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Increased Urban Walkability For The Win
Twice this week, all the escalators at the Foggy Bottom Metro station have been inoperative, including yesterday during evening rush hour. Flickr user brownpau submitted this video to the DCist Video pool from the debacle on Monday, which resulted lines going on for blocks. Was it more of the same last night, Foggy Bottom travelers?
While we certainly have to be annoyed with WMATA for all the dysfunction this week, what we're really wondering is: why are all these people waiting in such crazy lines?? Of course if you're disabled or, perhaps, just wearing heels that give you blisters, sure, wait for the elevator at Foggy Bottom. But it was a gorgeous day outside both Monday and yesterday -- why wouldn't everyone else just truck it a few blocks over to Farragut West?
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I was wondering the same thing, why don't they just walk over to the next station. I guess some people are just lazy or like long lines.
brownpau: seriously, if you're out there, and you're reading this, pass that along to wmata's publicity people, and tell them that you'd like to see a second entrance to the station.
it's really ridiculous that such a busy station has only one entrance. with the construction going on now at square 54, they really should be building that second entrance. it's only going to get busier.
Probably for the same reason there are bus stops every block in DC.
Total, abject laziness.
Seriously! My Foggy Bottom-dwelling friend tells me that one escalator is stopped and available to use as stairs... why in the world don't all those [able-bodied] people in line just walk down? It's all of 30 stairs to the bottom, and it would free up the elevator to those who actually need it, not the people who are just lazy or winded from that bacon cheeseburger.
Pathetic.
awww, they're like little lemmings, all lined up to plunge over the ledge into the foggy bottom!
The GW students ought to set up a pastry cart for the fatsos in line. Might help defray the cost of their ludicrous education bill.
"i like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience."
oh mitch.
Well, with no maps on the outside of stations, anyone who wasn't familiar with the neighborhood might not have realized there was a nearby alternative.
Maybe Metro could pry someone out of their hermetically sealed booth go go tell people...
Problem Monday was that there was only one set of stairs open. The other two were blocked for repairs. Which means only half an escalator to get into the station.
Since Monday there have been two escalators available and, for our convenience, converted to stairs.
So by "inoperative" you must mean "taken apart and closed," right? The escalators at Foggy Bottom aren't even very long ones, so if they were just in a stopped position (*insert Mitch Hedberg quote here*) the vast majority of people would just walk up and down them, right?
I'm reminded of a Stephen Wright joke: "Pardon us. Escalators are temporarily stairs."
It's been a few months since I've used the Foggy Bottom station, so I'm not aware of the particular circumstances, but were all three escalators unavailable for use as stairs?
Also, if the only exit to the station was the lone elevator, why didn't they just close the station? It seems like a hazard to allow people to use a station in which the only exit is an elevator not designed for heavy use. Silly Metro.
Er, Mitch Hedberg. Same difference.
Metro should seriously think about installing firemen's poles ... I haven't had one break down on me yet!
yesterday wasn't bad at all--walked straight down with no line. i was prepared to go to farragut west as i did on monday.
i love your screenname, cease and dcist!
God forbid anyone in this city actually communicate with another human being and (gasp) maybe ask someone where the Farragut West station is. People are so lazy, I'm sure that line took hours.
Also this does seem like a major fire hazard.
Thanks, IMGoph. My screenname has won several Major Awards.
I thought that was Mitch Hedburg.
Ah well, my new mode of transport. These here jumpy boots. Much better then the gas powered russian model.
@SirCoop: yeah, that's definitely the makings of a serious stampede right there.
@IMGoph - I already did. On FOX5 News Edge, no less! - http://is.gd/181D
I was in that crowd on Monday. Yes, they did only have one escalator open (as in the other two were taken apart and closed), so we could only use one half of the escalator, hence the slow down. I went down the line (took maybe 10 minutes) because after making the 10 minute walk to the station in uncomfortable shoes from my job, I figured I might as well make those phone calls I needed to make anyway.
And to everyone who asks why we couldn't go down faster - well, you're only as fast as the person in front of you. Sometimes, that person is older, wearing heels and afraid of escalator treads (I hate those people a lot, btw), a tourist, an ambler, or all of the above.
The best part was that the instant I actually made into the station, they offloaded an orange train.
From experience I can tell you that most of these folks live in VA and only go from their house to foggy bottom metro, to work and back. They have no clue how to get anywhere else in the city, so they wouldn't have even thought of trying to walk over to Farragut West.
@NotTheRedBaron: Dude, c'mon -- I live in Rosslyn and am familiar with how to use Metro, how to get to Farragut West from Foggy Bottom and *gasp* plenty of other places around the District via public transportation. I even know the route through Georgetown and back home. We're not all retarded monkeys in Virginia, you know.
I would take one look at that and just hoof it either to Pennsylvania and pick up the 38B or to the Farragut West station. It's only 4 blocks you lazy sacks.
There were actually about 3 or 4 days over the last couple of weeks that none of the three escalators was working (one's under construction, so I guess it's only two). Anyway...at one point they had a metro guy directing people to use the RIGHT escalator. The most annoying thing in the world is when people are so f$#king inconsiderate and walk up/down the escalator in the opposite direction of everyone on it. Come on, now, there's still a slow line and a fast line, and they always block the fast line for those of us who are actually in a hurry. /rant.