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Re: SMART Slammed for Withholding Ridership
Author: ron
Date: 12-20-2019 - 09:12
FUD Wrote:
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> If the IJ wants numbers that go beyond the basic
> reporting requirements, they're asking for
> something closer to the raw data. They have 2 main
> ways to get that: FOIA or convincing the SMART
> Board to order the GM to give it to them. The
> latter would probably look better for the critics
> and worse for management. The former has loopholes
> that SMART could exploit to avoid passing out the
> raw take. In either case, with a small staff (and
> looking at a budget document published in a Board
> packet, they don't have a huge one), assembling a
> large data dump will cause some other (perhaps
> necessary) thing to not be done; that's life.
>
> Given that it's Marin, with no lack of lawyers (a
> few might even work for the paper), the fact that
> no FOIA has been filed (yet?) suggests that it's
> more of a hit piece than a real deficiency. Which
> would surprise nobody. The IJ should know how to
> use the legal process to get the data if they
> really want it. As Bob2 notes, a lack of smarts
> (at least regarding public and press relations) at
> SMART's management should surprise nobody at this
> point; lack of such smarts at a news"paper" (how
> much of their output is still actually printed?)
> would be more surprising.
The Press Democrat published a story about SMART withholding ridership numbers so this was not an IJ Marin County only issue. Someone took the time to calculate the daily riders (from MTC data) train volume and available seats to calculate average occupancy of 30%. Last night 12-19-19 a Smart train hit a pedestrian in Novato. They reported 12 people on board.The two car set train carries 168 passengers when full.
-------------------------------------------------------
> If the IJ wants numbers that go beyond the basic
> reporting requirements, they're asking for
> something closer to the raw data. They have 2 main
> ways to get that: FOIA or convincing the SMART
> Board to order the GM to give it to them. The
> latter would probably look better for the critics
> and worse for management. The former has loopholes
> that SMART could exploit to avoid passing out the
> raw take. In either case, with a small staff (and
> looking at a budget document published in a Board
> packet, they don't have a huge one), assembling a
> large data dump will cause some other (perhaps
> necessary) thing to not be done; that's life.
>
> Given that it's Marin, with no lack of lawyers (a
> few might even work for the paper), the fact that
> no FOIA has been filed (yet?) suggests that it's
> more of a hit piece than a real deficiency. Which
> would surprise nobody. The IJ should know how to
> use the legal process to get the data if they
> really want it. As Bob2 notes, a lack of smarts
> (at least regarding public and press relations) at
> SMART's management should surprise nobody at this
> point; lack of such smarts at a news"paper" (how
> much of their output is still actually printed?)
> would be more surprising.
The Press Democrat published a story about SMART withholding ridership numbers so this was not an IJ Marin County only issue. Someone took the time to calculate the daily riders (from MTC data) train volume and available seats to calculate average occupancy of 30%. Last night 12-19-19 a Smart train hit a pedestrian in Novato. They reported 12 people on board.The two car set train carries 168 passengers when full.
