Manufacturing mobility chaos

Aerial view of a traffic jam, 14th Street and the Mall, Washington, D.C., 1937. National Archives photo.

1. Dorothy Brizill, in themail, comments in "Shutting Down DC" about how the U.S. Secret Service's plan for street and road closures during the inauguration will close to vehicular traffic not just streets in the center of the city, but the bridges crossing from Virginia to DC, as well as DC's bridges on South Capitol Street (from Maryland) and 11th Street between Anacostia and Capitol Hill.

This is written up in the Post, in:

-- Inauguration to Close Off Most Bridges to District
-- MAP: Inauguration Transportation Plan Released
-- Dr. Gridlock, Get There: Plan Walls Off Washington -- this lists all the closures in text form.

I think we know the likely impact from this. (Especially if you remember the chaos on the streets on 9/11, or even the typical outmigration when the Federal Government lets people go home early because of snow.) All the more reason, as some are doing, to get out of town. See "An Amazing Event Not to Be Here For: As Crowds Plan to Pour In for Inauguration, Many in Area Seek a Way Out" from the Post.



2. More chaos will result from people unfamiliar with the subway system trying to buy Metrocards.

Why is it that people unfamiliar with the system, paying cash, are drawn like flies to light or sugar to the "blue" farecard machines, the machines that take longer to use and are set up for credit card transactions, adding money to Smart Cards, and downloading transit benefits.

Susan Biddle/Washington Post. Summary: Tourists trying to navigate the Metro system - everything from fare card system to too infrequent signs. This family from Chicago was totally confused at Gallery Place even with the new lighted signs. They were trying to go to the Spy Museum but the signs said 7th and H one way and 9th and G the other - no sign for the Spy Museum which is at 9th and F. (August 2005)

At best a gray ticket machine is probably capable of 4 transactions per minute, so 6 machines could in theory process up to 2400 transactions per hour. Except that such a throughput level is likely unsustainable in the face of wrinkled money and lack of familiarity.

According to the Washington Post, in "60,000 Volunteer for Inauguration; Most Won't Make Cut," thousands of people want to volunteer during the Inauguration. I suggest "regiments" of volunteers be deployed to subway stations, to assist people in buying farecards.

And WMATA should consider having certain employees loaded up with $10 farecards in advance, and selling them--only cash transactions--from a position outside the stations, before people get to the farecard machines.

Greenbelt Metro station full of protestors looking to get to the National Mall to demonstrate, but having to buy a Metrocard first (2006).