Then stand on the damn right and don’t just stand in the way gaping. It’s like these people never saw an escalator before.
Exhibit A for why I drive to work.
I can’t believe you didn’t know this would go badly.
Hmm. Is there a name for sentences that, upon being uttered, immediately establish the truth of their negation, like ‘I am your better’?
Well, you could call the people uttering them oxymorons.
Does your she-penis produce glorious woman sperm or is it mostly for show?
Even he-penises are mostly for show.
It’s more like if you eat at McDonald’s and try to pay with your credit card but the machine’s broken. So you tell the guy “Oh, I don’t have any cash. Let me run across the street to the bank and I’ll be right back” and then this 16 yr old kid starts lecturing you and condescending you about how you should always carry cash and how you’re wrong for coming in to McD’s without the proper currency.
Again, I didn’t fare jump. My method of paying for it was just…backward. Had I fare-jumped, I wouldn’t have had the conversation in the first place.
Jesus, I get so damned tired of this condescending “sophisticated townie vs. clueless tourist” bullshit. I live in a tourist mecca, and recognize it for what it is. You’re on the Florida coast, you’re going to get tourists. Great. We could use the money.
Tourism is pretty much one of the main reasons for the existence of DC, you know. Government and tourists, everything else is pretty much peripheral. I may be using some hyperbole, but not by much. See all the pretty monuments built by tax dollars and so forth? It’s not exactly like you lived in a sleepy little desert community until it was discovered and overrun by the disheveled masses.
My wife and I plan on making a trip there soon. I’ve never been there, so I may not be real familiar with how your public transportation works. I may even take a couple of minutes to read the instructions. If this means that you’re two minutes late to your important job, tough shit.
Yeah, like those french fries are going to make themselves.
You did fare-jump. You went through the metro turnstile without putting your card in. That’s fare jumping. The fact that you tried to rectify it afterward isn’t relevant, especially because the guy in the booth at your destination station really can’t rectify it. He can’t accept money himself, and he can’t add and take money off your card.
I was pissed off this morning, but I wasn’t going to get into it with the prick Power Trip Jamal. So I drew my internet sword and prepared to do battle with SDMB Proxies in the Pit.
What makes you think I thought this would go well? So far, I think I’m winning.
Cool. Fine. Glad to have ya. Hey, do you think you can stand on the right when you ride the escalators? Thanks. And you can take two minutes to read the instructions. That’s fine. You can even ask me for help. But don’t expect me to actually enjoy your presence. That’s asking too much.
Not true. He can let me out, then I’ll run my card through that turnstile and exit again. Paid for. Same price. I’m at work on time, the system gets its money, no one has to freak out. Everyone wins.
Oh yeah, but I’m supposed to feel all guilty and “I’m so ashamed!” over it? Bullshit. Just let me out so I can work around your broken shit, OK?
If anyone wants some more stories of how the Metro has nearly fucked up the OP’s day, luckily there’s a website dedicated to just this purpose.
The Government Literally Lost Money Keeping OP from Work.
Another Episode of Fail in Swiping SmarTrip.
In Which Others Try to Make OP Late.
Regarding a Helpful Suggestion to Segregate Worth Metro Customers from the Riff-raff.
Chalk those up as four more “wins” for our fearless intern’s effort to bend the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to his whim.
Sure, he can let you out. The movie theater ticket taker can also buy your story that your girlfriend has your ticket and has already gone in, but you paid for it, you totally swear.
Then you don’t know how the Metro works. Unless your card shows where you got on, there is no way of it knowing the fare to charge you. Sure you got on in a place it is the minimum fare, but, just think, if you had got on in Shady Grove, or Vienna, or Franconia-Springfield, and then tried to pay at the end, don’t you think you would have said you got on much closer?
The system needs a start point and finish point. By turnstile jumping at your origin, you denied it the start point, and so made it impossible for the system to determine what you owed. You instead assume that Metro should rely on your honesty, which they can be forgiven for doubting seeing as you broke the rules by turnstile jumping in the first place.
villa, does the DC system charge you by how far you go so that you pay after you exit? Just curious–I’m in New York so it’s the same fare no matter where you go. In that case it seems like the OP really did scam the system.
Yes - different length rides are different amounts. You put the card in, it registers where you got on, then you put it in to exit and it deducts the amount for the ride.
There are also different fares for peak time and other times.
:dubious:Hmm. I’ve been taking the Metro for years and years and on the occasional instances where I’ve had a problem, have always, always found Metro employees to be exceptionally friendly and helpful, *particularly *in the train stations.
Yes, it charges differently depending on how far you went.
Oh yeah, that’s a good point…
Wait, no. It’s stupid. Because I DIDN’T get on at Vienna or Shady Grove or Frac-Spring. And I didn’t take it the entire track. I end up paying the same price as I would have anyway. It makes absolutely no difference, money-wise, if I swipe in at my start station or the end station.
Did you not notice all the comments where they call the blogger a tool and whatnot? And I’m not a fucking intern.
In that case, just going back out and reswiping seems quite pointless. Seems like the OP should have sucked it up and waited. Or gone to a different station and put money on there. (Not that jumping a turnstile would be OK even in a system where it’s the same amount no matter where you go. I don’t think I’d ever jump the turnstile, barring some extreme emergency.)