Just a couple of hours ago, the premier transit agency in the nation’s capitol (WMATA) suffered a serious service outage on one of the heavily traveled train lines (Green Line). The abrupt disruptions have left many commuters stranded without a way out of the Navy Yard (and Anacostia) area, a major hub for riders employed at many of the facilities, including the US Department of Transportation, situated in the vicinity. Though it was an unexpected situation, #WMATA was a bit slow to respond and got customers ticked (to put it lightly). And the customers have already taken to using social media sharing pics. and tweets from the scene. To WMATA’s credit, the communications team at the agency was trying its best to deal with the situation, which is a bit more heartening than how they did in similar situations in the past. Here is a sample of what’s happening on Twitter as we speak :
A sample of what’s happening at Twitter hashtag #WMATA
Looks like it is going to be a long night for all involved, esp. for the communications team at WMATA. Hope they learn sooner than later to deal with/cool down their customers before they all start flocking to their personal automobiles to get around the town.
English: District of Columbia Department of Transportation (d-dot) logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m a big fan of transportation agencies using social media to reach their customers & stakeholders. But often you will find many of these agencies send out tweets and Facebook posts that are plain boring and borderline irritating. Fortunately, some agencies do understand the importance of adding humor and fun to keep their messages appealing yet entertaining without looking too mundane. Among a handful of agencies that do this so well is @DDOTDC (aka DC Department of Transportation). They always know how to mix up the seriousness of a bland transportation message with a little bit of humor to make it easy for the end-user to consume, esp. at the end of a long day. The communications team at @DDOTDC has done a commendable job on many occasions and today is not an exception.
Like every time it happens, today DC metropolitan area got into panic-mode when snow flurries started hitting the ground. As folks left offices/workplaces early, the vehicle traffic started building up on the streets. So, to lighten up the mood and poke a bit of fun of the traditional behavior of DC metro residents, the @DDOTDC team pushed out a series of fun tweets titled Top 5 signs it’s snowing in DC”:
And you see my point? How refreshing is it to see a public agency do something like this instead of just sending out plain boring traffic congestion updates during an already crazy time on the streets? If you happen to serve as a communications in-charge at any transportation agency, you will be thrilled to see such great levels of audience engagement from the community for each one of these messages (i.e., retweets, Favs, etc). So, if you get a chance, say “Thank You” to the @DDOTDC team for their fun yet sincere community service and all the hard work they put in to keeps us safe on the roads.
Ever wondered what happens to a driver behind the wheel of a vehicle traveling at 60mph on a highway when he/she is bombarded with information pouring out from the electronics suite on his/her dashboard? We all know how distracted driving can lead to crashes that can kill or main road users and the vehicle occupants. Today’s driver is constantly enveloped in data about not just the car’s operational elements but also from the infotainment systems that aim to bring to you the latest and greatest information via social media tools such as Twitter, facebook, etc. many argue that these internet-connected drivers (and cars) are often a detriment to driver safety but the truth is far from it. Auto companies want to make sure that they are not just providing a better driving experience for the driver but also a safer trip while in their vehicles. Here is an interesting walk and talk through the bowels of Ford’s advanced research facilities with Ford’s CTO Paul Mascarenas that shows what Ford is doing to mitigate the dangers of distracted driving.
Though I’m a bit alarmed by the cognitive distraction (for drivers) potential associated with this technology, it is awesome to see the collaboration between the vehicle manufacturers and the app developers to put together an “intelligent” vehicle. For sure, Secretary LaHood and his staff at USDOT will be spending a lot of time thinking about how to accommodate these tech advancements in the vehicle environment while prioritizing the safety of drivers on the road. If you have not already seen this, the USDOT has recently proposed the first-ever federal guidelines to encourage automobile manufacturers to limit the distraction risk for these in-vehicle electronic devices. The proposed guidelines are voluntary and would apply to communications, entertainment, information gathering, and navigation devices or functions that are built into the vehicle and are not required to safely operate the vehicles. In any case, it is safe to say that the vehicles of today will look a LOT dumber compared to these SMART cars that will roll out of the assembly lines in Detroit a few years from now.
According to authors , Southwest drops to second place this month as industry giant Delta (21,000) mentions, leaps into first place. It’s interesting to note that this data is based on tweets and opinions in a category of interest, not number of followers.
Some brilliant pranksters installed beautiful swings on BART last night. What apparently happened, according to witnesses, was a team of six or so people hopped on to a north-bound train from 24th Street station in San Francisco around 8:30 p.m. last night, installed three matching red swings, and then exited at 16th Street leaving their swings behind for public consumption.Luckily, photos were taken to record the event.
photo by Neiltron
Note: TransportGooru, though amused by this prank, is definitely happy for the BART riders who had a little more “fun” on their trip, courstey of these pranksters. Now wishing for some of these folks to show up here in DC’s Metro system, which sorely lacks any form of entertainment (inside and outside). Commuting by metro in DC, though tranquil, lacks the fun element, except when some frustrated passengers get into fist fights.
OnStar may soon partner with Twitter to offer hands-free tweeting capability to its suite of voice-activated communications services. This may be the perfect compliment to OnStar’s automatic crash reporting.
A writer at GearLive owns a couple of OnStar-equipped vehicles and received a survey touting the following Twitter service:
“While in your vehicle, you can use OnStar to submit and retrieve tweets (messages) via your Twitter account. Using OnStar’s Voice-Activated Hands-Free Calling system, and having your voice converted into text, you can provide updates which would appear in the “What are you doing?” section of your Twitter homepage. It is also possible to listen to a tweet that was sent to you by someone else after it has been converted into voice. You can send and receive tweets without having to type or read anything.”
The service doesn’t seem complicated to set up and, using a voice-to-text system like the one found in SYNC, this should already be possible.
@justincpeters Amen! I wonder if ICC would take similar action on Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, two other hot spots that dwarf Darfur easily in reply to justincpeters#
@justincpeters Amen! I wonder if ICC would take similar action on Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, two other hot spots that dwarf Darfur easily in reply to justincpeters#
@justincpeters Justin the report by Brookings is the one from this morning. The ITIF report was submitted much earlier.. Not sure though. in reply to justincpeters#
OnStar may soon partner with Twitter to offer hands-free tweeting capability to its suite of voice-activated communications services. This may be the perfect compliment to OnStar’s automatic crash reporting.
