I attended the Bay Area’s first TransitCamp last weekend with citizens of the Bay Area to talk with transit organizations using Get Satisfaction.
The two-day event had an interesting and smart mix of people. There were folks there from SamTrans/Caltrain, BART, MUNI, and even city officials like past and current mayors, board members, and advocacy group members. Mixed in with the officials were plenty of concerned citizens, technology folks, designers like myself, and programmers — some independent, some from start-ups.
Tara Hunt enforced the idea that this was a weekend about solutions and not problems, as evidenced by this cute — and effective signage:
By day two, the mantra had sunk in, and everyone was saying it and adhering to it.
We talked about current issues with different transit systems, signage, schedules, numbers of stops, the confusion around multiple systems, the difficulty for new riders getting acquainted with these systems, the politics and budget constraints officials have to work with, how to make these systems more green, and various accessibility issues.
And, I found a few presenters had ideas that really rang true to what we’re trying to accomplish:
There were two “points of pain” that I heard expressed throughout this TransitCamp.
Data availability was the big issue for the application developers trying to make the Bay Area transit system more convenient and easy to use.
Ken Schmier, of NextBus, laid out a framework for an instant messaging system for MUNI riders! Check out his slideshow here. This slide in particular rang true to Get Satisfaction’s ideals of transparency:
The other main point was summed up by this good question: “How do we open up the monolith?”
There are multiple groups working on these problems, both inside the transit authority and outside the transit authority. It’s hard — but necessary — to construct clear lines of communication across these large masses of people and the multiple large, complex, government agencies. Not only is communicating with these constituencies important, but collecting real data to better inform future decisions and raise the level of the conversations is also important.
So, how do we open up this monolith?
Great question. I presented Get Satisfaction both as a suggested solution and also as an example of a system that could inspire better ways of communicating. By capturing the conversations that are already happening without them, communicating with their customers (citizens!), and giving out bits of real-time data that people value, all of these transit systems can pull from the smart ideas of their riders and make a big leap forward.
One key thing about a third-party site like ours is that it allows government employees — who are also citizen-customers – to participate outside of the burden of regulations. Some are on Get Satisfaction already, albeit anonymously. Of course, we really believe that being open about your identity is the best way to get things done, but before an organization has embraced this way of thinking, it’s great that enthusiastic and helpful employees can get out there and get involved.
I chatted with two Caltrain conductors on the way back from TransitCamp, and they both had multiple ideas about how to increase ridership, streamline the business, and make riding Caltrain more fun. That’s not even to mention all the ideas and thoughts I heard from other riders and all the smart people at TransitCamp!
These are great resources that agencies want to tap into, and with Get Satisfaction they have a platform to do so.
[Caltrain, BART, MUNI, NextBus, and TransitCamp are all on Get Satisfaction.]
