Is technology causing us to overthink and make bad transportation decisions?

Escalators at DC Metro's Dupont Circle Station. (Photo courtesy of Geoff Livingston)

On Saturday night, I attended DC United’s 5-0 win over Real Salt Lake, a match that featured Wayne Rooney’s first MLS hat trick. After a postgame dinner at Bluejacket Brewery, in the shadows of Chao’s Castle, I headed home to catch the second half of an important Liga MX match between Tijuana’s Xolos and Northern Mexican rivals Monterrey.

The trip from Navy Yard to Cleveland Park – Green Line to Red Line – is normally pretty simple, and I timed the Chinatown transfer between the two Metro routes pretty well.

But at Dupont Circle, after the train had sat still for slightly longer than normal, the operator came on and announced bad, but unsurprising news for weekend WMATA riders: we had to wait for other trains to clear a segment of the line between there and Van Ness (three stops to the north), because one of the two tracks was closed for maintenance.

I quickly opened my phone’s MetroHero app, which provides live locations for all of WMATA’s trains, and assessed the situation. The app painted a disheartening picture: a train traveling in our direction was still four minutes from clearing the single-tracking area. Another train, heading in the opposite direction, was waiting at Van Ness, and would presumably need to proceed through the construction zone’s entirety – another six minutes – before we could go anywhere. Factoring in the extra time it takes for trains to switch tracks and the other familiar glitches of weekend maintenance, I figured it would be a 12-15 minute delay before our train pulled out of Dupont.

***

Normally, I would have just waited out the delay, but I wanted to get home to see as much of the Xolos game as possible. So, I opened up the Capital Bikeshare app and saw that a CaBi Plus e-bike was available at a nearby dock. I figured by acting quickly, I could get to the e-bike before someone else took it and, with the pedal-assist motor assisting my uphill ride, beat the train back to my neighborhood. And even if the e-bike was gone by the time I got to the dock, I figured the train would still be waiting for the tracks ahead to clear, giving me time to return to the station and re-board.

So without hesitation, I exited the train and started heading out of the station.

But as I ascended the short escalator up to the mezzanine level, I heard an unexpected sound behind me: a “doors closing” chime. Before I could process what was happening, the train I’d just gotten off of was leaving the station without me, bound for the single-tracking area following only a minimal delay.

As I’d watched the situation develop on MetroHero earlier, this is what I’d hoped would happen, since the aforementioned train that had entered the single-tracking area was only a few minutes ahead of ours. But the train operator’s misleading delay announcement had dashed those hopes, triggering my quick – but, in the end, erroneous – action.

Nevertheless, I rolled with the punches. With the next train 14 minutes (plus a potential single-tracking delay) away, the CaBi Plus e-bike now clearly seemed my best bet. So I ran up the station’s long escalator, hurried to the dock, and rented the e-bike.

But on this night, technical problems with the bikeshare system's infrastructure led to a much longer delay than I would have experienced had I just remained on the train. When I reached Cleveland Park, neither of the bikeshare station’s empty docks were working properly, so I had to backtrack to the National Zoo – around a third of a mile – to find a functional dock to leave my bike in.

***

By this point, I was infuriated at my earlier inept decision-making. My thoughts rolled through the obvious culprits – our region’s general neglect of weekend transit service and Lyft-owned Motivate’s inability to fix the broken Cleveland Park bikeshare docks (which have been an issue for weeks now).

As I walked home, I considered how WMATA’s limited night and weekend service, though intended to allow for maintenance that’s supposed to make the Metro system safer and more reliable, has actually hurt reliability at off-peak hours and caused people to turn to less safe forms of mobility. I reflected on how transportation providers from airlines and Amtrak to local transit agencies struggle so mightily to communicate effectively with their riders. And, given that even a flawless bike ride would not have been that much faster (if even faster at all) than a Metro train subjected to a delay of the duration I’d originally expected, I fumed at the possibility that DC’s incessantly negative transportation culture may have rubbed off on me enough to coerce me into so quickly and stupidly giving up on the train.

But in the end, my focus settled on the technology that, in tandem with the train operator’s misleading announcement, provided the evidence I’d used to make my mistaken decision.

MetroHero and the CaBi app both worked perfectly, showing me where all the trains were, whether or not they were being delayed, and whether or not the nearby bikeshare stations had e-bikes available. But the apps were unable to account for the human aspects of our transportation system, like WMATA’s dispatching decisions and Cleveland Park’s broken bike docks.

At face value, smartphone apps have probably reduced the amount of time we spend waiting at transit stops and stations. For example, apps like MetroHero, Transit, and DC Metro and Bus show us when our bus or train will actually get there and display optimal routes for trips with complex connections. And New York’s MyTransit NYC app makes it possible to decipher the normally incomprehensible list of construction projects that regularly disrupt night and weekend service on that city’s subway.

But these apps also may lead us to overthink and try too hard to “beat the system,” when it reality it’s probably best to just stick with the most logical route. For example, whenever I am on a transit trip that involves a transfer, I habitually check my phone to see how I’ll time it. If it’s going to be tight, I find myself fretting every time my vehicle deviates from its normal speed – even if a missed connection won’t mean a long wait.  (And of course, some of those unexpected slowdowns are caused by increased traffic congestion attributable to ride-hailing, which wouldn’t exist without smartphone technology.)

This contrasts with my experience in Seoul, where I navigated transit without a smartphone or any other personal aid providing real-time info. Subway routes were frequent and rider-friendly, and because bus stop signage listed every stop on every available route, even when in an unfamiliar part of town I could quickly figure out how to get to a subway station or other well-known hub, making mobility easy.

Though I may not have always used the fastest possible transit option, I got around Seoul without stress, and over time learned which routes served my needs best. This feeling of transportation independence, which a recent trip to Mexico City rekindled, is not something technology alone can deliver. But it’s something that could help address recent study findings that show transit can be unnecessarily stressful, relative to other options.  

***

In the end, my bizarre sequence of decisions on Saturday night may have worked out for the best. I got home in the 60^th minute of the Xolos match and soon after I turned it on, Tijuana striker Miller Bolaños tapped in an excellent cross from Gustavo Bou to give his team a 1-0 lead. Despite sustained pressure from previously-unbeaten Monterrey, Xolos held on for the win, a major boost for their playoff hopes.

The next morning, I headed down to meet a friend at Georgetown’s Ri Ra for St. Patrick’s Day brunch, and once again chose Capital Bikeshare – this time, because it seemed the most logical option, straight up. I rented a standard bike in Cleveland Park, but as I pedaled past the zoo, I noticed an e-bike – presumably the same one I’d ridden from Dupont Circle the previous night – still sitting in the dock.

So, I docked the standard bike, unlocked the e-bike, and, as I traveled through Rock Creek Park’s southern portion, enjoyed an extra boost that likely wouldn’t have been available to me had I stayed on the train the previous night.