Dear MTA.Info,
I'm I've been to NYC and a few other areas and recognize the logo, but you are doing your site and your business a huge disservice not hiring an advertising/marketing agency to update your website for user experience and aesthetic improvements. Plus I would love to be able to purchase cards, bus, and train passes online but it is impossible for me to navigate through this site. If it is because of a lack of funding, think of all the money your service would make just by improving the way customers purchase their tickets! Even Paris and other European systems are easier than this!
I'm sorry if this is the first time you've heard any of this, but your site is dated two decades ago. The colors are bland and if I find this site hard to navigate (I work on websites for a living) then I can't image how hard it is for someone who doesn't understand the medium.
Here is some free advice: Hire an agency and then market the new site as an alternative to wasting gas. This could be a huge turnover campaign to encourage a greener transportation alternative, save commuters money, and even offer huge discounts to people who buy year round tickets vs. monthly or even better offer a nation-wide ticket for frequent travelers who like to use public transportation as an alternative!
Regards,
Desarae A. Veit
Desarae,
ReplyDeleteI think you've got a problem of not finding the right thing to search for. The Twin Cities public transportation systems is controlled by the Metropolitan Council. The bus and light rail arm of the Met Council is MetroTransit. Sometimes it is hard to find stuff with Google when you're just not using the right keywords (and you don't know it).
With that said, I've used the public transportation in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, and D.C. and none of them have good websites. I don't think MetroTransit has done too bad of a job. Of course, maybe that's because I've seen it improve over the last 7 years of using it.
I agree they could do more marketing, for sure. In fact, over three years ago I was published in the Pioneer Press editorial about such things.
Thanks,
Dan Ficker