Administrator

Hello LA / MetroLink – A new era begins!

Hello LA / MetroLink – A new era begins!

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The one-liner here is “Welcome…thanks for joining…please help us grow this service”

I just returned from the West Coast and was pleasantly surprised by all the great new energy and sign-ups across several Clever Commute MetroLink lines.

While I was out in the LA area, I spent some time promoting Clever Commute by talking to riders, locals, the traditional media and local bloggers.
It seems to have paid off in a nice uptick in sign-ups. But…”more is better”.

If you Google around a bit, you’ll see a lot of good news about Clever Commute. Here’s more:
Clever Commute is real. Free to use, it already works in many commuter areas…including each of the top 4 US commuter lines. We are no longer at the stage of “figuring it out” or asking “will it work?” Rather, we are a vital part of the commuter’s life.
We need the community’s help in making it bigger for the LA area. This will happen with your help.

Remember, the way “CC” works is that commuters share their real-time tips with fellow commuters…so riders should want as many people enrolled as possible. Believe me (the founder), the system can handle growth…and I mean that from a technical and functional point of view. Case in point: since the day I started Clever Commute, “my” has always had more Clever Commuters than any other. But with that said: my line has also tripled in size over the last 12 months.
So…please…PLEASE share this mail and encourage your train buddies, neighbors, work colleagues, etc to sign up. It WILL help your commute.

Thanks in advance for pioneering. Life in transit WILL get better once you use Clever Commute.

–Josh

Wisdom of the crowd: Clever Commuter “breaks the story” of the building collapse

Feb 2008 – A few interesting write-ups for Clever Commute

Today’s example: Bus lanes closed

Today’s example: Bus lanes closed

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8:36 – 1010 WINS reports the problem
8:22 – NJ Transit reports the problem
** At 8:17 ** the first Clever Commuter let others know that there was a problem. Others from his and other lines quickly triangulated the issue

An exciting time – participating in a Clever “beta”

An exciting time – participating in a Clever “beta”

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It’s really more of a getting-to-know-you period. Remember, the Clever Commute system has been running for years in other areas.
It can handle extremely high volumes (of messages and users)…and has helped many commuters through some of the most challenging times.

So…what will we do over the next two weeks?

  • Come up-to-speed so that you can serve as local advocates / mentors to others.
    There are so many “Clever” communities around the country that we need embedded experts who to help create the culture for each line.
  • Help your community find a good balance of message volume.
    Certainly the many individuals in your community will have different thresholds…but some real-world use can help discover the most suitable “use cases” (and maybe find ones unique to your area)

Based on the other existing Clever Communities, we think its safe to say that the standard reasons for alerting your passengers will be relevant (e.g., service disruptions)
But…there may be other things local to your community….and that might require new approaches.
For example: one light rail community that I have talked to is exploring the idea of letting the community know that “the last train of the day has left the station”

For the next two weeks, we’ll keep the membership roster limited to members who received this mail.

Remember, for day-to-day use, there is only one address you need (the one address we shared with you at sign up).

Remember that messages sent among your community are identifiable by

  • a consistent “From” address (e.g., Clever-something)
  • a subject prefix (e.g., “[YourLine]”)

…so you can use your e-mail software to filter / manage those as you please (both during this period as well as after we officially go live).

I think that’s about it. If I had to sum it up, I’d say the key points are
– it’s just us for the next 2 weeks
– send some test messages…get a feel for things
– find what works best to manage the mails that do come into your inbox
– send us feedback…we’re always looking for new ideas

Resources
https://clevercommute.com/blog/page-rules-of-the-road/
The Clever Commute website and blog
All along the way – feedback at clevercommute [.] com

Going back to the way things were (“From” addresses)

Going back to the way things were (“From” addresses)

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Based on feedback from you, we have reversed direction and re-implemented the following change across all Clever Commute lists:

(Note: your “sending” behavior does NOT need to change).

Each line (e.g., MBTA, LIRR, NJ Transit Trains, Metro North, etc) will now have a unique “From” address (e.g., Clever-MBTA, Clever-LIRR).

As always, each particular route will have an identifier in the Subject line e.g.  [NJTT-MBNTN]
Mails will no longer appear as being From the sender (e.g., john.smith@corporation.com). Rather, they are From the “Clever-Line”).
It was a bit of a trade-off. Yes…some people felt that the “full disclosure” approach was a “privacy” concern…but I also felt that the transparency was OK given the fact that this is neighbors-helping-neighbors.

We’re going to continue to seek ways to value and reward the most helpful Clever Commuters. As I’ve said before “your reputation matters” online…and there certainly is some pride-of-ownership by that subset of people that provide timely and accurate feedback.
But, the nail-in-the-coffin (for the larger lists) was the fact that we simply can not suppress auto-reply responses (such as “Out of the office” mails).
(explained here)

So…for now..this is another lesson in the value of the wisdom of the crowds. We tried something new…it did not meet the expectation…so we un-wound it.

I’ll be around tonight to ensure that all goes well…but certainly let me know if you see anything out of the ordinary.

Thanks