washington Post Express_, a free
daily tabloid-format newspaper published by _The Washington Post_
and distributed at Metro stations, was a full-page ad by WMATA, the
organization that runs the greater Washington DC area Metro system.
Metro Travel Tip
Sometimes walking a little is faster than transferring from line to
line. That's especially true downtown where Metrorail stations are
close together. Here's one example: it's only a block between
Farragut North (Red Line) and Farragut West (Orange/Blue Line).
Walking that block could be faster than transferring between lines
at Metro Center.
In today's paper, there was a letter by Shari Acree commenting on that
ad, correctly pointing out that this would mean paying two full fares
instead of one, and that the ad neglected to mention this. (For
instance a single rush-hour round trip between Vienna and Shady Grove
would cost $7.80 if one transfers at Metro Center, but a whopping
$14.70 if one takes Metro's "helpful" advice. The latter would add
up to more than $3,600 a year for a daily commute.)
Metro's Response: According to spokesman Steven Taubenkibel, the ad
was not meant to tell riders to exit a station and transfer, but to
suggest that riders in an area with multiple nearby Metro stations
start their trip at a station that reaches their destination
directly rather than one that would require a transfer.
If that isn't a direct lie, I don't know what is.

I guess you could interpret it either way but I took it to mean that it's
not worth transferring to get a block closer to your destination.

John Mara

[Keith F. Lynch]

Post by John Mara
I guess you could interpret it either way but I took it to mean that
it's not worth transferring to get a block closer to your destination.

I don't see how that's a possible reading. The ad clearly suggested
exiting at Farragut North and re-entering at Farragut West to shorten
a trip. And it *would* save about ten minutes -- at a cost of several
dollars.

[John Mara]

Post by Keith F. Lynch

Post by John Mara
I guess you could interpret it either way but I took it to mean that
it's not worth transferring to get a block closer to your destination.

I don't see how that's a possible reading. The ad clearly suggested
exiting at Farragut North and re-entering at Farragut West to shorten
a trip. And it *would* save about ten minutes -- at a cost of several
dollars.

"Sometimes walking a little is faster than transferring from line to line."

If you leave a station and reenter another station you are still
tansferring.

John Mara

[J***@tricolour.queensu.ca]

Post by Keith F. Lynch

Post by John Mara
I guess you could interpret it either way but I took it to mean that
it's not worth transferring to get a block closer to your destination.

I don't see how that's a possible reading. The ad clearly suggested
exiting at Farragut North and re-entering at Farragut West to shorten
a trip. And it *would* save about ten minutes -- at a cost of several
dollars.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

Does this mean there are no daily, weekly or monthly passes for the
system? For a pass holder this advice would seem to make a lot of
sense.

John Kane
Kingston ON

[David Lesher]

Post by J***@tricolour.queensu.ca
Does this mean there are no daily, weekly or monthly passes for the
system? For a pass holder this advice would seem to make a lot of
sense.

There are some weekly passes, but I've never actually seen anyone
use one. The One-Day pass is popular with tourists; I've used one
on days were I was here/there/everywhere. It's a PITA because you
can not buy it with a BigBrother card, or trade in a farecard...unless
the farecard value is less than/equal to $6.50

http://www.wmata.com/riding/passes.cfm#Metrorail

[M Eckenwiler]

Post by David Lesher

Post by J***@tricolour.queensu.ca
Does this mean there are no daily, weekly or monthly passes for the
system? For a pass holder this advice would seem to make a lot of
sense.

There are some weekly passes, but I've never actually seen anyone
use one. The One-Day pass is popular with tourists; I've used one
on days were I was here/there/everywhere. It's a PITA because you
can not buy it with a BigBrother card, or trade in a farecard...unless
the farecard value is less than/equal to $6.50

My son takes Metro/bus across town to school (DCPS, for the record)
using a monthly student pass.

[J***@tricolour.queensu.ca]

Post by David Lesher

Post by J***@tricolour.queensu.ca
Does this mean there are no daily, weekly or monthly passes for the
system? For a pass holder this advice would seem to make a lot of
sense.

