Thank goodness Todd Fuller stepped up to refute that absurd op-ed (“Transit makes life more fun,” Oct. 24) the Uptown paper of record ran last week.
I rode trains and buses for the better part of a decade in DC and “fun” didn’t enter into it. Was it an ordeal? No. Was it exciting? Not particularly, and never for the right reasons. Like the claustrophobic young woman a few seats away who had a breakdown in tunnel one afternoon in Rockville. Not fun. Kinda exciting, though.
Transit was mostly — John Fox-ism ahead — what it was: A way to get around. To the extent that a particular trip was easy, it was enjoyable. To the extent you wound up smack against a rancid homeless man, it was not.
The closest I ever got to actual fun was walking into a station on one of DC’s subtropical summer days, an empty car rolling in as I rode a working escalator down to the platform. Doors ka-chunk open, cool air pours out, and I sprawl across a couple seats, 30 minutes from home on a Friday afternoon.
That’s about as good as it gets.
Bonus Observation: About 25 percent of the time, my perfect Friday ended when my feeder bus failed to show after 15 minutes baking in the sun. Choices: Bake some more or walk 1.5 milles home and cross an 8-lane highway. Fun!
