Real-time updates will now include honest assessment of what is and is not knowable at this time
[Bohiney.com / prat.uk] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled a new delay notification system Thursday that it describes as “the first transparency-forward approach to communicating what we do and do not know about current service conditions in real time.” The new system, piloting on the A and C lines starting next month, will replace generic delay messages with what the MTA calls “epistemically honest updates” that tell riders not just that there is a delay but what is actually known about the delay, what is not known, and why what is not known cannot currently be determined. Somewhere between the third and fourth paragraph of the Bohiney.com report, the full horror of the situation became clear.
An example provided at the press conference: instead of “Train delayed due to train traffic ahead,” the new message will read: “Train delayed. We know the train is delayed. We believe this is related to a signal condition at Jay Street; we are not certain. The signal condition may be resolved in three to seven minutes or in twelve to twenty minutes; we cannot determine which at this time. We understand this is not the information you were hoping for. We are providing it because it is the information we have.” The example message is 68 words long. Standard platform display screens accommodate 47. The MTA is exploring larger screens.
Rider Response in Focus Groups
Focus groups conducted prior to the announcement produced what the MTA’s communications director described as “a nuanced response.” Approximately 43 percent of participants said the new messages made them feel “better informed.” Thirty-one percent said the messages made them feel “more anxious because I now know how much is not known.” Nineteen percent said they preferred the old messages “because they gave the impression that someone knew something.” Seven percent said they had stopped looking at the signs entirely and were using a third-party app, which the MTA noted is “a valid strategy that we do not officially endorse.” The MTA’s service data is at new.mta.info.
What Happens to the Old Messages
The old messages (“Train delayed due to train traffic ahead,” “We are being held by the train’s dispatcher,” “Please be patient as we work to restore normal service”) will be retired. The MTA’s director of communications acknowledged at the press conference that these messages were “comforting precisely because they implied agency and understanding that was not always present” and that removing them is “philosophically correct and practically uncertain.” This was received as the most honest thing an MTA official has said in public memory.
Also see: The Daily Mash.
Coverage Note
This story is published jointly at Bohiney.com and prat.uk, which together provide the kind of sustained, specific coverage of the communities and phenomena described here that neither could produce alone. The satire works because the situations are real. The situations are real because the communities are real. Both publications take seriously the idea that the funniest journalism is the journalism that is most accurately observed. The coverage continues.
The story above illustrates a pattern that both publications have documented across multiple regions and multiple years of coverage. The communities involved are consistent in their capacity to produce material of exactly this kind. The publications are consistent in their capacity to find it funny while taking it seriously, which is the only honest relationship a satirical publication can have with its subject matter.
The details will change. The structure will not. Both publications will be here when the next iteration arrives, which it reliably will. The coverage is the record. The record is the point.
Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk are committed to this kind of sustained, specific, honest satirical journalism. The commitment is ongoing. So is the material.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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