Public Transportation: Washington D.C.

Usually, I love public transportation, but recently, it’s been bothering me. Maybe it’s just that D.C. public transportation is terrible, which is making me angry. Whatever the case, I can’t stand it recently.

First off, the price. D.C. has the most expensive public transportation I have ever taken in my life. It’s based on distance, which is sensible, but the base prices are just way too high. The lowest possible fare is still more expensive than any fare you would find in Seoul for a comparable distance traveled.

According to the WMATA (D.C. Metro’s servicer), the price for fares during off-peak hours is this:

• $1.75 minimum + a $1 surcharge if a paper farecard is used

During peak hours, which is when most people will be traveling, of course, it’s this:

• $2.15 minimum + a $1 surcharge if a paper farecard is used

In Seoul, the cost is 1,150 won, which is about a dollar or so. Also, it’s a flat fare unless you really start moving out of the main city area, in which case, the price goes up unsubstantially.

In Tokyo, the minimum cost is about $1.50 with the maximum cost being around $3.

This seems comparable until you look at the maximum fares for the D.C. metro. Fares in the D.C. area go up significantly based on the distance traveled. Here are the maximum fares during both off-peak and peak hours:

• $3.60 maximum + a $1 surcharge if a paper farecard is used
• $5.90 maximum + a $1 surcharge if a paper farecard is used

$6 to ride the subway? Are you kidding me? That’s absurd. Assuming you’re from out of town and you don’t know what you’re doing and you happen to buy all paper farecards (which happens), you’re paying an extra $1 per ride.

This maximum fare price isn’t some magical land of Oz number that never happens either. To go to work from my house, I pay $4. I only ride one line, too. No transfers needed. And it’s $4. That’s $8 a day. For those who have to make transfers, and those who live quite a distance away from their destination, they will be paying closer to the $6 maximum. Who can afford this? Not everybody in the D.C. area is some rich bigwig. I am sure am not. It’s no surprise that some people try to get a free fare whenever possible.

I could understand such a high price if the subways were lined with flower petals, gave out free food and shoe shines and smelled of lavender, but obviously, this isn’t the case.

The only worse subway system I have ever been on is the New York City subway system, which was simply a disgusting mess. At least NYC’s subways actually worked, though. D.C.’s subways are the most unreliable transportation system I have ever taken. Even the trains and buses that travel the back roads of Thailand are more reliable.

Fortunately for me, I ride a pretty straightforward route. There are no transfers, and the side of town that I come from is less crowded than the other side. For those coming from the west side, they have a much more difficult time. Countless delays mar the subway system on a daily basis over there, and I know people who have waited for over thirty minutes for their train to move.

The problem comes from the way that the subway system is designed. Many of the subway’s lines travel through the same tracks. This creates multiple problems. For one, when you have a delay, it delays not only the trains on the line you’re traveling on, but it delays trains on the other colored lines. This creates a compounding problem where one delay creates delays for the rest of the day for all of the lines that travel along that track.

Although, since there is no order whatsoever, I guess it creates consistency out of chaos. When none of the trains arrive at the expected times, trains simply run when they can, and they eventually show up at the station. Thus, the unreliability of trains makes them consistently sporadic, which becomes the new norm. Compared to Japan and Korea’s impeccable punctuality in their subway systems, though, D.C.’s system is substandard and ineffective.

Besides the delays that are caused by having all of the trains run on one track, it makes track upkeep much more crucial to providing a more reliable service. I suppose, in the long run, it means employing less workers because there are less tracks to service, but if that’s the case, then why is the price so high? What exactly is my money paying for when the service I receive is worse in every way than every other country with public transportation; yet it still costs more?

As an aside, each station only employs a couple different escalators for passengers to use. Those, too, are oftentimes broken down. Many of them are shut down completely for repairs, so you can’t even use them as stairs if you want to. This railroads people getting off of trains, creating a large line to wait for escalators when trying to leave a station.

