Advice for afternoon commuters on streets, transit

Farmer's Market: It's Thursday, so from 1 p.m. till 8 p.m., Vermont Avenue NW will be closed between H and I streets for the weekly farmer's market, north of the White House. During these hours, Metro reroutes the southbound L2 bus through that area, but does not miss any stops.

Metro SmartBenefits: A commenter on James Hohmann's blog entry about the problem people had with the Farecard vending machines this morning made a useful observation I'd like to repeat for you.

MelMoitzen noted that the problem occurred on the first of the month, when many riders were trying to electronically load their monthly SmartBenefits onto their SmarTrip cards, then continued:

"Many of those disappointed in not being able to download this morning will be trying again this afternoon, so you might get more 'routine' processing delays then. Not to mention incredibly long lines.

"If you've got enough on your card to see you through until tomorrow, suggest waiting a day before downloading. Or it may be worth an extra walk to the machine to download before the PM rush."