Metro doesn't want to Hear Riders' Ideas

According to the Metro website, the Rider's Advisory Council (RAC) is supposed to advise the Metro board on "issues affecting Metrobus, Metrorail and MetroAccess service. The 21-member Council includes six individuals from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, two at-large members, and the head of Accessibility Advisory Committee."

It does nothing of the sort.

The council has proved spineless and to be immune to reform from the inside, and now,  year later, nothing has changed.

A council that "represents" riders still won't stand up for them.

Here are the comments given by @FixWMATA at last night's RAC meeting (It appeared here originally):

I want to make sure that in my allotted two minutes I make myself clear tonight:

This council is a failure.

You have failed at representing WMATA riders by not being more demanding of answers from WMATA and letting incident after incident pass by without demanding answers.

You have failed at reaching out to the riders you represent. I offered resources last month to you to introduce yourself to riders - you declined to do so. I’ve seen no other attempt at outreach in the last month.

Kurt and I have told you time and time again there is a valuable WMATA conversation on Twitter - one (and a half) of you is on Twitter. Your technophobia is failing riders.

You’ve spent half a year planning a town-hall meeting that is so limiting it too will be a failure.

You’re failure has run off valuable members of this council while others have simply given up. Some of you fail to attend meetings. Some of you are here only because you feel you have to be - not because your heart is in it anymore. This is failing riders.

Each one of you represents 55,000 riders each. YOU are the checks and balances between WMATA and paying riders. If you don’t want to be here anymore don’t be here anymore.

I feel this failure has been a long time coming - but the current failing state of this council rests on Chairwoman Bracmort. SHE has failed to provide you with leadership. SHE has failed to engage the riding public. SHE has limited public participation in your process. And SHE must go. I call on Chairwoman Bracmort to offer her resignation so that someone who IS willing to lead this council can step forward.

You CAN do better.

You MUST do better.

Rider safety is dependent on it.

Thank you.

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