This Is Not Your Father’s Subway

General Motors is in the business of making cars. Washington’s subway system tries to get people out of them.

So when GM ads went up in the Metro urging riders to “tear up your monthly pass” and buy an Oldsmobile Aurora, transit officials fumed.

“It’s unconscionable that a major car manufacturer would come out with an ad trying to view us as a competitor,” said Metro General Manager Lawrence G. Reuter, who noticed the ad while riding a train to work one morning.

“If the millions of daily transit users took your advice literally, both cars and buses would risk being stuck in commuter traffic from dawn to dusk,” said Jack R. Gilstrap, executive vice president of the American Public Transit Assn., in a letter to GM President and CEO John F. Smith Jr.

“I can’t dispute what (Reuter) says,” said Gus Buenz, Oldsmobile’s public relations director in Detroit. “We won’t stumble again.” Metro is limited in its ability to censor such material because of First Amendment concerns.