Well, that got real pretty fast.
What you’re witnessing here is the result of a quirky, amusing, and extremely telling phenomenon: salty tweet-complaints directed at public transit authorities, which is only slightly more effective than shouting into a void. Unlike tweeting a summary of a horrid in-flight experience to @JetBlue, which often yields freebies and graceful displays of brand redemption, most of these organizations aren’t even kidding themselves. In fact, one might say the state of public transit is so dire, that a quick deconstruction reveals an almost nihilistic attitude from the service providers.
And who can blame them, really?
The Washington DC public transit authority WMATA has a history of budget shortfalls (...and more budget shortfalls...and more...you get the idea.) Similarly, the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago transit authorities repeatedly come up against budget deficits. The result is typically fare hikes in combination with service cuts -- which means fewer routes, shorter overall hours of operation, and sometimes suspended service to entire areas. Needless to say, any of the above can be devastating to the residents in dense urban areas, where mass transit is the rule rather than the exception.
The harsh reality of crumbling infrastructure hobbling along undercrushing population growth causes a lot of angst from passengers, who seem to find some catharsis in tweet form.
We’ve even put together some of the best examplesfrom DC Metro alone, which happens to have it’s own dedicated (though unofficial) complaint channel: @UnsuckDCMetro.
Which, given the above tweets, this last one may come as a surprise. Drumroll, please…
Folks, I don’t know if any more needs to be said about the state of mass transit in the U.S. There you have it, in 140 characters or less. We can do better than this, can’t we? This is the same country that put a man on the moon and Google on the internet -- surely there is a solution.
If you’ve ever felt hopeless about infrastructure, whether it’s commuter train fires, six-month lane closures, or the ever-popular pothole, we’ve got an offer for you. Submit your best gripe about infrastructure in the form of an essay, a short video, a graphic, meme, series of tweets, or other media, and it could win $2,500. Yes, you read that correctly. HeroX and AEM are offering $2,500 to the person who formulates the best complaint about the state of infrastructure in the United States. Head over to the challenge page to register and submit your complaint!
