Unsuck DC Metro: Metro's 'Big Idea'

Friday, November 16, 2012

Metro's 'Big Idea'

Original photo via @julio_gonzalez#wmata's invitation to think..on@WaPoExpress. shall we dance@unsuckdcmetro? #crowdsourcinglockerz.com/s/261612639

So this whole Momentum/Mind Mixer thing got off to a rocky start. The first accomplishment was to get rude with riders on Twitter. And from there...

At yesterday's board meeting, Metro GM Richard Sarles said the Mind Mixer site had a total of 2,700 unique visitors. He also said the ad pictured above will appear in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.

From Mike:

So, I opened up the Express and saw Metro is asking me for the next "Big Idea." Really? Don't they have any themselves? Take a look around. Ride the Metro! Read this blog. Tons of no-cost ways to make Metro better right now. Right this instant. I don't get why they spend money to start a conversation that's already happening and has been for years. Maybe if Metro management got out and rode the system a little more, they'd come up with some ideas themselves.

Here's what I'd put in the form: (added to the photo)

From a Metro source:

Why don't you do something on the Office of Long Range Planning. I thought things would get better there after the credit card scandal (details), but they've gotten worse.

They are showered with money they don't know what to do with, so they spend it on stuff like the what if there were no Metro study and websites like Planitmetro and Momentum.

The office does study after study of things that will never happen at Metro. A lot of people around here shake their heads with some of the stuff they come up with. The executive leadership team seems to think it can do no wrong. I guess it gives them more pie in the sky stuff they can "wow" the board with.

I know for a fact that much of the "conversation" on the Mind Mixer site are people in the planning office. From what I hear, a lot of Metro's highly paid "senior planners" spend a lot of time on the Mind Mixer site talking about things with students and transit geeks about stuff that will never happen at Metro.

I'd be very leery of those sites as the artificially generated "conversation" can easily be turned into anything whim the planning office has. Many feel they are a costly distraction from what should be all about a back to basics movement.

Several other sources at Metro confirm widespread internal suspicion about Metro's planning department.

One of those implicated in the planning department's unbelievable credit card scandal, who later left in its wake, is former WMATA chief planner Nat Bottigheimer. While I can't say for sure it's the same person, someone named "Nat B," from Princeton where Bottighemer now lives, has submitted two ideas to the Mind Mixer site.

One is for a Facebook page for each Metrobus line, and the other is to hold a short film competition about the area's transit future.

Mind mixed!

If you want to make your own Photoshop, here's the blank image.

Other items:

Sarles blames early closure on one person (Examiner)
Proposed ethics rules changes for Metro board (WMATA)

Comments (21)

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+6 Vote up Vote down

lol · 643 weeks ago

Then Metro can hire people to manage each of the Facebook pages and then a film department to curate all the entries.

When will it stop?

+23 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 643 weeks ago

Imagine if, say, the Rosslyn tunnel and station had been flooded the way the the NYC subway was during Sandy. How many months, or years, do you think it would have taken to get that station open again? Because you know it wouldn't have been days, or even weeks.

-12 Vote up Vote down

transitizen 78p · 643 weeks ago

I find it interesting that this blog and its commentariat are constantly calling for more public involvement, more communication from Metro, but when they go out and do that it is met with ridicule. They provide the public with a forum to organize your ideas in a concerted way, but the only response is mockery. Future complaints of Metro ignoring the public are likely to fall on deaf ears if you ignore their attempts to reach out just because it isn't in the exact format you prefer.

There is room for both a "back to basics" movement and thinking about the future. Transit projects take forever to come to fruition; if you refuse to think about these things now, in 10 years we will be at a point where we will have fixed the major reliability issues that currently exist, and people will be screaming about how Metro didn't procure enough rolling stock or do the upgrades for all 8-car operation and things are crowded.

Your source seems like an on-the-ground person with disdain for eggheads who want to think outside the box. That single lens mentality is what leads to bogus decisions like bellying the 1000 series cars for safety reasons - it seems satisfactory to the safety-lens people but is likely contributing to unreliability and offloads. The organization needs people from all ends of the spectrum offering their ideas and expertise to function properly. Metro doesn't seem to be interested in a "back to basics" movement but that's an issue with the people who run the organization (the GM and the Board), not the people in the planning office.

2 replies · active 643 weeks ago

+34 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 643 weeks ago

I think you're confusing communicating and marketing.

