Dan has set a standard that Metro must continue to meet when selecting his permanent successor.

It's not paper versus Smart Card- it's wholly the user. As a paper person, I can assure you I've spent (more than) my share of time stuck behind someone waving their card at the sensor, placing their card on the sensor, smashing their card on the sensor; not always in "rapid" succession.

The SmarTrip express lanes are a good idea, but they're not really needed at places that have 10 fare gates. I know it's only a demonstration for now, but I don't find a problem at locations with 10 gates. And I'm sure they'll work fine. But the realy place to find out is is where there are only 2-3 gates. That's where the bunching happens now.

The changes in Metro since Dan's arrival have made a visible difference in a short period of time. As a District resident, I'm glad our new mayor realized this and snapped up Dan. Exceptional candidates for high pressure, critically important jobs come around infrequently. It says something about Metro's VA Board members who couldn't see this. Metro's loss is DC's gain. Great call Adrian! I just hope that Metro's next leader recognizes the progress an engaged administrator can achieve.

Here's something they could do to improve the SmarTrip card experience: allow me to refill my balance online. For example, I know that right now I need to refill it -- I went into negative on my way to work. So how great would it be if I could refill it now, while at the office, instead of waiting until I get to the station, stand in line, maybe miss a train....

Ed's idea is an excellent one. I too stand in the negative on my card. Granted, I probably don't use my SmarTrip card as often as he does, but I'd still like to fill my card before I find myself standing behind a mob of weekend tourists trying to figure out the machine.

Refilling the SmarTrip would also help bus riders. I have to go out of my way to a Metro station now just to refill my card, then go take the bus home. Makes no sense.

This is not a hard problem to work around, just one is those small things that would make everything run much smoother.

I use the Vienna train station and just noticed the SmarTrip express lanes. Good idea, but better if the express lanes were arranged more effectively. For example, if there are eight lanes #1-8, I think it would be better to group the express lanes together in the middle (i.e. Lanes #4-6) or on both ends (Lanes #1-3 and #7-9). Right now I need to cross several lanes of metro traffic to get to the Express Lanes, which defeats the purpose of getting through the gates more efficiently.

I didn't think the paper users were much of a problem as the average one uses up maybe an extra 1.5 or 2 seconds than a smart card user. It's only a problem w/ a confused tourist, and I'm sure they'll be even more confused when they get to a turnstyle that they can't use. I'll be interested to see if this causes more problems than it solves.

I work at the Bethesda metro and I love the idea of the express lanes, but they don't really work when you have confused people trying to figure out where the slot for the paper card is. I had no idea they were rolling these out in Bethesda and was surprised to see them. The first day they were there, there was a metro employee sitting next to the gates directing those with paper tickets to the other turnstyles. Haven't seen this since. Today they had a small paper sign with an arrow saying "paper tickets this way". Not that helpful in the grand scheme of things but I guess people will catch on.

I think most usual metro riders who use paper tickets are pretty quick with them. These express lanes would be more effective at high tourist traffic areas, such as on the Mall, or at College Park metro which has a lot of tourists come through and college students that use metro and don't bother getting the SmarTrip card.