Cliffy, while I sympathize, I have to wonder: Had you waited another 2 seconds before entering the turnstile, would this have been an issue at all?
So? Just look at the system map. They’re everywhere.
What? You don’t wait to go through a turnstile any more than you wait to go through a toll booth - you just line up and go.
Stopping - let alone BACKING UP - at a turnstile is exactly analogous to stopping or backing up at the top of a one-person-wide escalator: You just don’t do it. You step off and get the hell out of the way of the line of people behind you. How hard is that to understand?
John Carter of Mars, I usually like your stuff but that big ol’ chip of Southern on your shoulder is getting old. If an idiot farm chick like me can not only use the DC metro but also drive, park, avoid panhandlers, and get along in town fine, anyone can. You and your friends were being drunk pains in the ass. The only reason people kept looking away from you is because they weren’t in the mood to point and laugh.
God I hated DC tourists…
True, but you don’t try to ass-fuck the person ahead of you as you go through. My own experience with (admittedly different and easier) turnstiles is that if you give the person in front of you just a little bit of room, much sadness and heartbreak can be avoided.
Or, if it’s crowded in the station, someone shoves in front of you in that gap you left.
Meh. There’s an in-between spot you can occupy.
Sometimes even when the gate has just opened for you! I’ve had that happen once - I had just put my card in, gate opened, and some guy swooped in from my right. Fortunately the gate was open long enough for both of us to get out, otherwise I could have been stuck.
That doesn’t answer the question - what if you don’t have the money? (I’ve only ever encountered ‘pay on exit’ systems of any kind in America - everywhere else seems capable of charging the correct amount before you board.)
There sure are a lot of people who don’t know what the PIT is for. As well as a lot of people who don’t appreciate great rants. Yours was GREAT, Cliffy. Don’t defend yourself to these humorless twits who want to tell you what you should have done.
And I had never ridden a subway until I went to DC as (gasp) a tourist, and it seemed completely easy to me.
And, finally, someone up there somewhere said tourists in LA know it’s a working city…wrong wrong wrong. Everyone who comes here thinks none of us have to go to work and all of us can take the day off to escort them to Disneyland…and no one knows how to drive on the freeways.
Just sayin.
The DC Metro charges on distance travelled, and the time of departure - whether or not it’s during peak communiting hours. Everyone is supposed to have the correct amount on their farecard before boarding but it’s not actually deducted until exiting. If a farecard comes up short, there are machines near each exit that can add money to them and will say exactly how much is needed. I haven’t needed one recently but I think they can take credit (or debit) cards now.
I do know a few machines that issue the farecards are capable of taking credit or debit cards. I just used one of those the other day.
Still doesn’t answer the question - what if the farecard comes up short, and you don’t have the money required at the end of the journey? Assuming that everybody had a credit card isn’t good practice…
Don’t be stupid. After all the venting and commiserating and high- fiving and rant-rating, it’s perfectly valid to dissect the OP’s stated actions and discuss their merits. Otherwise, the thread would be boring as hell and only about 15 replies long.
To discuss the material presented in the OP does not imply a lack of humor or appreciation for the difficult situation therein.
Most people do have a debit card, though. Even if they don’t, chances are there is someone around who can give them the needed money. Or they can get creative and damage the farecard. 
I’ve been here for going on 20 years and have yet to see anyone not able to leave Metro.
Eh, normally the guard will just take your farecard and let you out. I’ve seen it happen.
At least once a month, I would miss a train because the moron in front of me got far enough to see that it wasn’t his train in the station and saw no need to keep moving and clear the way for the people behind him who were trying to catch that one. :mad:
Uh…I have to agree. We don’t have anything even remotely resembling subways here, and even we grizzly adamses manage to figure it out without endangering the locals in the turnstyle.
BTW, we had some good laughs over the way DCers use their car horns and gestures. I mean CONSTANTLY. A hapless motorist takes more than a nanosecond to turn off a main drag and HOOOOONK>>>HONK HONKHONKHONK!!!
And as a friend of mine who lives there said “and that’s the cops”. 
And NO ONE smiles. Well there were these two awesomely sweet little old black ladies who owned an antique store…
But other than that? Serious city, not a grin, nothing but grim determination and hurryhurryhurry.
Wow…
Come on the weekends and then everybody’s smiling on the metro. Or trying desperately not to pass out drunk. But rush hour? Ugh. No smiles here. I just want to be left alone so I can read my book.
Ah, the DC tourist…so fun. This is why I avoid the city from April to July. Between the cherry blossoms and the 4th of July there are just to many out of towners to handle
great rant! 4.5 out of 5 stars!