Why “My Commute Sucks” is Unproductive
My Commute Sucks is a site created by Transportation for America where citizens across the country can rant and rave about how bad their commutes suck.
I honestly don’t think anger is a productive path. Buddha said, “Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
This is called road rage. Frankly, it makes me nervous to think about how angry people are behind the wheel because of traffic. Living in Vegas, I’ve seen my fair share of douches on the highway, cutting people off and blowing through lights as if they were a mere suggestion. I almost die everyday.
And the way My Commute Sucks proposes to release your anger is to send a letter to Congress, because we all know how effective that is:
Dear Congress,
My commute sucks and it’s not getting any better. Stop pouring billions into a broken system. Transportation shouldn’t be an expensive, dirty burden. Fix it, clean it, make it work!
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
It’s great they’re trying out social media to get their message across, but without Congresspeople interacting with the ranters on My Commute Sucks, there’s no way for anyone to feel satisfied that they’re actually “doing something.” This is the problem with mass media and with lobbing rants at large institutions.
What is a productive path is harnessing better communication between the public institution and the public. We’ll probably never sit around a fire singing Kumbaya, but we can at least move forward.
Conversations (even if true conversation cannot occur between thousands of people and one Senator) give both parties the feeling (or illuston) that someone on the other end is taking them seriously. Depending on how either side uses it, it can be a great tool in truly progressing in better transportation policy.
Therefore it is my recommendation that My Commute Sucks become more productive by tapping community leaders in cities across America to orchestrate conversations between their local representatives and their citizens using the social media tools they have available to them, similar to the ones on My Commute Sucks. It’s a very well designed site and it has potential for real conversation. All they have to do is turn the message around to something progressive than regressive.
Anger really only hinders us and in the end burns us.
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EcoStreets
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Aisha
Thanks for the thoughts. We definitely appreciate the concern over the presentation of My Commute Sucks. We’re not trying to encourage road rage, we’re hoping to give people a place to vent about their rage and let it all out!
The site is intended to help people realize that how and where we spend transportation dollars has a huge impact on their quality of life and what it’s like to try to get around on a daily basis. (We’ve also got a place for sharing GREAT positive commute stories on there as well, and it’s quickly filling up!) It’s essentially a first step to get involved in our campaign, where people can begin organizing on a local level to weigh in with Congress and ask them to make changes in the transportation bill this year to give us a 21st century transportation system — one that can gives us options for getting where we need to go quickly, cleanly, and efficiently. People who share a story or sign the petition get added to our list and hopefully take future opportunities to get more involved in positive ways.
On our main site at t4america.org you can send a (positive!) message directly to your representatives in Congress, but also learn more about the issues and get involved much more directly. Our coalition is made up of more than 300 local and state organizations that provide opportunities for volunteering and getting more engaged at a smaller level.
Anyway, thanks for writing. If you’ve got any other questions, you can contact me directly if you like.