TransitCamp

TransitCamp is this weekend at Socialtext in Palo Alto:

TransitCamp is inspired by BarCamp. Bar Camp events are powered by participation and collaboration. TransitCampBayArea will highlight the public transit system in the Bay Area Region and will bring together transit officials and citizens to discuss stuff like: getting schedules on the go, the future of the Bay Area transit system, experiences and observations (not complaints, though), the websites, cool ideas for attracting more riders, etc.

Our focus is on encouraging more people to use public transit. Certainly that doesn't exclude infrastructure, but I don't think a bunch of web geeks should be focusing on that. We discussed the following three areas in which the '2.0' crowd can contribute to the conversation:

 

• technology
• culture
• education

Consider participating.  Its encouraging that local transit officials are.

Comments

[Joe Hunkins]

Actually, I think infrastructure is part of the problem here. Public transit is extraordinarily expensive (in terms of taxes). Given that it is hugely subsidized, it is remarkable that it is underutilized by riders who are paying only a fraction of the total cost per ride.

I'm skeptical that efforts to "Educate people" will suddenly start working where they have failed for decades. Better to use the clever geekthinking to come up with big, bold, dramatic approaches. The technology must match the needs of people rather than the other way around.