Axe-Murderers Be Damned, Nats Fans Are Crowdsourcing Rides for Game 5 Because DC Metro Won't Run

There's a not-so-secret fact about living in the D.C. area: the Metro is a pretty bad mode of transportation. Even when you take out the whole catching-on-fire thing (which you shouldn't, it happens a lot and there's even a website tracking if it's caught on fire today), the train system is a mess. Gripe all you want about the New York City subway but at least it runs all night. The Metro does not.

Despite serving a major metropolitan area, the Metro closes down at midnight. The last train leaves the nearest station to Nationals Park at 11:39 PM. This is a particular problem on days like today, when the Nationals play the Dodgers in Game 5 of the National League Division Series and first pitch isn't until 8:08 PM.

The powers-that-be at the Metro aren't budging and keeping it open later. Now, normally not changing city operations just for sports events makes sense and is logical but if there are, like, thousands of people, maybe upwards of 10,000 fans, that need to catch a train to get home late at night, I mean, it could be time to reassess how you do things. Instead, D.C. pols and people who can actually enact change are winking and nodding at how screwed the fans might be.

"Nats fans are amazingly persistent and creative, and we know that they're going to plan ahead," Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser said, probably restraining herself from dropping in a "LOLZ" for emphasis.

Luckily, Nationals fans actually do seem to be the creative type. Steve Mears, a writer for the Washington blog TalkNats, created a Twitter hashtag, #NatsRide, where people can coordinate car-pooling to the ballpark, or even just to a sports bar in the neighborhood. Instead of paying $75 for an Uber, Nats fans can get to the game on the arm, and maybe make a friend, or narrowly avoid death—just like the Metro!—along the way. It's a beautiful match of technology and care for your fellow fan.

Mears told the Washington Post that he's facilitated at least 150 ride shares, including one for Patti Rodgers, who threw caution to the wind when she was hooked up with a fellow fan with a car, David Gaines.

"I've never met him before and I hope he's not an axe murderer," Rodgers told the Post. "But it's really no different than having to trust that the guy driving your Lyft isn't an axe murderer."

Nationals fans: willing to risk getting in a car with hopefully-not-an-axe-murderer just to watch their team because their own city left them no choice.