'I Hate the Blue Line' and Other Things Transit Systems Can Learn From Twitter

Companies have been on to "sentiment analysis" for some time now. Forget box office receipts or Rotten Tomatoes reviews. Savvy movie studios know they can now track how people really feel about a new film – literally the moment it comes out, before viewers have even left the theater – by analyzing what people say about it on Twitter. Same goes for new products, car lines or even political candidates.

So what if the same idea were applied to the service of public transit? Bus and train agencies generally gauge how riders feel about them the old-fashioned way, with surveys and focus groups. What if, instead of politely asking people if they find their morning commutes safe, sanitary and efficient, agencies tapped into the raw and unscripted assessments we all love to broadcast from our smart phones? (Case in point: I may have tweet-whined this morning from inside the Washington Metro system: "Why will it take 8 1/2 months to replace the escalators at the Dupont Metro?")