Unfortunately, despite all of the problems that people have with the public transportation in D.C., what can they do about it? If everyone takes their cars, then commuting would be impossible. There are also no places to park in D.C. You are basically expected to take public transportation, walk or ride a bike. Most cars in D.C. are typically just driving through to a different destination. It’s a terrible place for cars, as can be expected in most large cities.

Because of this, WMATA can pretty much charge as much as they want for their services, so long as they don’t incite a riot from commuters. Some people working for the government and other jobs also get transit subsidies, which keeps them complacent enough. For everyone else, it’s quite the gimmick. With no way of transportation into the city other than public transportation, people are required to pay the absurd prices WMATA charges, and they can’t do anything about it.

At least the buses are cheaper than the subway, but they are quite unreliable, as well. Bus schedules are also much more confusing than subway schedules, and bus travel times are typically longer. So, I’m not sure if buses are a reasonable alternative to taking the subway.

WMATA simply needs to charge reasonable prices for their services, a mantra that U.S. businesses should actually consider embracing. The American people are being gouged by businesses like the WMATA, and while it sure is good for their business, it does not create a happy or productive society. Oppressing people for monetary gain doesn’t even bring oppressors happiness.

Let’s start, as a society, getting our act together, or America will continue to fall apart. WMATA can start by lowering the cost of their services.

Why I Will Eventually Get Hit by a Car in Tallahassee

I never thought I’d be writing a sequel to Why I Will Eventually Get Hit by a Car in Seoul, and I sure never thought that sequel would be written about a city in the U.S. But here I am.

I live in Tallahassee, Florida now, and I thought the drivers back in Korea were crazy. That statement is still true, but I think Tallahassee drivers are the worst drivers I’ve ever seen in my life: worse than Korea, worse than Thailand, worse than Cambodia and worse than anywhere else I’ve ever been.  I hear Vietnam drivers are insane (similar to Thailand), but I’ve never been there, so I can’t comment. Here are my top examples of terrible driving that I’ve seen in Tallahassee.

1. I was driving down a two lane road in the left lane, and a lady was driving next to me on the right. She was kind of swerving in her lane, which prompted me to slow down. As I was driving, I maintained a close eye on her, afraid of what she might do. My suspicions were validated when she suddenly started pressing on her breaks and immediately took a left turn… from the right lane. As she was turning, I could see that she was fiddling around with her phone. It’s a good thing I slowed down before she turned…

2. This one just happened today. I was driving down the right lane of one of the busy roads here in Tallahassee. Someone was in front of me who, apparently, had no idea where they were going or what they wanted to do. Every time they came up to a road, they would slow down considerably, turn on their turning signal, start turning, then decide not to turn. It seemed to frustrate the people behind me more than it bothered me, as I saw waves of cars switch to the left lane to pass us. As they did, they made sure to give us some complimentary honks from their horns. How sweet of them.

3. I went to the YMCA a couple of weeks ago. The parking lot is small, and there is only one way in and out of it. After I was leaving, I started driving out, but a lady was blocking my way. She was parked in front of the YMCA entrance doors, perfectly situated in the middle of both of the lanes. So, not only was she blocking me, but she was blocking the other drivers who were trying to get into the parking lot. Genius. Thankfully, she learned that she needed to move before I started honking and profusely yelling at her.

These anecdotes are only some of the more egregious examples of driving that I have seen in Tallahassee. Certainly, there are more common examples of poor driving here, such as texting while driving, driving too aggressively, driving too slowly (which I abhor), and a host of other grievances. It just goes to show that no matter where you are, you need to watch out for crazy drivers. Maybe the next city I live in will have even worse drivers than Tallahassee.

Oh, yeah. I never did get hit by a car in Seoul, by the way. Lucky me.

Geography (and the Five Great Lakes)

I’ve recently been studying geography because I am terrible at it. Especially since I am attending graduate school for international affairs, I figure it’s probably pretty important to know where Canada is. Despite my lack of knowledge in this area, I find that this is a common trend among Americans.

