Dear DCist: Someone told me that it’s actually good to leave the Express behind on the Metro because you’re passing the news on to somebody else. That’s a good thing, right? Or am I just keeping the train dirty?

This is a tough one. The dissemination of the news is very important. Although Express distributors can be vigilant in their passing out of the free-drop commuter publication, not everyone gets to see their tabloid-size paper because they’re busy reading their copy of the “DaVinci Code,” or the more traditional broadsheets like The New York Times, or the real Washington Post. (The Post publishes the Express, if you didn’t know.)

WMATA has been pretty clear about leftover items on the train: Take them with you. You’ve heard the announcements from train operators. It makes WMATA’s job easier cleaning trains so the agency can spend their time on better things, like basic maintenance and customer service training. And we all like trains that don’t derail and friendlier transit staffers.