For most games this won't matter, but starting June 28th you will need to pay when you leave Metro stations now anytime from 9am 'til closing. Also you can only pay with SmarTrip cards. Weekends are still free so it will only be a problem for Wednesday games. Of course i gave up driving to Metro stations when i moved into DC.
Re: New Metro parking procedures That's a convenient "reason" - the real reason is to charge more for parking, collect the parking money for much longer periods of time, and fire their lot employees. There is a story in the Post today, it sounds very confusing, and if I read it right, the card costs you $5, just for the card, then you need to load it with money so you can actually use it. So to park ($3.75 at most lots), it'll cost you $8.75 the first time, and each time after that when you lose your card.
Re: New Metro parking procedures That is correct, I bought the card last week. The thing that kills me, you HAVE to buy the card in order to pay for parking. Also as an FYI, you can't buy exit fair on the card, but it will let you exit if you don't have enough money on the card, it just puts you in a negative amount.
It's horrible, not to mention that you can hardly ever find a parking spot at the metro anyway unless you drive in way early, or decide to shell out another chunk of money for a reserved spot. Thanks for mentioning the Post article, I'd like to see if they mention any solutions or public outcry.
I've had a Smartrip for a few years now. I really like it because it is much faster than those silly paper fare cards - never gets wrinkled so the gate won't read it or get jammed and a line form behind you... It is $5 for the card and if you register your card, then they replace it for free if lost or stolen. However, word to the wise: record your Smartrip number somewhere because their database has difficulty doing a name search to get a replacement card. While I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this move, the Smartrips are a good product. I don't drive so I don't know about the whole parking scene but for an average user, the Smartrips are much better.
I've had SmarTrip since they were pretty new. Jan lost her purse once, and her SmarTrip was in her wallet inside, and she just put $100 on it the day before. I called Metro, and the stopped the old card from working, and sent a replacement card with a value of $95.00 remaining. It's well worth it. I don't see how any regular users of Metro could get by without SmarTrip. However, forcing people to get SmarTrip is stupid. What the hell are they going to do for people who don't live in this area and are just visiting? What if visitors want to ride Metro and park at the station? Stupid idea.
It's not like me to defend Metro, but they almost had no choice. During their last audit they discovered they were short millions of dollars from parking - all due to theft of cash by the employees. And there's almost no other way to fix that problem, or no way that won't cost so much people would clamor for the card method.
Actually according to this article Metro made accounting errors and one of the accused thieves has had the charges dropped: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53393-2004Jun18.html K
I wish we could use EZ Pass on this thing. That would make soooooooooooooo much more sense. That's the biggest mistake, IMHO, Virginia has made, not adpoting EZ Pass. SmartTag or whatever the hell it's called is for sucks. Sachin
I saw in the Post recently that it's coming, Sachin... it wasn't front-page of the Metro section but it was on Page 2 this past week, I think.1
Exactly what I was thinking, Mike. More tourists will drive downtown and park in neighborhoods. Great thinking, Muttro Board! What gets me is that the booths at the exists will be staffed from 9 a.m. to midnight, twice as long as the 3-10 shift from the woman-owned business that staffed the parking garages before. WHERE'S THE SAVINGS????
No booth staffing (except at first probably), it's an automated system, hence no wages paid, and they collect alot more money by increasing the "you must pay" hours - no more free parking at all, and what sounds like a hassle, even to pay - which means I'll drive to DC. I'm not sure what they meant by "staff members will close the lot when it is full" - even right now, that's automated. The gates count you coming in and out, they know how many cars are in the lot.
Exactly. So if I decide I want to stop at one of the Metro park and ride spots in VA and ride the trains to RKF, I've got to shell out $8.75 before I even get on the train? WTF? If those things can read "smart cards", you'd think they'd be able to read credit cards. There has to be some accomodation for one-time users. Other than a $5 one-time use penalty. DC is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the country, and there has always been an incentive to keep cars out of the city for congestion and air quality reasons. Now with the constant fears of car bombs (which I can't ever recall there being one in DC), you'd think that creating incentives for people to actually drive into DC would be a bad thing.