There are some weekly passes, but I've never actually seen anyone
use one. The One-Day pass is popular with tourists; I've used one
on days were I was here/there/everywhere. It's a PITA because you
can not buy it with a BigBrother card, or trade in a farecard...unless
the farecard value is less than/equal to $6.50
http://www.wmata.com/riding/passes.cfm#Metrorail

Thanks. It looks a bit like only the Transit Link pass is anything like
the monthly pass I was thinking of and after poking around for a bit on
the above site it appears that it is a)overkill and b) much too
expensive.

I'm used to local (bus/subway/light rail) passes that range from about
$CDN65 - $CDN 100 for basic metropolitan service.

John Kane
Kingston ON

[Keith F. Lynch]

Post by David Lesher
There are some weekly passes, but I've never actually seen anyone
use one.

They aren't cost effective except to people who spend all day every
day riding back and forth.

Post by David Lesher
The One-Day pass is popular with tourists;

Except the ones who get one first thing in the morning, not noticing
that it isn't valid until after 9:30 am. Or the ones who unexpectedly
discover that it covers only part of the fare of express buses, exact
change being required for the difference.

[David Lesher]

Post by Keith F. Lynch
(At Metro's "town hall" meeting I suggested that instead of digging
an expensive tunnel between those two stations, and a similar tunnel
between Metro Center and Gallery Place, that the billing software be
adjusted to bill a double trip in which a rider exits a station and
immediately enters an adjacent station as if the rider had remained
in the system. Supposedly nobody had suggested that before. That's
possible, but unlikely.)

Suspect that's harder than it looks at first glance, but it is what
we heard about for Metro Center<->Gallery Place.

Why hard? Well, You try and exit at F-N to reenter at F-W. Oops,
AddFare (now ExitFare) time...OR you have the exit F-N fare left.
In either case, card is grabbed at F-N. Now what?

And how long a window to reenter do you allow?

So do they require BigBrother cards for re-entry? Or fix both the
exit gates and ExitFare machines somehow?

[l***@gmail.com]

IIRC, Chicago's rail system has a free subway-to-elevated (and vice
versa) transfer that allows 15 minutes from the exit of one to the
entrance of the other. It's basically a two-story escalator ride so the
time allowed is plenty. I don't know if this is being eliminated with
the new no-transfer fare structure....

[Keith F. Lynch]

Post by David Lesher

Post by Keith F. Lynch
(At Metro's "town hall" meeting I suggested that instead of digging
an expensive tunnel between those two stations, and a similar tunnel
between Metro Center and Gallery Place, that the billing software be
adjusted to bill a double trip in which a rider exits a station and
immediately enters an adjacent station as if the rider had remained
in the system. Supposedly nobody had suggested that before. That's
possible, but unlikely.)

Suspect that's harder than it looks at first glance, but it is what
we heard about for Metro Center<-> Gallery Place.
Why hard? Well, You try and exit at F-N to reenter at F-W. Oops,
AddFare (now ExitFare) time...OR you have the exit F-N fare left.
In either case, card is grabbed at F-N. Now what?
And how long a window to reenter do you allow?
So do they require BigBrother cards for re-entry? Or fix both the
exit gates and ExitFare machines somehow?

Yes, I was thinking that a SmarTrip card would be needed for the
discount. They're probably going to phase out farecards anyway.

What's the objection to those cards? They don't require you to
register them. So they are able to track where my card goes.
So what? They can't associate it with *me*.

As for how long a window to reenter, they choose some reasonable
amount of time, e.g. the time it takes the slowest quartile of
pedestrians to walk that far if both traffic lights are against
them and all the escalators are stopped. Then double it. It's
not like people could easily abuse it. Not even if their workplace
was directly between Farragut West and Farragut North (as mine is!)
unless they have a *very* short workday.

[David Lesher]

Post by Keith F. Lynch

Post by David Lesher
So do they require BigBrother cards for re-entry? Or fix both the
exit gates and ExitFare machines somehow?

Yes, I was thinking that a SmarTrip card would be needed for the
discount. They're probably going to phase out farecards anyway.
What's the objection to those cards? They don't require you to
register them. So they are able to track where my card goes.
So what? They can't associate it with *me*.

