system

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.

I was talking to the head English teacher at my school the other day while she was calculating students’ grades for the year and found out an interesting fact: Korean students can’t fail. They get graded similarly to how grades are done in this U.S. They get either an A, B, C or D based on performance. The major difference is that there is no F grade, and they can’t fail any class. So, if a student gets a D in every single class every single year, they will still graduate as normal. Of course, this would have repercussions when trying to apply for college. College, on the other hand, is different in that it is possible to fail classes.

When the head English teacher asked if it was different in the U.S., I explained to her that kids could fail classes and they would have to make them up to continue through school. She seemed shocked at this information and felt it may be somewhat cruel. As I was told by the head English teacher, in Korea, when students get a bad grade, their parents typically get a call from the school and some sort of bad report (report card possibly) about their child’s progress. Then, their parents yell at them, and because parents in Korea are actually given respect and demand much from their children, their kids shape (although not always).

This got me wondering, would the same sort of philosophy work in the U.S.? It didn’t take me long to determine that it would not. If students couldn’t fail in the U.S., there would be way too many students doing absolutely nothing at all. That’s assuming they even showed up to school. It works in Korea because for the most part, students are motivated by their parents and by society to succeed. Parents in the U.S. don’t typically hold such high standards for their children. Most of the students in Korea who don’t do well in school usually have lower IQs or even in some cases, mental deficiencies. The students who don’t do well in school typically have other extracurricular activities that they participate in, so at the very least, they’re staying busy and being productive.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on the Korean system? I think it works for Korea and would work in other certain societies, but it wouldn’t work in the U.S. because of the differing standards of parenting across the U.S. Let me know what you think down below.