It’s something of a Metro-riding phenomenon — as you descend into a station, you hear a train arriving and, not wanting to miss it, you book it through the entrance gates and down on to the platform. Sometimes it is your train, and you feel justified in having knocked over that six-year-old visiting from Iowa. Other times it’s not your train, and you’re left trying to play it cool despite your obviously frantic sprint down the escalators. Metro may finally be taking steps to make this mad dash less of a game of chance.

Yesterday the Post reported that Metro will soon be installing new electronic arrival signs — those that have graced station platforms for the last five years — at the entrance of two stations within the next three to six months as part of a test to explore the possibility of installing such signs in all stations. New WMATA Chief Dan Tangherlini recently expressed support for the idea, and says he would like to see the new signs installed at the street level. The pilot project will cost $200,000. Said Tangherlini in the Post’s article:

We want people to be able to make a determination before they pay when the train is coming. If it’s not coming soon, they have options — they can take a bus or a cab. Or they could take time to add to their Farecard, if they need to do that. As it is now, we don’t tell you when we’re going to give you the service until after you pay for it.

On this same front, we’d also like to see such signs strategically placed in stations that serve more than one line. We’ve all jumped off at Metro Center and made the mad dash across the platform and down the stairs to catch our Orange/Blue transfer, only to suffer the same indignity of seeing our train pull away or be 17 minutes away from arriving.

In the end, this is all about making us look less stupid while commuting.

Picture snapped by clarissa.