To address DC’s culture of transit complaining, WMATA should embrace transparency and service quality

Dupont Circle's streetcar station is a rare piece of DC-area transit infrastructure not subjected to any complaining...because no trains have stopped there for more than 50 years. (Photo by me)

For transit riders, little is more infuriating than a late bus or train. So when we encounter unreliable service, an all too common occurrence in our car-loving country, we’re bound to complain about it wherever we may be.

As I tend to be the transit advocate in the room, I bear the brunt of frustration from failures ranging from rush-hour meltdowns on New York's subway to Sacramento-area Yolobuses inexplicably going out of service at Woodland, CA’s County Fair Mall. I even have a friend who regularly posts to Facebook about her DC-area transit tribulations with the hashtag #andysfault.

I feel strong solidarity with transit complaints, as I’m as frustrated as anyone with America’s subpar multimodal transportation options. You don’t want to be anywhere near me when my train or bus isn’t working as it’s supposed to, because I’m not going to be in a good mood.

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But since I moved to the nation’s capital two years ago, I’ve witnessed a sustained level of hostility toward this region’s transit system that no other place I’ve lived comes close to matching. Anonymously-operated social media feeds lead the endless bashing of WMATA, often going so far as to accuse people who mention anything non-negative about DC’s Metro of being a management- or union-paid troll.

Like every other U.S. transit provider, WMATA has major shortcomings (included two safety lapses in the past 10 years that caused passenger fatalities, issues with communication and transparency, and excessive track work-caused service disruptions) that give people plenty of reason to be mad.

Our region’s culture may further catalyze the complaining. Because DC is the capital, its residents are bound to be more interested in politics – and thus more aware of dysfunctional government bureaucracy – than their peers in other metropolitan areas. Also, the auto and oil lobby failed in their efforts to plow freeways through DC’s urban core (in contrast to most other U.S. cities), giving people working for those interests extra motivation to do everything they can to make Metro look bad.

But whatever the underlying reasons may be, there’s evidence that all the complaining here may harm peoples’ ability to get where they need to go. While most major U.S. transit systems have lost riders in recent years, WMATA’s ridership decline has been longer in duration and far more severe than those of its peers, necessitating major service cuts last year. Factors such as major track work, delays, and increasing availability of alternatives such as ride hailing or bikeshare likely play a role – but again, these factors are just as impactful in other major cities. 

Thus, I can’t help but wonder whether some citizens choose not to ride Metro based on what they’ve read on Twitter when, in reality, transit would be the optimal choice for their trips.

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It’s on WMATA to do something about this problem, and do so immediately. Despite its finite budget, the agency can do much more to get the public on its side, helping create a friendlier political climate with greater potential for long-term transit improvements. The agency should be focused on providing better transit service, tangible safety improvements, and a commitment to transparency.  

    

If transit service is reliable, riders won’t have as much to complain about

To start, WMATA needs to provide the best rail and bus service it is capable of, at all times. Finding the right balance between frequent, reliable service and thorough infrastructure maintenance is vital. As Stephen Repetski (operator of the Metro Reasons Twitter account) has reported, WMATA currently does not do everything it can to minimize scheduled track work disruptions and fails to explain its reasoning to the public.

WMATA also needs to have better contingency plans to take care of its riders – rather than just leave them to fight for Ubers – during unplanned service disruptions. Possibilities to mitigate such disruptions include development of infrastructure for on-the-fly pop up bus lanes (this would require cooperation with local governments) and plans to temporarily realign and increase regular bus service to help mitigate a disruption within minutes of its onset (as opposed to awaiting shuttles). Frequent, honest communication in these situations is also vital.

(I’m working on a Mobility Lab article that will explore the role of buses during rail disruptions in more detail).    

Smaller improvements also could have a huge impact. For example, in my experience, WMATA fails to provide any real-time bus status information after midnight, even though bus service serves as a lifeline during hours when Metrorail doesn’t operate. If late-night workers and revelers could easily track and catch a bus home, they’d be more likely to ride. Increased late-night bus ridership would not only improve farebox recovery (helping justify increases to service), but also reliability, as taking ride hailing vehicles off the road would ease DC’s hellish nightlife traffic congestion.

Make it clear what’s being done to improve safety – and be honest when issues arise

I frequently hear people say that Metro is always “on fire” and “killing people.” Fortunately this is not true, but the fact that ordinary people who ride and support transit believe this demonstrates that something is wrong with WMATA’s safety culture. 

It’s understandable why people are nervous, given the safety lapses of the past. WMATA’s current management insists that the state of the system’s infrastructure is getting better, but occasional reports of track defects and other problems undermine their statements and deepen public distrust. The agency should release comprehensive weekly reports detailing results from ongoing inspections and explain how it plans to fix issues it discovers.

WMATA also should accurately state the nature of problems that do arise. For example, when an “arcing insulator” (essentially, a short circuit that causes a component of the third rail to spark) causes delays to service, the agency will often report a “track problem” as the cause of the disruption. However, the Twitterverse has no difficulty discovering the arcing insulator, fueling suspicions that Metro is trying to hide some sort of deeper problem. If they simply told riders that service is disrupted due to an arcing insulator, instead of just a “track problem,” at least delayed riders wouldn’t feel left in the dark.

Truth – the whole, complete truth – creates allies

Service and safety are not the only areas where WMATA needs to be more transparent and communicative.  In order for the public to trust the agency sufficiently to expand its budget, they have to know it will spend money effectively and in their interests. Further possibilities for reform are as follows:

• Residents of the counties WMATA serves should directly elect its board members, emulating agencies such as the San Francisco Bay Area’s BART and AC Transit. The board members should then be required to report their monthly transit usage, ensuring they sufficiently understand what it's like to ride their system.
• The agency should coordinate clearly with other regional transportation stakeholders, including local bus systems, commuter rail agencies, bikeshare providers, and (with major stipulations) ride hailing and taxi firms.
• WMATA should provide detailed monthly ridership reports. These reports should include research that analyzes possible reasons for fluctuations in ridership and proposes solutions to address any losses.
• It should be easy for third-party individuals or entities wishing to help improve the transit experience (for example, developers of a real-time transit app) to obtain and use the data they need.

Most DC-area residents want to see WMATA succeed, rather than be forced into cars. It’s time for our transit agency to embrace its vital role in our lives.