Living transit maps

I get daily Washington Post alerts and in today's, the lead article was about what a computer programmer did with the information from the Oyster cards used on London's Tube and visualized a day's worth of commuting in a very, cool map. 

Can someone do this in DC? Pretty please?!

A travelin' (wo)man...

I was thinking this morning that I've traveled a lot in my life and in recent years have found myself wanting to take public or mass transit when visiting other cities and countries, if nothing else, to see how their systems compare to my beloved DC. 

So I cataloged all the US cities and international cities where I've utilized their public or mass transit systems. First note to mention: I say 'mass transit' in addition to 'public' because a lot of time overseas their transit is actually privatized, at least in Europe, and that's a whole 'nother discussion for a different post (andwhyIthinktheUSisbehindontransit, coughcough).

I also would like to define what I consider to be "mass or public transit". This is city/county buses, commuter/regional rail, subways, trolleys and light rails. This does NOT include passenger rail (i.e. Amtrak), planes, ferries, or taxicabs. 

So without any further ado, here is my ever-growing list that I would like to continue to enhance! (ordered by proximity to where I call "home")

Washington, DC (obvi) and surrounding jurisdictions (MoCo, NoVa, etc.)
Baltimore, Maryland
New York, New York
Columbus, Ohio
Boston, Massachusetts 
Chicago, Illinois
San Francisco, California 
Seattle, Washington

London, England
Paris, France (twice!)
Pisa, Italy
Rome, Italy
Athens, Greece

Sadly, I've been to plenty more cities than this, but either due to circumstance, stupidity or age, we didn't utilize the public transit systems in those places, walked, drove, or cabbed A LOT, or I just don't remember it. Here's to hoping that changes and I can teach my future children about the importance of it someday and cities continue to improve their transit so that tourists feel compelled to use it! 

A new fad?

So a few months ago, I watched this video online about a man who raced the Tube in London. I thought it was super fun and interesting as both a commuter and a runner (although I don't think I could do it). 

Well, it's gone local, folks. Someone just did it here in DC to celebrate a birthday. Sucks to be born in December and do this, but still...nice job!

Given delays, Metro cards demagnetizing, time of day, etc. I would think you'd have to prep for this pretty well and plan your course, as well as be in good shape. Or else this might happen:

Terrible, I know, but totally true.

And, people will comment as you're running by.

Or, if you're like me, get distracted, or lost, and end up just doing this the whole way.

FAIL.