h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have taken the DC Metro, and while its nice with its 60's-70's architecture, if your destination is a residential area, you're out of luck. The line only seems to go to commercial centers and tourist points, but not quite as far out as residential districts.

Which, of course, makes it almost as pointless as LA's Metro.

I welcome any criticism to my remark.

But probably not as useless as the Auckland, NZ, one with its 1950s carriages and which "serves" a limited number of outlying suburbs. It terminates on the outskirts of the central business district. You are then left facing a 20-minute walk (uphill) or 5-minute bus trip.

ha! that's nothing. In Queens, the one train that goes out there terminates at Flushing, where you either have a 4-mile walk, or a 25 minute bus trip. DC, on the other hand, doesn't even have busses. You just walk.

I swear these public transit designers are sadists...

The New Zealand rail system was privatised and sold to America's Wisconsin Rail a few years ago. From your reports we should not expect improvements any time soon.

That's not true; it has a metro stop at Georgia Ave. (Don't remember the name) That's out by Silver Spring/Wheaton, and there's lots of people living in the area. Also, it's down the street for the local art school, and stuff...

The LA Metrolink does go out into the residential areas. My town has a station, and I'm 40 miles away from downtown LA. However, the Metrolink's coverage of LA is pretty shabby, and takes you to a very limited number of places, which is why nobody takes it. But I have used the DC Metro, so it's much less useless.

This is totally false. I used to live in Bethesda, which is one of the major population hubs in the DC metropolitan area. The Metro drops you off right in the middle of the of Bethesda, which is a ten-minute walk from many residential areas. I now live in Takoma Park. The Metro station is right on the border between the commercial and residential districts; my house is a five-minute walk from the station. I can think of lots of other stations like this ... the Silver Spring (I believe that's what someone meant in reference to Georgia Ave.) ... the Friendship Heights, Cleveland Park and Tenleytown stations are on Connecticut Avenue right next to residential areas. I don't know what you're talking about! How do you think a commuter subway system works if people can't get to it from their house???

Yeah.. that's what I meant by the Georgia Ave. thing.. I'm not too familiar with DC Metro 'cause I live between DC and Baltimore, so I don't use either city's mass transit very often.

Apparently Laurel is just a little too far away for a Light Rail or a Metro Station. B******s.

"DC doesn't have buses"

So what *are* these things that I've been riding on for the past two years? Must be a figment of my imagination I suppose.

FYI: The DC Metro includes "Metrorail" and "Metrobus". The bus service is (obviously) far more extensive and serves just about every area of DC you'd ever need to get to. Take a look at www.wmata.com

LOL

The irony to the first post of this thread is that the former head of the LA Metro, John B. Catoe, is now the Washington Metro General Manager.