For all its foibles, Metro is still something most of the capital region wants to take pride in. Sure, all the news lately about the Metro funding bill touts the importance of federal workers riding the rails on a daily basis – but when it comes down to it, Metro in general is something beloved by most area residents, regardless of where they work.

Metro conducted one of its Customer Satisfaction Measures over the past couple of months. Over 80 percent of respondents found Metrorail satisfactory. There’s even more love to be found in the survey: as pointed out in the Examiner’s writeup of the results, a large majority of people feel safe on Metro – 85 percent of bus riders and 89 percent of rail riders, to be exact. It’s a good number, considering last year’s rash of bus accidents and the fact that robberies in the system have been on the rise this year. Other large city subway systems have lower figures in the same categories. (For instance, levels of perceived safety on New York subway lines have been hovering close to 50 percent since 2005. Philadelphia has also seen a rash of incredibly violent crime in SEPTA trains and facilities recently.)

But just like anything you love, sometimes you need to be the one to tell them the awful truths. For instance, only a slim majority of Metro users surveyed (54 percent) use the WMATA website to get information about trains and buses. We know plenty of folks who don’t even realize that you can get real time train arrivals at any station. It’s a disappointing figure and a sign that Metro could benefit from some enhanced web capabilities – for instance, the eventual integration of Metrorail with Google Transit should help spur activity.

Photo by NCinDC.