JULY 3, 2008

Metro: Crowded And Broken

Because I used to ride the D.C. Metro every day, and a lot of my coworkers take advantage of riding the Metro (not all of us have Phuong’s love of commuting), I am always fascinated by news reports surrounding public transportation issues.

One article in particular, published in May in The Wall Street Journal, made me wonder: can public transportation handle the recent strain caused by budget-conscious people who are deciding not to drive?  I’m not so sure it can.  From the article:

After decades trying to gin up enthusiasm for their services, public transit agencies are now having trouble meeting rising demand as more commuters dodge high gasoline prices by hopping on a train or bus.

Under normal circumstances, the surge in ridership would be a boon to the agencies, which have long argued that public transit is one of the best ways to combat social ills such as traffic congestion and global warming.

But at the very moment they should be investing to expand their services, the same driver that is ballooning ridership is crippling transit budgets: steep fuel bills. As record numbers of people board buses and trains, higher costs are forcing public transit agencies to scale back on services, further straining capacity. Local transit agencies fret that the capacity problems may squander the opportunity to convert more Americans to public transportation.

The WSJ piece states that 66% of people would change their commute if gas prices rose to $5.00/gallon.

Although I am a big advocate of saving fuel and money, wherever possible, I am worried that commuters may pay a price for flocking to the stations all at the same time.  Hopefully the public transit industry will not sacrifice service because demand is so high that they think they can get away with anything (much like my enemy, the airline industry, has done).