Not in this case. Smartrip cards are not "swipe" cards with a magnetic strip (like a credit card). Instead, you simply wave the card over the sensor and it registers the transaction. I've had a smartrip card for quite a while, and even though I'm a more occasional Metro rider than I have been in the past, it's freakin' awesome. I've even given them to other folks as Christmas presents, and have heard from those folks how great they are. However, I think the smartrip-only parking scheme is really annoying. I'm all for getting rid of those crooked parking attendants, but at the very least, they should also have some machines that accept paper farecards as payment for parking.
OK, you all know the Metro lots are still free on weekends and holidays, right? (So for your Saturday game going nothing has changed). K
I bought one of those smartrip cards the minute I moved to DC! It's a lot better then those paper things and Metro gauruntees your fare money on the card as long as you register it. And for the $5.00 its worth it. As for the fare increases for the train and parking. For us commuters who rely on it daily it truly sucks! to put it lightly my daily RT from Fairfax to Smithsonian went from $6.70 ($33.50 a week) to now $7.30 ($36.50 a week)! Thank GOD I don't park! As for people complaining, Metro said they received less than 400 emails/letters (Yes, I complained) when they made the announcement that they would be holding hearings and less than 100 people showed up to complain. Look at it this way, after you buy the card, its still a heck of a lot cheaper than parking at RFK!
With the Smart Trip Card you can take the 436 .05 and .10 cent used farecards you accumulate and toss on your dresser daily and add them into your Smart Trip Card. It takes a little while but it's worth it.
It's $1.25 less than parking at RFK (assuming you have a season ticket plan). I wouldn't expect Metro to get alot of complaints ... yet. This will mainly adversely affect people who do not regularly use metro (that word completely sucks!, especially this week). I usually use it sparingly anyway, but this will definitely cut out all of my weekday usage (and since Friday is included, a bit of weekend usage). I have no problem with the fare increases, still seems pretty reasonable. Thanx K for reminding me that they won't hold your cars hostage on Saturdays or Sundays (for now). If you pay for the metro this Saturday you should feel dirty, just for the name
I have had my SmarTrip Card ever since they first came out, and I LOVE IT! I usually take the metro into D.C. for every Caps game in the winter, and I cant tell you how much better the cards are than those silly paper cards. The amount of time saved alone is worth the 5 bucks. The only reason I dont use Metro into United games, is because I like to have my car and tailgate with friends. I suppose if tailgating were possible at MCI Center, I would drive there too. Im all for using those cards as a means to pay for everything on Metro too, but I sitll think they should have thought of the tourists/ one time users, and provided an alternative method to pay for parking. They could have done something like have one lane that accepts credit/ debit cards/ or even installed those machines that take money, just like the ones when you buy a farecard. That is about the only bad thing I see from this. Metro COULD have done alittle better in thinking of the tourists or onetime/ seldome users. [RANT]Ok.. now its rant time. All the idiots that are b!tching and moaning about this really should just suck it up, by the card, and get over it! I mean C'mon, Metro has gone above and boyond to make it well known that they were going to do this for sometime. If you live here, ride metro every day, and park at thier lots, this should be no problem. I was astonished at the number of IDIOTS, yes IDIOTS who were complaining and didnt have a way to get out of the lots today when I went to pick up my roomie from the metro after work. Do these people live under rocks? Do they not read the paper? do they NOT pay attention to all the new sinage about the change? Seriously, it almost makes me embarassed to live in this area sometimes with the level of sheer stupidity that is displayed by large numbers of people. Some times I wonder how these people ever made it through any kind of school, let alone obtained drivers licenses when the behavior that alot of them display is an attention span that goes no further than thier own arms/ cellphones length. And this is coming from someone who has dealt with having ADHD all my life. Seriously, ... um HELLO? Your clue phone is ringing... why dont some of these people answer it and GET A CLUE? A little side note to this: Some praise to the D.C. Govt for a change, for passing the hands free law regarding cellphone usage while driving. Again, its something that is common sense, and once again, apparently alot of people seem to LACK it on this issue. I have had 4 very close calls at high speeds because of idiots on thier phones while driving, and have been hit once in a parking lot by someone backing out of a space and into my car, while on thier cell phones. C'mon people... SHUT UP AND DRIVE already! Ok.. sorry.. just needed to vent. thanks [/RANT]