"Metro forbids its riders from bringing any food or drink onto the system and has for years." Absolutely FALSE statement! It's only illegal to CONSUME these items within the paid area of the system. Wasn't it only a couple of years ago METRO itself was considering allowing vendors to sell food at certain ststios to TAKE WITH THEM, but not to consume? The employee in this pic is doing absolutely nothing that's prohibited. Just like the 1000's of commuters that transport food/drink with them every day.
To touch on another point from the story, it is mentioned that "One of last summer's biggest coups was when WMATA relented and allowed — during a blisteringly hot day — its riders to bring on and drink from simple bottles of water." Question? WHO is WMATA to allow people to enter its system and PERMIT them to BREAK THE LAW??!! When Metro did this in the past, I immediately thought, "these aren't Metro 'rules' in as much as they are criminal ordinances of the local jurisdictions that make up Metro." Each city/county has a law on the books prohibiting "Drinking on the Metro." When Metro police issue citations/make arrests for these infractions, it's because the LAW was broken, not a Metro RULE. Isn't Metro actually "conspiring" to have these people break the law by permitting them, even encouraging them, to commit a crime? The "right way" would be for Metro to petition the local governments to get the law changed to allow exceptions--but that would make far too much sense for Metro!! Bikes for instance. Metro decided years ago to allow them during certain hours without attending a safety class and being issued a permit as was done in the past. Problem? D.C. Code STILL says a permit is required!! Metro never tried to get the actual LAW changed. It has to be a real PITA to be a Metro police officer. After all of that academy training to enforce the laws on the books, Metro keeps making things complicated!!
Really?