We all have those little things about Metro that frustrate and annoy us. Be it two trains running so closely together that the second is constantly forced to stopped and hold between stations, or the always anger-inducing Metro rider that insists on standing on the right left side of the escalators during rush hour — in the end, commuting can at times be a test of one’s patience.

Escalators and elevators have always been a point of contention between Metro’s leadership and its clientele. Rare is the moment that any number of escalators in the system aren’t out of service, and the speed with which they break sometimes baffles the mind.

But there is one other small annoyance that can come from having to depend on escalators to get in and out of stations or from one level of a station to another. Most larger stations have sets of three escalators, and depending on the time of the day and the general flow of the human traffic, two will usually be going in one direction while one goes in the other. But what happens when the direction of the escalators don’t match the flow of the traffic? DCist was stuck in such a situation late last night at Metro Center. In trying to transfer from the Red Line, which arrives on the upper level, to the Orange Line, located on the lower level, we spied a line snaking towards the escalators. It seems that the manager in charge of changing the escalator’s direction hadn’t bothered to do so, leaving a crowd of people clamoring onto one escalator down while the two remaining escalators coming up remained relatively deserted. Worse still was the fact that the other set of escalators suffered from the same oversight, leaving only two escalators to descend while four ascended.

Of course, in the larger scheme of things, annoyances like these are hardly worth the stress. But to some degree they still reflect upon Metro’s attention to it’s customers.

What annoys you about the Metro?

Picture snapped by goodsnake.