Washington subway crash

[xoxoxoBruce]

...twatting people about the head...

Hmmm, that doesn't sound completely unpleasant.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Sundae

In all my years of travel/ commuting on the Underground I never felt the need for a smoke hood, or indeed had any occasion to use one.

It was actually the London Underground terrorist bombing that made me decide to start carrying a smoke hood. I figured it was only a matter of time before DC got hit.

London, 7/7/05

[Sundae]

Had they been accessible (had I been old enough too) during The Troubles I'd have had one. I wasn't mocking. But as the IRA didn't hit the Tube my only concession to Underground travel was always to have water with me.

By the time I was back living in London after the Tube attack I was only ever on tourist routes.
Bombers don't bother with them usually.

[glatt]

I understand. And the odds of trouble are still low anyway.

With this DC incident, It made me wonder how I would deal in the heat of the moment. People were really hurting. Would I put on my mask and just sit there watching others die because they couldn't breathe? Not sure I could live with myself. But then why carry a mask at all? I need to remind myself that I have to keep myself alive for my family. They are counting on me. Put on my mask and let the strangers deal as best they can without one. They could have carried one too, but they chose not to. I'd need to be cold.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

I understand. And the odds of trouble are still low anyway.

With this DC incident, It made me wonder how I would deal in the heat of the moment. People were really hurting. Would I put on my mask and just sit there watching others die because they couldn't breathe?

Of course not. Think man think, wallets, purses, and don't overlook money clips. bra stuffings and lunch money.

[glatt]

I've spent the last couple hours trying to find statistics on Metro safety and transportation safety overall. It's not all nice and neatly organized, and I've had to do some ballpark estimating based on the numbers I can find.

The reason I have been thinking about this is that there has been a lot of talk lately about Metro's lack of safety and the need to shut it down to make repairs. The new General Manager is committed to fixing things, but at the same time, the Federal Transit Administration has seized control of safety issues and is throwing its weight around threatening to shut things down if the GM doesn't do things the way they want them done.

Everyone is talking about safety. Meanwhile Metro service has taken a nose dive. The FTA has demanded that trains be slowed way down so they draw less current and there will be less arcing. (Smoke by arcing has caused a death in an asthma sufferer as mentioned in the posts above.)

So anyway, Metro sucks now, and it's about to get a lot worse as they start shutting down tracks to work on them. All in the name of safety.

So let's look at safety.


This chart came from a 2009 FTA report on the years 2003-2008. I annotated it to include the two bars on the far right. Those are my back of the envelope calculations based on easily found data on deaths in Metrorail, and the more difficult to find data on the number and length of trips. But I think my calculations are very close to being accurate.

What it shows is that even in the worst year for Metro, when the accident that kicked this thread off happened, riding metro was twice as safe as commuting by car. (On average) And if you widen the sample size to include the years Metro has been having a bad time, the accident and the asthma death, Metro is about 15 times safer than driving.

So when the FTA talks about shutting down all of Metro for safety, they are full of it. It will make passengers more likely to die on the road. They should leave the GM alone and let him schedule the maintenance in a way that is logical from a logistics and efficiency viewpoint. Metro is safer than they would have you believe.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But what happens as ridership increases? The system has been run by a bunch of appointed politicians who know jackshit about anything but the bottom line. One of the reasons it worked so well for you is they skipped maintenance that would interfere with your trip. But now that misguided policy has accumulated problems, and the perceived savings will come back with a vengeance.

[Happy Monkey]

Plus, walk out of there with a mask on, and become suspect #1.

A live suspect #1, and hopefully only for a short time, but still.

[glatt]

Yeah, but posting here about it for several years will hopefully exonerate me.

[Happy Monkey]

I never gathered the statistics, but that's been my feeling, too.

If they can use the current situation to actually do maintenance that had been deferred due to the budget, there may be a silver lining, but overall the Metro coverage has made me think of Shark Week.

Look how scary sharks/train accidents are! You should be scared of swimming/Metro!