Sick – First time on Metro in 2 years

This topic has 23 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by MCL1981.

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January 11, 2012 at 3:29 pm #910795

pfunkallstar
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So I’ve come down with a real nasty cold, on top of which I have strep (lucky me). I’ve been struggling for the past three days or so, Amoxicillin coursing through my veins, which has meant a couple of trips on Metro. I haven’t ridden Metro for almost two years now and was absolutely flabbergasted by a couple of things:

1. Everyone is angry all the time.
2. Given the number of sickly people on there it probably isn’t helping me out too much – feels like a petri dish.
3. It is REALLY hard to zen out like I do when I’m riding.
4. I might be agoraphobic.
5. Why do Metro trains just randomly stop all the time now? I don’t remember that.
6. It is crazy expensive.
7. People wear a crap ton of perfume in the morning and everyone smells like cocktails on the Orange line after 6.

I can’t wait to start biking again.
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January 11, 2012 at 3:32 pm #934471

KLizotte
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@pfunkallstar 12912 wrote:

2. Given the number of sickly people on there it probably isn’t helping me out too much – feels like a petri dish.

Errr…you do realize you are contributing to the petri dish’s foul contents! :rolleyes:

Be glad you aren’t on Metro during peak tourist season.

January 11, 2012 at 3:58 pm #934472

americancyclo
Participant

@pfunkallstar 12912 wrote:

…everyone smells like cocktails on the Orange line after 6.

that stench of booze sweat out through the skin is so gross. unless I smell like it too.

January 11, 2012 at 4:16 pm #934473

DaveK
Participant

@pfunkallstar 12912 wrote:

5. Why do Metro trains just randomly stop all the time now? I don’t remember that.

They’re all on manual control now since the Red Line crash in ’09. That introduces most of the whiplash inducing stops and starts, then to make it worse they decided to combine different series of cars in the same train. Since may of them use slightly different drive and braking components, the individual cars within a train stop and accelerate at different rates, leading to an experience something like a 16-yr-old learning to drive a stick shift every time they pull away from or try to stop at a station.

January 11, 2012 at 5:31 pm #934475

RESTONTODC
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@pfunkallstar 12912 wrote:

1. Everyone is angry all the time.

and rude too. I always see many men fighting to get in the door first so they can take seats from old ladies and pregnant women.

January 11, 2012 at 5:37 pm #934476

pfunkallstar
Participant

@KLizotte 12913 wrote:

Errr…you do realize you are contributing to the petri dish’s foul contents! :rolleyes:

Be glad you aren’t on Metro during peak tourist season.

Yeah but I’ve already been out of the office for one day = too much according to our puritan work ethic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vbI-P6mFbg&feature=related

January 11, 2012 at 6:07 pm #934478

vvill
Participant

I rode metro for 3 years straight, before I switched to driving, before I switched to biking. I would feel slightly nauseous each time I came back to riding metro whenever I took a “break” from metro commuting, and now I feel it anytime I ride it again.

Sadly it is expensive. If you have a family it’s generally cheaper and faster to get around with a vehicle and pay for parking where ever you are going.

@pfunkallstar 12912 wrote:

7. People wear a crap ton of perfume in the morning and everyone smells like cocktails on the Orange line after 6.

I’d say I usually smell like beer if I’m on metro after 6.

The worst metro smell though is on a rainy day. Those musty carpeted floors, mmmm!

January 11, 2012 at 7:57 pm #934484

MCL1981
Participant

@pfunkallstar 12912 wrote:

5. Why do Metro trains just randomly stop all the time now? I don’t remember that.

When they get bunched up, that’s what happens. The tracks are divided up electronically into blocks of several hundred to several thousand feet depending on the location. The electronic track circuits detect the presence of a train and communicate speed limits to it’s automatic train control and protection systems. A block can only be occupied by one train. The block the train is occupying and the block behind it will have a speed limit of 0. The block before that will have lower speed and so on. This is what prevents trains from plowing into each other (when it is not broken…). The brakes will automatically apply a full service rate which is about 3mph per second deceleration which is pretty quick.