When I travel to new places and people ask me where I am from, I give them one of two answers:

1. To people who are not from the U.S.: “I am from the U.S.  I live in the northeast in a state called Pennsylvania. It’s cold and snowy.” If they inquire further, I give them more information as needed.

2. To people who are from the U.S.: “I’m from Pennsylvania. My hometown is Erie. Are you familiar with Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes?”, to which that question always nets me a resounding “No.”

Are you freaking kidding me? You don’t know about the five Great Lakes? You’re from the U.S., and you don’t even know the name Lake Erie? Forget about the fact that Lake Erie holds important significance to the founding of America, how do you miss the five giant lakes that sit atop the northeast side of America? If you even knew the name Lake Erie, it’d be much easier to describe that I am from the city named after the lake. But alas, I cannot expect Americans to have any sensibilities about the geography of their own country, I suppose.

On the contrary, my sixth graders in Korea were quite knowledgeable on the subject of geography. I once had material that tested them on the different countries in the world, and they knew about as much as I did. So, why is it that sixth graders in Korea know as much geography as a college-educated student from the U.S.? I think the reasoning is two-fold:

1. It is something that simply isn’t taught in school. At least for me, personally, beyond knowing the “important” continents and countries of the world, it wasn’t discussed. Thus, I never learned it.

2. People are apathetic towards learning something they may never need to know. For example, why would you spend the time to learn how to build houses if you never build a house? This is the reason I never took it upon myself to learn about geography. It’s not that I didn’t care about the rest of the world. I simply didn’t care about learning about the rest of the world. Note the difference in those statements.

Of course, it could always just be a fault of mine or my specific learning environment growing up.

I’m to the age now where I realize it’s quite important to understand the many facets of the world, including geography.  It’s a big place, and I am but a little speck on this vast rock we call earth.  Therefore, I am learning. My progress is quite fast, too.  I now know where all of the five oceans are.  You’d be surprised how fast you learn when you go into something knowing so little!

That’s why I implore Americans to go back and do a study of their own country’s geography. When they are done with that, go learn about the rest of the world too. It’s not very difficult, and there is a lot of knowledge to be gained from even a rudimentary sweep of a world map. We live in a global community now, so this is important information to know. If nothing else, do it to make me look smarter.

Being Remembered by my Students

Since coming back from Korea, not many days have gone by where I haven’t thought about my students.  I even dream about them occasionally; definitely more so than anything else anyways.  My time in Korea was the best year of my life, and a large part of that was because of the students.  I’m sure many other teachers can attest to this feeling.  I sometimes tell people if my job only consisted of hanging out with Korean kids all day, I could do that job for the rest of my life.

That’s how I am, though.  I cherish the ties I have with other people, even many years later.  Even if I don’t always remember names, I’m great at remembering faces and the moments I had with those people.  Once a friend, always a friend, if you ask me.

I wonder if others remember people the same way.  How do people remember me?  How do my students remember me, and how will they remember me in the future?  Will they even remember me?  This shouldn’t be an important question for me.  I went to Korea to do a job and explore a different culture, not to make a name for myself.

Still, I feel like people have a natural tendency to be validated.  It warms the heart.  It makes us more human.  To feel wanted is a great feeling, and that is something that can be felt by being remembered.

I still recall the ending ceremony of my teacher orientation in Korea.  A previous English teacher came before all of the newly admitted teachers and gave a speech.  At the end, he told us a little hypothetical story.  Imagine if many years down the road, you receive a friend request on facebook from someone in Korea.  You accept, and he sends you a message.

“Hello.  This is your student from back in elementary school.  I just wanted you to know that I still remember all of the hard work you put in to teach us English.  Your dedication to teach made me want to try even harder to learn English, and that is why I can send you this message today.  Thank you, and thank you for caring.”

It brought tears to my eyes.

Selfishly, I would like to say that I wish my students remembered me as their best teacher, their funnest teacher, their teacher who taught them the most, or even their most handsome teacher.  Realistically, though, I just hope they will remember me.