Unlike some of the other groups, our failing is not with missing infrastructure, or even with large amounts of missing money. Our failure is with bureaucracy.
Over a month ago, I e-mailed Metro asking how one becomes a TAP vendor, with the view of (this has later fallen in priority with our group; we instead have chosen to focus on expanded ease of Student and Vocational TAP cards). Simple question. I have yet to receive a response. Derek and Malachi have also e-mailed Metro, and they have received similar results.
At Oxy, it seems like we have to jump through hoop after bureaucratic hoop. Tamara Rice has clearly been no help in this endeavor. This means we have to deal with administration officials ourselves, often four or five people in a single week. Even though Jim Traquada appears to be amicable to the project, we continually have to go back to him before we can get anything done.
Also, I tried to get a little Metro Trip Planner applet for the blog Derek, Malachi and I have created, so I tried to create a blogger gadget. Could I embed the Trip Planner URL into a Google applet? No. Could I find an embeddable, url-safe version to put in? No. Can I e-mail them to find out to do it and expect a speedy reply, let alone any one at all? No.
Anyways, please join our blog, Oxy Rides Metro for all the transit information and links you need…expect for the ones that don’t work.
--Charles Bennett
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It may be that metro hesitates to respond to students vs. administrators; or maybe it is just an annoying bureaucracy. The internal bureaucracy of oxy is more within our control. I can talk to some people. the blog is a good start.
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