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Reader Michael Griffith sends us this picture and a report from his Metro ride this morning, where he encountered the new spring-loaded handles that Metro is currently testing. Older cars have gotten boring (but probably just as effective) vinyl straps, but the stainless steel is the wave of the future! From the looks of it though, they aren't really being used that much...yet. Said Michael:
No one was using nor commenting on the handles...I also gave them a tug and discovered they're spring-loaded and pull down pretty easily. They don't seem very useful the way it's implemented. I would also express minor concern of fingers and things getting caught in the joints with the way the handles pull down. You'd have to be a pretty big idiot to get anything stuck in there, but then again, there are quite a few pretty big idiots out there.Ouch. Anyway, Michael also noted that if you're anywhere close to six feet tall, they aren't really helpful and that "they're pointed towards the seats - it seems like people would use them if they were pointed the other way." On the other hand, by swinging over the seats, they aren't obstructing standing room in the aisle.
Those of you who have complained in our comments section about the lack of handles on Metro know what to do.
Photo by Michael Griffith, used with permission.
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Now....maybe I'm the incredibly stupid one...but i'm 4'11". I don't even come close to those bars. Am I supposed to jump on a chair and grab the handle or just tap everyone around me and ask them to get me a handle?
Does anyone else see this as COMPLETELY nonsensical?
If you're trying to help out us short people, why do it in a way that still makes it difficult?
* sigh *
Tall people strike again.
Pointed towards the seats? Alright!! I can't wait for a heavily BO-laden chap to lean over and dangle his junk right in my face! Woohoo!
Saw the vinyl straps on the Red Line yesterday. Seemed perfect to hang someone that's crowding the doors.
Depending on the strength of the springs, couldn't this result in short people being hoisted up to the ceiling and tossed around? Kinda like dwarf tossing. That could be even more entertaining than those flickering Target ads in the tunnels.
Spiment - Have you considered a career in midget porn? Metro has its own built-in distribution channel.
Um...in the picture: nobody's using them because they're all in seats perhaps?
Maybe a report from a train that actually has standing passengers would be a little more informative?
Yep - this just looks like you'll be getting a rank pit in your grill someday soon.
These look monumentally useless. If you're too short to reach the bar, how on earth are you going to reach these handles? If you're standing in the aisle, the lowest part of the handle is going to be even further away than the ceiling bar. Have any short people actually tried to use these things? Can they?
They're the kind of handles they use in the mobile lounges at Dulles.
They work well.
This kind of spring-loaded handle has been in use on the NYC subway for decades, if not longer. It works just fine. The handles aren't in the way of those who are tall, and they become accessible for those who are too short to comfortably hold the ceiling rails.
If you're too short to reach the ceiling rails at all (Spiment, this is you), well DUH -- they aren't going to help you. You will have to continue using the floor-to-ceiling vertical poles or the rails on the seat backs. For those of us who hover around the 5'4" mark (which is the average height for women in the US), they're perfect.
And lastly, it doesn't effing matter which way they're pointed -- when they're in use, they'll be pointed towards the FLOOR.
The spring-loaded bit means that when the handles are used, you're holding on to it (they go straight down, with your hand about 6" below the level of the bar), and when they're not used, they retract out of the way. This isn't complicated, folks.
Applause for the handles. Now Metro, PLEASE change to all sideways seeting on the metro cars. It makes so much more sense!!
Okay Divine, while I understand your point, the whole point of these things is supposed to be for use for people who can't use the ceiling rails and thus we have to poke around and look at tall people and go umm i need to get over THERE where there's a bar I can reach. Also, the NYC sybway system also has bench style seats (as does the Tokyo system) so that more people can get onto one train..so we're obviously not trying to model ourseves after them....
Why can't anyone ever look at huge systems that work with tons of short people, like say the train system in Tokyo? Absolutely perfect.Two different lengths of thin light strps with a ring at the end. Tall people used rails, short people, depending on height, could use one of the other straps. This was never an issue.
I've gotten used to being the short person and having to deal with the challenges that come with it, but don't purport to make something useful for short people and then make it an absolutely absurd system.
I heard they did tests on sideways seating but that the response was a dislike for the fact that you're looking at other people.
and no one likes to look at other ugly people in DC. reminds them of a mirror too much
I'm surprised Monkey hasn't brought up the straps' potential for autoerotic asphyxiation.
Metro hates short people.
Oooh, we get to see people jump to grab the handles. Better not slip!
Alternatively, this gives you an excuse to find a taller person to politely ask for their assistance in lowering a handle to you.
And as for looking at/being looked at by fellow riders... that's why the express is free.
I think the handles would be much more useful if they went down the middle or pointed out, away from the seats. For short folks it's better than nothing, but there are the vertical poles and the back rails. God short people are whiny! Whatever happened to the Napoleon complex, people?!?!
I'm confused as to why we're trying to help short people at all. They are creepy.
Do the handles only come down vertically (rigidly), or do they swing around/extend in any direction in which you pull? It doesn't sound to me like they provide much stability if everyone is extending up and down and swinging round and round in all directions when the train makes a sudden movement and throws people off balance...
Wait, a couple of weeks ago a train I was on had straps. What happened to those?
And, if you're swinging around THAT much, don't stand next to me. It really isn't that hard to stay relatively still (with just moderate sway) during a standard Metro ride, without any jarring stops.
Yet another example of the manic Catoe in action. The man is going to destroy everything that is makes Metro Metro.
For more evidence see:
http://dc51ststate.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/why-catoe-is-the-devil-part-i/
Spiment: It's not an absurd system at all, for those who are not really really short. I don't mean to be dismissive, but there are relatively few people under 5 feet tall, percentage-wise. It would be kind of stupid to build everything around such a small percentage of people.
I can't use the ceiling bars, I can use the handles just fine. I am the target audience. And as my height is the average for women in the US, I'm pretty sure that's by design. The great majority of short people who can't use the ceiling bars will be able to use the handles.
To everyone else: Yes, the handles work! They've worked for decades! On the best, most comprehensive, and largest subway system in the United States, and one of the most extensive subway systems in the world, which carries six and a half MILLION people PER DAY.
The handles pull down just to the vertical position (which provides stability and leverage against train movements). They only have about a 90-degree range of motion.
I think people need to get out of DC every once in a while. LOL.
we just need to make the seats available only to people under 5'6". that way, the shorties won't need to complain about not being able to reach the handles ever again.
unless we have a munchkin reunion in DC. then we might run out of seats...
Never let it be said that Metro is perpetually behind the transit industry curve. According to Wikipedia article, the earliest published reference to "straphanger" dates from 1893. You can always count on Metro to get up to speed eventually.