+17 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 643 weeks ago

"Communication" is basically telling us what went wrong, why, and how they are going to fix it. What Metro is doing is "marketing"--trying to convince us that everything is just fine when it isn't. They aren't communicating with us; they're trying to get us to ignore just how inefficient Metro is.

+15 Vote up Vote down

hrh king friday 13 · 643 weeks ago

Bring in the Bobs. "What would ya say ya do here?"

1 reply · active 643 weeks ago

+15 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 643 weeks ago

I'll be honest with you, I love his music. I do. I'm a Michael Bolton fan. For my money, I don't know if it gets any better than when he sings "When a Man Loves a Woman".

+14 Vote up Vote down

longtimereader · 643 weeks ago

Hey Unsuck,

You should be proud. Metro is pulling all the stops to try to regain control of the conversation.

Too bad they don't talk.

+24 Vote up Vote down

wien · 643 weeks ago

I lived in Vienna, Austria for many years. There's no 'conversation" about the public transportation system there. Why? There's none needed. It works.

Of course, they inform riders of any delays due to repairs, but overall, it's just a non topic.

That's what Metro should strive for. Not more half baked ideas that distract from the core function.

2 replies · active 643 weeks ago

+12 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 643 weeks ago

Was in Vienna recently. Absolutely amazing transit system. Was actually going to to a post about it. Interviewed some of the people there. Never got around to it.

It's like a well-oiled machine. One some cars, I even saw an "in flight" magazine hanging from a little hook. Amazingly, it wasn't torn up and strewn all over the car.

+15 Vote up Vote down

Neenya · 643 weeks ago

I still follow Unsuck on twitter (I keep thinking I should unfollow it, I moved out of DC in June, but the tragedies of Metro never fail to make my day seem, by comparison, a bit brighter) and I also follow the New York equivalent (@secondavesagas).

The contrast is hilarious. New York isn't perfect by any means and discussion is warranted, but the issues being discussed are so different - I remember seeing a Second Ave tweet asking if there's too much advertising in the subway right above a series of Unsuck tweets about how Metro was literally on fire.

+24 Vote up Vote down

anon · 643 weeks ago

My big idea: Run a schedule and keep it.

1 reply · active 643 weeks ago

+14 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 643 weeks ago

Keep crackin' that whip, slavedriver.

+15 Vote up Vote down

John · 643 weeks ago

Did you hear the WMATA board didn't ask Metro management about Veterans day debacle or the daylight savings shut down? Outrageous!

Don't worry, Dr. Gridlock is on the case!

+11 Vote up Vote down

Anony-moose · 643 weeks ago

I like Sarles comment about the DST remark. It makes me laugh - It's kinda like Metro's way of giving a Queen Victoria "We are not amused" (at this worker). Lots of ugly stare, very little action.

So, is this Mind-Mixer place an open forum? Why don't we all just visit it a lot (*cough*RAID*cough*) and make our points about metro until they get it or until they IP ban us all. I mean I see topics on the Board's strategic plan, metro's path forward, potential strategies for the next gen, and telling us who you are. While the threads look rather limited, we could easily bend the comment sections of those topics to our purposes without derailing things (unlike metro's tracks). We should make such a loud cry on that site that they either are forced to answer or forced to spend all of their time moderating/deleting comments. Either way, we can make our own points through dedicated action.

1 reply · active 643 weeks ago

+6 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 643 weeks ago

"someone just made a mistake"

How many of us could make a 'mistake' like that and have a job the next day? Also, do they only have one person in charge of the whole system at night? If so, scary.

+6 Vote up Vote down

@KelOnWheelsVA · 643 weeks ago

http://lifehacker.com/265894/the-cubicle-warriors...

'Let's think out of the box: Really means, "Can you creatively anemic people please come up with something?" The person who says, "Let's think out of the box" is usually desperate for a new idea and surrounded by people who are not known for generating ideas. So the phrase is actually an announcement that says, "I'm in trouble."'

+6 Vote up Vote down

Matt · 643 weeks ago

I think WMATA management's mind is already mixed up enough. Why do they need to hire someone to do it for them.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Joolz · 643 weeks ago

Metro doesn't want "big ideas" having to do with delays, overcrowding, maintenance, or personnel, the things that affect frequent riders the most. They want cutesy ideas. Like Nat's. I'm not playing.

+5 Vote up Vote down

Ryan · 643 weeks ago

Nat B is Nat Bottigheimer! The man who allowed his employees to run wild with credit card theft has the nerve to come back and offer "advice" to his former employer -who punished him by giving him a nice "consultant" gig! These people shouldn't be allowed to run anything.