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Helping Riders Pick Up the Pace
Metro wants you to follow the arrows at train stops.
(Washington Area Metro Transit Authority Via Associated Press)
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Temporary markers will be put in the test stations in February. If they're successful, Metro will install permanent tile markers systemwide.
Platform markers assume a train is going to stop at the same spot every time, something Metro has had trouble delivering. Robert J. Smith, who represents Maryland on the Metro board, observed that Metro trains routinely overrun platforms. Operations reports show this happens every day, sometimes as many as five times a day.
"It is Washington, and we've got a lot of legal minds, and someone is going to stand on that arrow and hold his ground, and that train is going to stop over there," Smith said, motioning several feet away. "And he's going to be angry because here he is, standing where we told him to stand, and you know he's going to be one of the 7,000 calls we get the next day."
Metro officials also studied whether passenger collisions on escalators could be reduced by changing their directions. At the L'Enfant Plaza station, for example, two side-by-side down escalators dumped such a flood of passengers onto the Vienna/Franconia-Springfield platform that riders couldn't get off some trains, Hughes said. Three weeks ago, a switch in the pattern from down-down-up to down-up-down eased the mess, he said.
On its 588 escalators, Metro intends to paste large stickers that say "Stand to the Right," a cue to out-of-towners that Washingtonians are not content to just stand and ride but often walk -- or run -- on the left side. Metro has more escalators than any transit system in North America, and the conflict between those trying to walk on the left and those standing in their way has become a daily aggravation.
"We're finally going to do this?" asked Chris Zimmerman, who represents Arlington County on the Metro board. "Hurray!"
But the idea is not new in Washington. Until about seven years ago, Metro escalators had metal plaques that read "Stand to Right." But an internal task force decided that those signs implicitly encouraged people to stand on the right and walk on the left, which Metro managers said was unsafe. So they ripped the signs off -- which cost time and labor but did not stop anyone from walking on the left.
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," said Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith.
