Washington, D.C., is one of the few American cities where you don’t need a car. That’s largely because of the Metro — a 100+ mile rail system that serves D.C. and its surrounding suburbs.
Today, D.C’s Metro consistently ranks atop the country’s best public transit systems, is the second-most ridden public transit system in the United States (behind New York), and has recovered post-COVID ridership faster than any major U.S. public transit network.
Metro’s enduring legacy is that, when done right, public transit works. And that deserves a celebration. Which brings me to the topic of today’s newsletter: the Metro Crawl.
The Metro Crawl is, admittedly, a little silly. Looking at a Metro map one day, I realized I’d been to only a handful of Metro’s 98 stations. Determined to check out these stations, I recruited a buddy to go on a Metro Crawl, or a bar crawl of sorts that combines my love of beer and public transit.
Here’s how it works:
We go on a bar crawl, but to get between bars, we exclusively use the Metro.
So: We take a train to the end of a Metro line, walk to the nearest bar, have a beer, return to the Metro, take a train to the next station, and repeat.
In that way, we slowly see neighborhoods and stations that we’d otherwise never go to — but do so in a way that’s more fun (drinking beer) than just touring a public transit system.
The Metro Crawl has since grown to dozens of friends and friends of friends spending an entire day riding public transit, meeting people, doing trivia, and seeing a whole lot of the greater D.C. area.
But the Metro Crawl is more than just a reason to drink with friends; it’s also a way to celebrate the fact that a system like the Metro even exists:
Unlike other American cities, whose extensive subways were built alongside horses and buggies, Metro was planned and built between the 1950s and ‘90s, when cars were, and still are, king.
And the federal government made things worse: Through the Highway Act of 1956, Congress pretty much gave cities highways for free.
So those who wanted Metro had an uphill battle, continuously fighting car owners, car companies, industry lobbyists, and politicians from all levels of government.
That Metro planners hurdled these barriers is important because, you guessed it, we need buses and trains to fight climate change.
Last year, Metro prevented more than 78,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from entering the atmosphere — the same as over 18,500 cars on the road for a year.
Metro trains also run on electricity, while most cars still burn gasoline, which creates smog and air pollution.
But Metro’s impact goes beyond the environment. Unlike cars, Metro trains transport thousands of people without needing thousands of parking spaces. And unlike highways, Metro tunnels are underground, preventing entire parks and neighborhoods from being plowed over.
As Zachary M. Schrag writes in his fantastic history of DC’s Metro, the Metro is a “symbol of urbanity, a preserver of neighborhoods, a work of beauty, a political unifier, a shaper of space, and a meeting ground for all Washingtonians.” And also a great place for a bar crawl.
But seriously, as fun as it is to do a Metro Crawl, many people’s livelihoods are dependent on reliable, frequent public transit. And Metro’s relatively low ticket costs make it an equitable transportation option for those who cannot afford to own a car.
When cities build or upgrade their own public transit systems, they must remember that such systems bring all these benefits and more:
“As other American cities ponder smaller networks of light rail, bus rapid transit, and even monorail, their citizens can learn Metro’s lesson that the function of a transportation system is not merely to move bodies but to move bodies in a way that shapes a city,” writes Schrag.
The Metro has not only shaped D.C. — it’s shaped my entire time here. For the last five years, I’ve been able to commute to work, visit friends, explore museums, go to the doctor, pick up groceries, dine at restaurants, and yes, drink at a dozen bars on a Saturday — all without a car.
And that’s worth celebrating.