Metro Officials are Sweating 'HotCars' Website

A new dating site—Metro HotCars—at first glance appeared to be legitimately associated with the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA); it includes the agency's official “M” logo, a similar footer, colors and fonts. 

However, it is really a clever parody of hot cars, the euphemism used by riders to describe rail cars without air conditioning in the summer, according to the Washington City Paper.

The site is the brainchild of designer Kyle Conrad, who embeds his website link on a page that appears whenever someone attempts to sign-up, log in, or follow one of the “Contact,” “Newsroom,” “Safety” or other links in the homepage’s footer.

Metro riders and website visitors may enjoy Conrad’s sense of humor, with lines like, “Are you ready to find a new ‘commute’ment,” and the promotion of features such as “LoveDelays,” the parody site’s patented system that will let users know “just how long you have to wait before your match enters your life.” But Metro officials do not seem to get the joke.

When DCist contacted Metro spokesman Dan Stessel about the website, he responded, "We recently became aware of the site, which is in no way associated with WMATA. We are reviewing our legal options and will take appropriate steps to protect our brand."

WUSA9 obtained a letter from WMATA to Kyle Conrad demanding that he “cease and desist using our intellectual property (the M logo and SmartBenefits marks) without our permission.”

Conrad must comply by June 14, 2013, the letter states, or WMATA “will proceed with the necessary steps to force your compliance and obtain compensation for these infringements.”

When looking at the website Friday, all indications of Metro's affiliation with the site were crossed out.