Metro says escalators working better than ever: not sure that applies at Columbia Heights Metro

Metro's escalators have long been a scourge of our transit system: they're often broken, meaning long walks up (or down) the stairs. However, Metro is saying that lately, things have gotten much better. Metro says that 92% of escalators are working, the highest rate in 5 years.

That sounds good, but DCist reports on some other folks doing some data crunching: one Georgetown student reports that every 17 minutes, a new escalator goes out of service. Metro has 588 escalators, so while that's a lot, it's only a small percentage.

The student, who published his report on the blog Unsuck DC Metro, also argued that some outages weren't being reporter by Metro, meaning the actual rate should be lower. Metro's spokesperson refused to comment because their spokesperson because it was posted on Unsuck DC Metro -- a pretty lame and shortsighted reason.

So while 92% is a lot, I feel like the frequently broken Columbia Heights esclators aren't a shining beacon in the system -- it seems like the ones to the street level, especially on the east side, are often busted.

But then again, maybe I only notice when it's not working. What do you think?