So, if two trains are following within a minute or two of one another, the one behind is constantly going to be running into block behind the lead train. Get a train behind that one and it cascades for however many trains are bunched. If you’ve ever wondered why a train pulling into a station stops 1/4 of the way down the platform, then proceeds the rest of the way slowly, that is why. If a train has just departed the platform, it will be in the track circuit block just passed the station. So when the next train comes into the station block, they get a 0 speed limit and have to stop. Once they’ve come to a complete stop, they can slowly creep along at a few mph.

When the train gets held for spacing at a station, it is to undo the bunched up mess that’s been created.

January 12, 2012 at 3:55 am #934491

Arlingtonrider
Participant

It took me almost an hour and a half to get home today via 2 metros, 1 slow bus, and a half-mile trudge through puddles and rain as two cyclists whizzed by. I was so jealous! Tomorrow morning it’ll still be wet on the trails, so I’ll give my “wack-a-doodle fender over the rack” a try and see if I can avoid the stripe up my back. I’ll be so happy to be back on my bike that I won’t care how silly a fender sitting on top of a rack looks. On another subject, it’s supposed to be 60 degrees in the afternoon, folks! What kind of winter is this??

Addendum: Detachable fender over the rack worked fabulously, and solved a problem at little cost and effort. I’ll add a note about that in the fender discussion in case anyone else has the issue of a rack too low for installing a back fender.

What a gorgeous morning! Commute was way too short.

January 12, 2012 at 12:44 pm #934494

vvill
Participant

@Arlingtonrider 12935 wrote:

What kind of silly winter is this??

A great one for riding!

But I wonder if I should’ve bothered buying studded tires.

The trails were wet and there was runoff debris in some spots on the roads but nothing too bad. Last night I put on the rear fender that I got thanks to DaveK, and it worked a charm to avoid the back stripe. I should probably get a front one too though. My new shiny bike is getting messy.

January 12, 2012 at 3:16 pm #934499

DaveK
Participant

@vvill 12938 wrote:

A great one for riding!

But I wonder if I should’ve bothered buying studded tires.

The trails were wet and there was runoff debris in some spots on the roads but nothing too bad. Last night I put on the rear fender that I got thanks to DaveK, and it worked a charm to avoid the back stripe. I should probably get a front one too though. My new shiny bike is getting messy.

Glad that fender worked for you! I’ll have to get the Crud Roadracer fenders if I want to try again for the road bike – there’s just no clearance on mine since the cables are run at the very bottom of the down tube.

January 12, 2012 at 3:32 pm #934501

jrenaut
Participant

@DaveK 12943 wrote:

Glad that fender worked for you! I’ll have to get the Crud Roadracer fenders if I want to try again for the road bike – there’s just no clearance on mine since the cables are run at the very bottom of the down tube.

+1 on the Crud Roadracers. My only complaint is that if you happen to pull your bike out of the cage and hit the back wheel on the ground, the back piece of the fender breaks off easily and you (or your LBS) have to get a little creative in re-attaching. Also it takes a ride or two for them to break in and stop the annoying rubbing noise.

January 12, 2012 at 3:53 pm #934506

MCL1981
Participant

It was a great morning to ride. Looks to be an even better ride home. Once again, packed the shorts and tshirt despite being dressed for winter in the morning. So strange.

January 12, 2012 at 4:02 pm #934508

vvill
Participant

@MCL1981 12951 wrote:

It was a great morning to ride. Looks to be an even better ride home. Once again, packed the shorts and tshirt despite being dressed for winter in the morning. So strange.

Same. Actually I usually have MTB shorts in colder weather that I overlap over regular bike shorts. But yeah I specifically made sure I had a short sleeve jersey as a baselayer this morning for the ride home.

@DaveK 12943 wrote:

Glad that fender worked for you!

It works great on both my road bike and and hybrid! Thanks again for that.

I recently ordered one of these too, I figured if it doesn’t work I’m only out a dollar:
http://www.realcyclist.com/crud-products-crud-catcher-fender

January 12, 2012 at 5:03 pm #934517

Dirt
Participant

With the exception of those 7 things, you’d say it was an extremely pleasurable experience?

January 12, 2012 at 6:13 pm #934521

pfunkallstar
Participant

I’m pretty done with Metro and I only rode it four times in the past three days. Here are some descriptors:

Smelly (the brakes smell like rotten something or another), expensive, kinda nauseating, inefficient, rude, did I mention smelly – well a different kind of smelly, and strangely damp.
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