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To measure PG&E's performance, we need to log all power outages--even short ones. Please make a Power Outage Report.
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Here are some things I learned at Transit Camp Bay Area in Palo Alto on February 23, 2008.
1. The “barcamp” model works well for crafting solutions to social problems. It was a “DIY” (do it yourself) culture; if you wanted something, you got it yourself. The ground rule of “no complaints” was strictly enforced; it was, instead, a “solutions playground” that fostered collaboration among people who normally don’t get together. The enthusiasm for sharing ideas about making transit work better lasted all day. When I left at 6 p.m., lots of people still showed no sign of wanting to leave. After years of planning events and hustling sponsors, I was surprised that it was free and that food and snacks were available in abundance. In fact, sponsors were each limited to a $300 maximum contribution. No one worried about getting credit.
2. The event attracted smart people with expertise in an amazing number of areas, including numerous transit agencies and citizens’ transit groups, City CarShare, Zipcar, 511.org, NextBus, the Environmental Protection Agency, an air taxi ride share program, the governor’s office, Google, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, more than one “stubborn rail visionary” and lots of Web/tech professionals and people who refuse to own cars. Council members came from Menlo Park (Heyward Robinson and Kelly Fergusson), South San Francisco (Mayor Pedro Gonzalez), Pacifica (Sue Digre), San Carlos (Omar Ahmad) , Palo Alto (Yoriko Kishimoto) and Burlingame (me).
3. The biggest eye-opener for me was learning that the 26 transit agencies in the Bay Area are essentially run by people who come up through the operations and engineering ranks, not by people who are used to dealing with the public. The mindset of transit agencies, said Joe Hughes of Google Transit, is to “get every bus out the door.” They compete with one another for funding and do not play well together. Since transit agencies are traditionally low on funds, marketing and communications usually have a low priority. That’s why it is so hard to find out how to get around, why there’s inadequate signage and why customer relations departments could use improvement.
4. What makes transit agencies change their ways? Often it is someone who reaches past the staff to the board of directors by writing them or, even better, speaking at a board meeting. Don’t waste time filling out a generic “comment form” on an agency’s Web site. Instead, take the time to find out how to contact the board directly. For example, you can directly email every member of the BART board by writing to boardofdirectors@bart.gov. Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to attend the board meetings, as most are held during working hours.
5. Transit agencies are extremely protective of their data and are suspicious of “hackers” who want to create new Web tools that make it easier to access schedule information. Technologists want all agencies to make data freely available in the same format. Instead, agencies make the data available to specific vendors who then have a vested interest in not sharing it with others. One person said the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is spending a bundle on a massive in-house, data-gathering project that essentially duplicates what NextBus has already done. He said MTC could probably get the same results for free if it made the data available to Web professionals like the ones who attended Transit Camp.
6. My group, Coalition to Expand Transit Service (a group of council members from San Mateo County), invited those present to come up with simple Web tools that make it easier for the public to advocate for transit improvements. One low-tech idea is to create logs on Web sites where people can list problems they have encountered, as well as suggestions. (You can see one example of a public log on my Web site at http://www.terrynagel.com/Log_of_Power_Outagespage490.htm.) This data could inform transit agencies as they make decisions about how to best serve the public. Instead of relying on anecdotal evidence, boards of directors would have access to valid data that might show overwhelming support for changing the way a transit system operates.
7. CETS also believes it is important for transit agencies to share their future plans with the public and with elected officials, rather than waiting until the 11th hour to spring things on us. To that end, Caltran/SamTrans has agreed to visit every city in San Mateo County to have a discussion about the future of transit on the Peninsula.
8. Some neat ideas:
