Transit
Enhance the commute with haikus
Yesterday, Marc Tomik (@marctomik) adapted an idea from King County, Washington and the Washington (state) DOT to write haikus about transportation on Twitter.
Because Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct is being torn down, @wsdot started a contest to write some "vaikus" about the viaduct.
- Viaduct Haiku or #vaiku · wsdot · Storify
Vaiku format: 5 syllables, 7, 5. Do not #vaiku while driving. Someone could die-ku. Be nice. We are a family twitterfeed. #viadoom Drivin... - Marc decided to call for some road haikus.
- “@CCTgirl @RideLikeCharlie @ajfroggie Roads really need Haikus. http://t.co/o7vr73te cc @wsdot
- And Adam Froehlig and others jumped right in:
- “@marctomik @cctgirl @ridelikecharlie @wsdot Along the highway | Do I see the sights and sounds | Of America
- “@ajfroggie @marctomik @CCTgirl @RideLikeCharlie @Tracktwentynine Highways get money | Transit is just as awesome | Can we get some too?
- I decided to try and thread the tweets by introducing the #transpohaiku hashtag. And it kind of took off from there.
- “One hundred seven | years of moving the city | The New York Subway @AimeeCustis @CCTgirl @marctomik @RideLikeCharlie #transpohaiku
- “Number 9 Perry | Gone with the last transit cuts | Wish I could ride again #transpohaiku
- “Even in the cold | #Metro trains go everywhere | Except with 6 inches snow #transpohaiku
- “Do not hold the doors | you'll be sure to cause a jam | and offload us all. #transpohaiku #wmata
- “You let me travel / when I am drunk or tired / enabling vice #transpohaiku
- “America's Trucks | Bring Life's Essentials Safely | Efficiently Everyday #transpohaiku (cc @AdamKSnider)
- Some of the tweets echoed debates we often have on Greater Greater Washington.
- “Cars are free market / aren't there externalities? / debate without end #transpohaiku
- “The right price to park / not too high but not too low / goldilocks pricing #shoup #transpohaiku
- “New York Avenue | Florida Ave - Galludet | U. Soon: More long names. #transpohaiku #wmata #ShortenTheFreakingStationNames
- “Bicycles are great | I confess: sometimes I ride | without a helmet. #transpohaiku #needafolduphelmetformybag
- Metro was a common subject, of course.
- “Metro can frustrate | Traffic is worse. Perspective. | Transit for all. #transpohaiku #wmata
- “Mournfully crying | the Metro escalator | moans, groans as it climbs: | #transpohaiku #wmata
- “Metrobus riders | Keep moving to the back please | It's crowded up front #transpohaiku #wmata
- “i ride the green line | still waiting for cell signal | south of chinatown #transpohaiku #wmata
- “Angry tweets and posts | Metro delay may raise ire | Interaction soothes #transpohaiku #wmata
- The idea spread to other cities, too.
- “With cuts and fare hikes / in the City by the Bay / Muni is puny. #transpohaiku #munihaiku
- “Mapping Fixed Guideway | Use as a quick 'burgh guide | This is Still a draft #TranspoHaiku @PGHtransit @bus15237 http://t.co/ydhvq8bK
- We were even joined by the venerable Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, Montgomery council member Roger Berliner, and @wmata.
- “Stopping texts stops wrecks/ @AdCouncil and @NHTSAgov/ say in PSA #transpohaiku http://t.co/4tGRDBCy #dwd
- “People have to climb | Hope escalators fixed soon | At #Bethesda stop #transpohaiku #wmata
- Tweets are still coming in, too.
- “Public transit saves | keeps our environment green | a win-win for all #transpohaiku
- “Towards Zero Deaths now : guardrail, signs, lines, cones, rumbles : Safer roads save lives #transpohaiku #TZD
 | Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington region since mid-2007. He has a Master's degree in Community Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He has worked in the planning field since 2006 and lives in Greenbelt, where he serves on the city's Advisory Planning Board.    |
Comments
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by Ryan S on Oct 28, 2011 3:17 pm • link • report
There's no more fun way to go,
when the roads are all clogged,
with the wintery slog,
just hop on the train we call metro.
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 3:21 pm • link • report
with limericks this great thread
it is for haikus.
by Matt Johnson on Oct 28, 2011 3:24 pm • link • report
so you don't need to step up and front
whether it's shakespearean rhyme
or syllable lines
or even Immanuel Kant.
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 3:30 pm • link • report
Imperative: Do that which
You would others do
by Immanuel Kant on Oct 28, 2011 3:41 pm • link • report
From the depths I soon will be freed,
Would that faster it went,
For by the foul scent,
I can tell that someone has peed.
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 3:47 pm • link • report
Driving made my nerves fried,
I went underground,
My mind is now sound.
That is the reason I ride.
by Marc Tomik on Oct 28, 2011 3:47 pm • link • report
NIMBY neighbors pitch a fit
New route twice as long
by Dizzy on Oct 28, 2011 3:49 pm • link • report
I got the ain't no metro blues
I'm stuck in this office park with no train to embark
by Tina on Oct 28, 2011 3:56 pm • link • report
For my SUV, it's big
Signed, the 1 percent
by aaa on Oct 28, 2011 4:02 pm • link • report
O, commuter, remember your place
Is contained to your personal space,
For the slogan says: "Metro"
(You must not forget) "o-
Pens doors"...which might close on your face.
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Oct 28, 2011 4:04 pm • link • report
There's a jumper one station ahead,
And it seems he's unfortunately dead.
Which explains why, from Strathmore
To Farragut North
We are all of us now seeing Red.
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Oct 28, 2011 4:13 pm • link • report
Who never knew where the train goes-o
The name on the sign,
wouldn't fit on one line
for the station was named by a bozo.
Sorry, Jim.
by anon on Oct 28, 2011 4:17 pm • link • report
notice the brand new layout
with this very post?
by Steven Yates on Oct 28, 2011 4:25 pm • link • report
"Are the workers properly rated?"
One, considered too rough,
For punching McGruff,
Now his job has been reinstated.
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 4:35 pm • link • report
SmarTrip is five dollars more;
Paper means surcharge!
Regular, reduced,
and more with peak-of-the-peak;
plus distance-based fares.
A transfer discount,
Parking fees, too. Confused yet?
The price of Metro!
by Matt Johnson on Oct 28, 2011 4:52 pm • link • report
The suggestion is surely a gaffe.
While long trips are nice,
At a much lower price,
Off-peak you'll no longer pay half.
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 5:06 pm • link • report
A card with computerized chip.
Smart customers know,
It's the fast way to go,
Compared to the magnetic strip.
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 5:08 pm • link • report
For boards that show the arrival.
They keep customers guessing,
When they are confessing:
LN DEST MIN CARS
## ### ## ##
by Michael Perkins on Oct 28, 2011 5:52 pm • link • report
Tourist mobs clog the Metro
Please step to the right
by Mike Licht on Oct 28, 2011 10:55 pm • link • report
That's how I met your mother,
riding the Red Line.
by Steven Harrell on Oct 29, 2011 9:12 am • link • report
In a Station of the Metro
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough."
— Ezra Pound
by Steven Harrell on Oct 29, 2011 9:47 am • link • report
There was once a metro rider at Fort Totten
Betrayed by information he'd gotten
Yellow was his aim
But the train never came
Until after the peak, it was rotten.
by MDE on Oct 31, 2011 9:51 am • link • report
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