And by “it,” I mean use crappy signage to communicate with its riders. Yesterday I snapped this pic at the intersection of 7th and Massachusetts Avenue, NW. At first I thought something had caught on the pole, or that somebody had posted a homemade advertisement.
Turns out it was an official communique from DDOT, in the form of a yellow sheet of paper with super-easy-to-read red letters that stated the following: “STARTING MONDAY OCTOBER 3, 2011, THIS BUS STOP WILL BE DISCONTINUED. Thank You for your understanding.”
There are so many things wrong with this. Where shall I begin?
Sheet protectors: when lamination's just too fancy.
First of all, saying that this stop is being discontinued is only part of the story. In fact, the entire DC Circulator: Convention Center – SW Waterfront route is being discontinued due to low ridership. Not that you would know that from either this sign or the DC Circulator website. When I saw the sign yesterday, I thought that maybe they were eliminating some stops to make the trip faster, but then wondered why they’d choose this particular stop, which is on a major intersection. It was only when I poked around a bit more on the interwebz that I remembered the elimination of the line at the end of this month. (WMATA’s new 74 bus route will provide service to much of the same area.)
Second of all, who, exactly, is supposed to be able to see this sign? I’m 6′ tall and had to hold my iPhone up over my head in order to snap this pic. The petite old woman next to me didn’t have a prayer of being able to read it.
Third of all, it’s obviously been printed out in somebody’s office, slipped into a sheet protector, and then hastily taped to the pole. In other words, a real quality piece of work. I mean, at least Metro has the integrity to laminate their signs!
I’m assuming that both the sign and the pole will both be gone on October 1, but in the meantime, DDOT might want to try a little harder to communicate to riders that their bus will no longer be running. Otherwise some folks are going to be waiting at this stop for a very long time.
UPDATE! – Despite a quick response via Twitter (below,) DDOT has yet to update these signs, most of which are now a bit water logged. There’s still time!
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Metro-Venture 