Readers Weigh In on Washington Area Issues

THE DISTRICT

Transit and Taxi Shortcomings

I subscribe to "Alert DC," a service of the District government established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The service is supposed to alert subscribers via e-mail or text message whenever there is an emergency situation in the city.

Mostly, however, it sends out reports of "severe" weather warnings (thunderstorms, high winds, snowstorms) and road closures.

I've tolerated these reports because I've figured that the subscription was still a good source of immediate information in case there was an emergency worthy of an alert. Then came the June 22 Metro crash, in which nine people died, 80 were hurt and public transportation ground to a halt in the middle of rush hour.

And how did I find out?

From the radio.

It took 35 minutes after the accident, which occurred at 5:02 p.m., for Alert DC to make an announcement at 5:37 p.m. The media aired the story within about 15 minutes.

Certainly someone in the city knew about the accident before 5:37 p.m. I now have zero confidence that Alert DC will give me timely information in the event of another serious incident.

-- Bill Brown, Takoma Park

--