WhatsaMATA You?

I voted today in my first election as a Virginia resident. It felt good.

Let's talk more Metro stuff, since that's affecting me a lot these days. The WMATA (which always seems to remind me of waffles, for some reason that has no explanation) has unveiled a plan to introduce some new car designs as a test phase soon. These cars will have fewer seats and various configurations of handrails and "leaning" areas, all part of an effort to improve passenger flow and keep people from crowding the entrances so much.

I'll disclaim all of this by first saying that I've only had a couple of months of experience riding the Metro, and I only typically ride two lines, so my insight might not apply to everywhere. I'll also say that I'm pretty much indifferent to having fewer seats on the cars; I usually have no trouble finding a seat as early as I ride, and I wouldn't mind standing anyway if I had to.

I think my doubts about this plan stem from the goal of less door-crowding. From what I've seen, most people who stand around the door, instead of heading toward the center of the car, do so because there's just more space there. Granted, there's the advantage of not having to walk very far to depart the train, but if someone like the Asian hymn singer was going to stand anyway, it's just not in the mindset of the average commuter to head down to the middle of the car and grip a handrail with their waist in someone else's face when it's not necessary. Using the aisle is a last resort.

So, extending that open area around the door and putting more handholds there will most likely, by extension, only make the crowding problem in those areas of the car worse. The elderly and infirm who currently have to slug their way through a crowd of people to find a seat will now have to wade through even more people, over a longer distance, in the same amount of time before the car begins moving. And this, of course, assumes that riders are courteous and attentive enough to give up their seat to someone who needs it. I don't think courtesy is completely dead, but I haven't personally come across any situations like that just yet.

Luckily, it seems WMATA will be testing out the new configurations before actually putting them in full service, so maybe we'll see how it all plays out before they introduce them full-time and everyone gets angry about it.