Why We All Should Be Thanking BART

March 18, 2016
A Twitter storm erupted over service disruptions and candid answers provided the public a new perspective.

I’ve been trying to keep up with all of the articles being written about the tweet storm Bay Area Rapid Transit embraced and conquered the other night.

After a customer complaint on Twitter about a service disruption, BART responded with a candid answer — the kind you wouldn’t normally expect from a transit agency. That got the conversation started.

Ideal timing, as this was the week of the American Public Transportation Association’s Legislative Conference, where the message being driven home was the FAST Act helps, but it doesn’t get us where we need to be with our infrastructure. Also, the week of the unprecedented move of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority shut down its entire Metrorail service for emergency inspections.

Our infrastructure is old and we're doing the best we can is the corner we've felt backed in to. 

In an interview on Wired, Tayor Huckaby, the communications officer at BART behind the Twitter account Wednesday night, said he sits in meetings where criticisms of system inefficiencies are always being discussed, and if only people knew … “My attitude every time I came to work here was, ‘Why shouldn’t they know? Why don’t we tell them?’”

And so he told them. With the hashtag #ThisIsOurReality, he responded to customers' questions and criticisms for hours and other transit systems even tweeted shout outs to @SFBART in solidarity. 

The exchange is such a great example of what engagement can do. While there are some criticisms about the discussion, questioning whether it’s taking enough responsibility or not, it provided a window in to the world the industry is always talking about that most people have no understanding of: infrastructure, investment, maintenance, planning.

As another transportation communicator said on social media in response to the exchange, “Be not afraid. Be effective!”

Related articles around the Web:

BuzzFeed: This Public Transportation Twitter Account Got Shockingly Real About Its Problems

Wired: BART’s Righteous Tweetstorm Reminds Us Its Problems Are Our Fault

Vox: San Francisco’s transit system stopped being polite and got real about complaints on Twitter

Gawker: Wow—Finally Some Honesty From the Government

SF Chronicle: BART gets candid in Twitter exchange with angry riders

NY Times: BART Talks Back: Agency’s Twitter Account Responds to User Complaints

Planetizen: About That Shocking Twitter Storm by @SFBART

Human Transit: "This is our Reality": Pushing Back on Abuse of Transit Staffs