We finally found one. After nine months of searching, DCist spied someone wearing a WMATA metrorail shirt this weekend on a Connecticut Avenue sidewalk. (It was a Metro Center shirt, like the the one at left). Since we love to talk about transit issues, DCist has a few thoughts on D.C.s attempts to enter the world of transit chic.
London promotes Mind the Gap. Paris glorifies its Art Nouveau Metropolitan signage. And New York has Duke Ellingtons A train and gave birth to baseballs subway series. But in the nations capital, it can be difficult to find charm in the utilitarian 28 year-old metrorail system, which we all know has had its share of problems recently. Last November, in an effort to give our transit character, Washington bowed its head to New York and slightly adapted the Metropolitan Transit Authoritys trademark subway shirts. (But DCist can no longer find the shirts being sold anywhere on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority website. Perhaps they were a flop …)
The MTA shirts, which feature a large colored circle with one of the citys lettered or numbered subway routes, are not only worn by transit buffs, but in some hipster circles are considered trendy.
When the WMATA unveiled its inaugural line of Metro shirts last year, DCist was intrigued. The shirts had station names with colored circles below them representing the subway lines that serve them (Archives-Navy Memorial, Shaw-Howard University, College Park-U of Md., Pentagon, Metro Center and Smithsonian). While imitation is the highest form of flattery, to some, the Washington shirts look like a rip-off of the New York shirts, like fake Kate Spade handbags or look-alike Burberry scarves that are hawked on Georgetowns sidewalks. And DCist tends to agree.
