For those of us living in and around Washington D.C., Metro is one of
the most efficient transportation systems in our daily lives. Metro can
take us to our destinations on time without worrying about terrible
traffic, parking spaces or bad weather. This is especially valuable in the
D.C. metro area which has the worst traffic in the nation according to a
study by the Texas Transportation Institute (Gail). That's why a lot of
people choose riding Metro to go to work instead of driving on their own.
With people enjoying all the conveniences of Metro, and relying on Metro as
the main transportation for their lives, WMATA (Washington Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority) suddenly announced that full sized bikes are banned
in the Metrorail system from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on
weekdays. In a quote from Hendel's news report article, chief spokesperson
for WMATA, Dan Stessel said that full sized bicycles take too much space in
crowded Metro trains, which may cause potential safety hazards for all
passengers (Hendel). However, not all Metro riders are happy about this new
Metro bicycle policy. This new policy creates significant inconveniences
for a lot of bicyclists' commuting lives. Therefore, Metro's policy banning
bicycles during rush hour has become a very controversial subject in the
Washington D.C. area. I can see the inconvenience for bicyclists; I also
can understand the purpose of WMATA's new bicycle policy. Accordingly, I
have solutions that I would recommend to make the D.C. Metro system more
effective with bicycles while also resolving the conflict between
The WMATA is banning bicyclists from bringing bicycles into the
Metrorail system during rush hour due to safety concerns for all metro
passengers. While I understand the intensions of WMATA, there are many
peopl...