transitFAIL: Using social media to make things better
Tags: hashtag, PDXplan, public engagement, social media, transitFail
Welcome to Fail Week here on PlanningPool! All week we will be bringing you information about bad planning, lack of planning, and planning generally gone awry.
On Twitter, people use hashtags ("#") to talk about a topic, in this case the failings of public transit.
At PlanningPool, we’re big fans of Twitter, because it’s a tool that combines the less high-tech (cell phones) with the more high tech (internet) and gets people in touch with each other. For planning, Twitter can be used as a public engagement tool, like with Portland’s @PDXplan. Twitter can also be used to mobilize people, as was famously done with the Iran elections.
One of the more complicated aspects of Twitter are hashtags. Hashtags are words preceded by the hash symbol, #, like #transitFAIL. The purpose of a hashtag is to organize informtion and people. They are often used to Tweet about current events, conferences, quotes, activities, memes, and other things. Mashable has a good explanation about how they work.
So what does Twitter have to do with Fail Week? One of my favorite planning-related hashtags is #transitFAIL. The purpose of #transitFAIL is to publicize where public transportation fails its customers and users. It’s a particularly effective tool, because you can use SMS messaging or use a web-enabled smartphone to instantaneously tell the world about how transit just let you down. Some smartphones can even take photos or videos and upload them to Twitter, too.
Smart transit providers will use this feedback to improve their service and see where the problems are. I’d like to see transit providers use Twitter to notify people about service changes or delays, too.
While you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to follow us, too! We’re @planningpool.
Aaron Antrim said:
Mar 10, 10 at 8:51 amI think SF BART does the best job at engaging social media networks. They see Twitter as a way of extending and enhancing the social experience and world of transit (http://tinyurl.com/yelunxa).
The SF BART page about their Twitter feed recommends that complaints are submitted by email form (http://www.bart.gov/news/twitter/index.aspx), not Twitter.
A better open space for collecting, displaying, and responding to rider feedback is something like GetSatisfaction.com. Feedback submissions are as questions, ideas, complaints, or compliments, and are organized by agency or company. Responses are threaded, and public. Should the agency choose to participate, agency responses can come from an “Official rep.” I think GetSatisfaction.com and similar sites like Uservoice.com, could be used well for community engagement in planning and transit.
Here’s my blog post on GetSatisfaction.com for transit: http://www.trilliumtransit.com/blog/2008/12/02/rider-powered-customer-service-for-transit/
You can see GetSatisfaction.com in action for a small transit agency in Humboldt County, California, here: http://getsatisfaction.com/humboldttransit/
I like to highlight this example of passengers helping passengers by answering their questions: http://getsatisfaction.com/humboldttransit/topics/dogs_on_the_bus
#transitFAIL « Politics and the New Media said:
Mar 20, 10 at 5:45 pm[...] March 20th, 2010 by Jonathan ˙ Uncategorized ˙ The good folks at Planning Pool, an urban planning website run by U. British Columbia students, have enlisted Twitter as a way to [...]
Using Social Media to Make Transit Fun! | Planning Pool said:
Mar 31, 10 at 10:18 pm[...] can take advantage of social media to gather data from their users. For instance, as discussed in this PlanningPool post, the #transitFAIL hashtag on Twitter enables riders to be heard when public transit has let them [...]