On the Metro:

Don't get me wrong, the Metro is good. Hundreds of times better than systems in Atlanta or Athens (or I'm sure lots of other cities I haven't been to).

But it can't compare even to the El. Its coverage is roughly comparable, but last night I was coming home at about 10:30 at night, and I had to wait 20 minutes for a Green Line train at L'Enfant Plaza. That shouldn't happen at 10:30 on a Friday night. And don't get me started on the fact that the Metro stops running at 11:30 on weeknights.

My other issue with the Metro is sort of an asthetic one. It seems that there are two schools of subway/underground station design. Either the stations are big and grandiose, designed to impress rather than to serve (DC, Atlanta, Athens) or the stations are little and shabby, designed simply to be useful (London, Chicago, NYC, Budapest). I vastly prefer the latter. Who cares if the subway station is beautiful and big (and, unspoken, expensive)? A station whould be functional, and the money spent on building and maintaining these expensive stations could be spent on keeping service better. I like the claustrophobic stations in London (except for the Jubilee Line), too. The roaring train takes up all the room in the station, like, what else should be there?