Sure they can. You get stopped by PG's finest (Mopery, wearing a
loud shirt, you name it..). They confiscate your BB Card. They go
to Metro and pull a complete history of your travel. WMATA recently
admitted they do not purge data, and until recently, didn't even
log police requests for same...

[Robert Cote]

Post by Keith F. Lynch
The back cover of yesterday's _Washington Post Express_, a free
daily tabloid-format newspaper published by _The Washington Post_
and distributed at Metro stations, was a full-page ad by WMATA, the
organization that runs the greater Washington DC area Metro system.
Metro Travel Tip
Sometimes walking a little is faster than transferring from line to
line. That's especially true downtown where Metrorail stations are
close together. Here's one example: it's only a block between
Farragut North (Red Line) and Farragut West (Orange/Blue Line).
Walking that block could be faster than transferring between lines
at Metro Center.
In today's paper, there was a letter by Shari Acree commenting on that
ad, correctly pointing out that this would mean paying two full fares
instead of one, and that the ad neglected to mention this. (For
instance a single rush-hour round trip between Vienna and Shady Grove
would cost $7.80 if one transfers at Metro Center, but a whopping
$14.70 if one takes Metro's "helpful" advice. The latter would add
up to more than $3,600 a year for a daily commute.)

I'm confused by the difference between Metro's fares and Metro's
reported revenue. The average trip pays only $1.20 but I keep seeing
all these $3.90 trips being held up as examples.

Post by Keith F. Lynch
Metro's Response: According to spokesman Steven Taubenkibel, the ad
was not meant to tell riders to exit a station and transfer, but to
suggest that riders in an area with multiple nearby Metro stations
start their trip at a station that reaches their destination
directly rather than one that would require a transfer.
If that isn't a direct lie, I don't know what is.

Transitspeak.

[slake]

Base rail fare: $1.35 .. You go out the city yuou will hit the $3.00
mark.

The average trip cost of $1.20 you see is once you include metro bus
where most people ride on passes, and have the transfers... I heard
somewhere the average bus fare collected is $0.60 ... even though base
bus is $1.20.

I am not aware of what rail discounts exists..

Post by Robert Cote
I'm confused by the difference between Metro's fares and Metro's
reported revenue. The average trip pays only $1.20 but I keep seeing
all these $3.90 trips being held up as examples.

Post by Keith F. Lynch
Metro's Response: According to spokesman Steven Taubenkibel, the ad
was not meant to tell riders to exit a station and transfer, but to
suggest that riders in an area with multiple nearby Metro stations
start their trip at a station that reaches their destination
directly rather than one that would require a transfer.
If that isn't a direct lie, I don't know what is.

Transitspeak.

[Robert Cote]

Post by slake
Base rail fare: $1.35 .. You go out the city yuou will hit the $3.00
mark.
The average trip cost of $1.20 you see is once you include metro bus
where most people ride on passes, and have the transfers...

No. Quite the opposite. The average rail fare is $1.20 not the average
WAMTA fare which is $384,099,606 and 391,992,038 annual unlinked trips
or $0.98.

http://www.ntdprogram.com/NTD/Profiles.nsf/2003+30+Largest+Agencies/3030/
$File/3030.pdf

Post by slake
I heard
somewhere the average bus fare collected is $0.60 ... even though base
bus is $1.20.

Not even close and an accounting lie at that.

Post by slake
I am not aware of what rail discounts exists..

We'll ignore the FAct that the very highest fares are far far below the
lowest costs and are by definition discounts and move on to the honest
question. Transfers are revenue preferential towards rail.

Post by slake

Post by Robert Cote
I'm confused by the difference between Metro's fares and Metro's
reported revenue. The average trip pays only $1.20 but I keep seeing
all these $3.90 trips being held up as examples.

Post by Keith F. Lynch
Metro's Response: According to spokesman Steven Taubenkibel, the ad
was not meant to tell riders to exit a station and transfer, but to
suggest that riders in an area with multiple nearby Metro stations
start their trip at a station that reaches their destination
directly rather than one that would require a transfer.
If that isn't a direct lie, I don't know what is.

Transitspeak.