DCist: Transit on Thursday: Everything is More Expensive Edition

monkeyrotica

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:57:36 -0500

Evacuation signs? Yeah, in the event of a catastrophe downtown, there'll be a lot of "evacuation". Just not the kind they're thinking of. Which is why I'm never without a spare set of underwear and some moist towelettes. Really, where the f**k are DC people supposed to go? Arlington? Beltsville? SUITLAND? Good luck running that gauntlet in your Mini. And how are they supposed to get there? The roads will be gridlocked. Metro? They can barely run on a day when there isn't a dirty bomb attack. If you're stuck in the tunnels when the s**t goes down, you're CHUD fodder. Face it: when the big one hits, your best friends will be a brace of pistols, a cellar full of 5-liter Carlo Rossis, and piles of crack cocaine and liquid LSD (Not for you. For your "followers." To keep them wide-awake and FOCUSED for when the maurauding begins.) So here's your Hint from Heloise: rent Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China, and learn how to ride a motorcycle and shoot a machinegun at the same time. It's the only way you'll make it through the zombie roadblocks. The oeuvre of Kurt Russell is your ticket to post-apocalyptic survival. Aloha.

IMGoph

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:12:44 -0500

yeah, those evacuation signs seem pretty pointless to me. it's nice in theory, but if there is a massive rush to get out of the city, admit it....things will be a giant clusterfuck

Virginia is for Losers

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:52:05 -0500

Any word yet on when Nextbus will officially be coming back online?

KrazyKat

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:41:48 -0500

If they are going to ban train operators from using cell phones, can they include those annoying passengers making phone calls about their latest hookup or about how they hate their co-workers and how their personal phone calls bother them while they are trying to work? Please?

monkeyrotica

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:33:48 -0500

Those toothless inbred banjo-twanging jackasses in Richmond don't give a fat rat's fart about transit for all those left-wing, godless, commie pinko DoD contractors in Northern Virginia. Just so long as their gravy train checks keep rolling in. But they'll be whistling Dixie past the graveyard when those jobs start leaving the state because the roads are choked at 9pm and the trains stop running. Property tax revenues are already bobbing in the crapper and income taxes are bound to take a hit as well. So, yeah, go ahead and kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, Richmond. While you're at it, keep lookin for them Duke boys. Maybe they'll help you find your f***ing marbles.

redline

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:19:41 -0500

I hate to say it, but the fare increases don't look that bad... a 5-day pass from Fredericksburg will be going from $72.80 > 83.72 > 92.09, meaning each one-way ticket would cost $7.28 > 8.37 > 9.21 if you buy a 5-day pass, cheaper with monthly. From Fredericksburg > DC is ~ 53 miles, which is .585x53=$31 according to the gov't mileage rate and even if you don't factor anything except gas, at 20mpg (which is generous considering traffic) and $3.50/gallon that's $9.76 each way. Add in not having to deal with traffic and $9.21 each way by the July doesn't sound all that nasty...

ledroitist

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:12:56 -0500

It's no doubt true that Virginia has yet to come to grips with the fact that it has no state transportation policy worthy of the name, and that some people downstate like it that way. VRE has always operated on a shoestring, including using thirty-year-old hand-me-down cars from Chicago. But one of stubborn facts about public transportation is that the more people it carries, the more money it tends to lose. Amtrak is the same way--record ridership, yet it consumes more and more federal and state subsidy with each passing year. See also--WMATA. It carries record numbers but is always behind the eight ball.

dino

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:48:50 -0500

This is proof that downstate goober legislators keep transportation funds for NOVA hostage.