CIIP '18: Week 1

Transit. The organization I work for (the MTA) specializes in it. This same organization is publicly launching an app (Transit) next week. Yet somehow, it has been my biggest issue this week (ironic, I know). I was late to work on Monday because I missed the circulator that would have gotten me to work on time and on Tuesday (ONLY DAY 2), I ended up Ubering downtown (I know, how disgraceful!) However, come Wednesday, I believed I “conquered” public transportation by being the first one on the circulator that morning. From then on, I used the Silver, 95, and the metro to traverse the city. I am learning.

Now, besides figuring out my daily commute to work, my first week with the MTA Office of Planning has been challenging and exciting. Yes, I said office. I am working in an office with cubicles and where business casual is the norm. This is a HUGE shift from my completely casual and spontaneous placement last year. However, after this week, I believe that this culture is growing on me.

Besides the logistic part, this culture is a lively, hardworking, and collaborative one. Not only is everyone basically an expert in their field, they are all open to helping each other succeed. I will primarily be working with Teddy on community engagement projects, however I will also be working for the entire office. This really excites me because not only do people want to help me learn, but they are willing to let me do so through tasks that force me to. For example, one of my first tasks was to craft a response to someone’s question about air pollution and the modes of transportation the MTA uses. However, to do so, I had to speak with several different people in the office and learn how best to respond to a question like this.

The main project for me though is the community engagement side of North Avenue Rising. It is an economic revitalization project to improve the mobility and access to economic opportunities for its residents. For me, this involves attending community meetings, collecting input from community members (data) from these meetings, analyzing that data a bit to formally document on what the community wants, and reporting these findings to the engineers and planners to better inform them on the best way to make these improvements from a community perspective. I am looking forward to all of this to learn more about how influential this piece is to the actual completion of this project.

Perhaps the most impactful event that occurred to me this week happened on Friday when I attended an InReach event. InReach is basically a time for the MTA to learn more about what happens out on the routes for the different modes of transportation from the operators themselves. Now you may have noticed that I used the term “operator” not “bus driver”. That was my lesson. During this InReach, operators were picking their new routes from the next rest of summer so I used this opportunity to talk with some of them about how they went about choosing which route to run (it’s actually pretty neat and complex so if you are interested, come find me!). Me being the GREAT conversation starter I am, I open with “so how long have you all been bus drivers?” and immediately, one lady rolls her eyes and head away from me while sucking teeth. The two people next to her chuckled. Me realizing I missed something, ask what was funny. A fourth individual tells me it was nothing and proceeds to answer my question. One the way back to the office, I recount my experience back to the coworker I accompanied and pointed out she kept using the term operator and I was confused. My ignorance was shown when she revealed that operators is the proper term, not bus drivers because they do so much more than drive buses (again, if you are interested, come find me).

Oh also, I had the chance to be in a commercial! My line was “C’mon Baltimore, Dump the Pump” and it was in reference of National Dump the Pump day which is next week. Dump the Pump day is a day that encourages people to ride public transportation instead of driving a car. As someone who drives as part of their commute, I pledge to participate in this event this week.

Anyway, I am excited to keep on learning!