Worst… Idea… Ever
Posted in Econ, Lifestyle by George
The Washington DC Metro (the DC subway system) just approved a $1 million plan to employ “mystery riders” to ride the subway trains. Their job description:
The mystery riders would travel on nearly all routes, evaluate the service from a customer’s perspective and provide feedback to Metro.
Hmm. Hiring someone to serve as a proxy for a customer is a great idea. That is, unless you actually have customers who fill the role perfectly.
Metro already hears from many customers about what does not work. The agency receives between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints a month, according to agency reports. The most common complaints are late buses, rude and discourteous behavior, and a lack of reliability for MetroAccess, the paratransit service. More than 1.2 million trips are taken systemwide on an average weekday.
I am so not looking forward to riding the Metro yet again this summer. It’s awesome to see the system make yet another boneheaded move.
