DCist was pleased to hear last week that WMATA has finally agreed, some ten years late, to create a Riders Advisory Council, where regular commuters can offer their experiences and suggestions to the troubled transit agency. Given WMATA’s experience in dealing with crowding, broken escalators, and other such difficulties, an injection of real-world opinion may do wonders for the agency’s performance. Who better to judge Metro than those who use it most often?

And in an online discussion today put on by the Post, one irate resident offered their solutions to some of the region’s most pressing transit-related problems, notably crowding on Metro, proposals to widen I-66, and crowded area roadways:

Crowded Metro – Rip out the freaking seats and put in wall benches. Viola! Instant space. And don’t bore me about the needs of ex-urbanites…no one put a gun to your head and made you ruin perfectly good farmland with a McMansion. This ain’t your luxury liner.

I-66 – Fine as it is. Again, no one aimed a firearm and said move to the WVA border, and buy a Stupid User Vehicle (SUV) with a hot tub and 12 seat home theatre in back. Arlington doesn’t owe you a subsidy for that bad choice.

Road space – The Imperial Canyonero with the 12 seat mobile theatre takes 2.5 car lengths. With 44% of traffic in the form of SUVs, no wonder road space gets eaten up. Very simple…charge license fees by weight and size. Then use the money to cover the roads. Not too hard.

Good calls.

Picture above snapped by Burnt Pixel.

Update: It seems that the idea of bench-style seating has been considered. The question is: Will it ever happen?