They wait until the day after Labor Day to change the traffic patterns in and out of the garage. Not only do they wait until the day that EVERYONE returns to work at the same time, they decide to allow one exit lane while two lanes are allowed in. During evening rush hour. Two lanes are incoming. During evening rush hour.
Let me state that again.
Two lanes come into the garage. One lane exits the garage. During evening rush hour.
Even more ridiculous, these lanes do not match the gate directions, which are: two exit gates, one entrance gate.
I'm beginning to think that Metro and Department of Homeland Stupidity are run by the same imbeciles. I think I'd get some support on that from my peeps.
So let's put this another way. This means that 200+ cars trying to leave at one time no longer can exit and have a lane to turn right and a lane to turn left. Now, it means that one car making a left turn (me being one) will hold up all traffic behind until they can make the left. Which is often not quick. This is rush hour traffic, after all.
It took 15 minutes to go 30 feet today.
Let me illustrate this further.
There are three gates. In the morning, there are two lanes in and one lane out. This makes sense, because there are more incoming cars than outgoing (duh). Also, since people stagger their work times more in the morning than the evening rush hour, there are never tons of cars entering the garage at one time. So, although there is a steady stream of cars incoming in the am, this doesn't cause any backup because the gates are all open until after morning rush hour has ended.
However, in the evening rush hour, there are two exit gates. The middle gate used to lead to the (unmarked) left lane, which is, natch, where the left turn cars went. The right gate was where the right-turn cars went. The far left gate was the one gate for cars entering the garage. Simple, straightforward, no hassle. No backup. Metro got that far in understanding that more people exit the garage in the evening than enter it.
So why, since there are two exit gates, do they force all exiting cars into one lane and allow two incoming lanes -- when there are never more than two cars entering the garage in a five minute period (as opposed to, say, 75 exiting in the same time frame) in the evening?
What moron was drinking when he gave the ok to that?
Why bother having two exit gates when there aren't two lanes to exit to and NO MERGE AREA FOR THE TWO GATES THAT HAVE TO SOMEHOW BECOME ONE LANE? Why don't they do contra-flow? Why not implement this change AT THE BEGINNING OF SUMMER to ease people into the new pattern, when traffic is lighter? Oh, I forgot, I assumed Metro had a brain.
I mean, why NOT wait until ridership is back up to its highest point before making a traffic change? Wouldn't it just be a hoot to watch hundreds of confused drivers wonder just what the fuck is going on? Yeah! Let's do that! Oh! And let's have TWO LANES INCOMING AT ALL TIMES, EVEN THOUGH IN THE 15 MINUTES I WAITED TO GO 30 FEET, THERE WAS NOT ONE INCOMING CAR?
WAMTA sucks. So much, I've just added a new category so I can track just how much they suck.
( 12:21 FH | reasons metro sucks. urban living. )