I know that people in DC like to complain about it, but the Metro system is pretty good, it's just showing it's age. Of course the pandemic changed everything with public transportation. Ridership cratered on buses and light rail in Pittsburgh where I live, and it still hasn't recovered. Last year I rode on a train by by myself so many time I began to feel like the Pope in a private rail carriage. When the transit authority announced that two bus drivers had died from Covid, people simply stopped riding. The future of public transportation should be point to point service in autonomous vehicles, and hell lets make them electric. This could be done with absolutely zero infrastructure changes except removing bus stops. The whole fleet could operate out of a parking garage, Even though technologically it could happen today, it won't even though it would provide the best possible service to straphangers. There is not enough opportunities for graft like in a big rail system.