Storytelling is essential to win transit funding
Statistics are forgettable; tell stories that stick
JUL 21, 2023
After college, I had a hard time finding work in my field on the East Coast. At one point, I had three or four different gig jobs to keep my head above water. I finally landed my big first full-time post college job in my field in San Jose, California. The one hold up was that the office was in the south side of town in a sea of office parks far from apartments I could afford. I didn’t own a car or a bike, and wouldn’t be able to afford either. I had spent months applying for jobs in my field and now that I finally got an offer, I wasn’t sure how I’d make it work.
Though the job was in an office park without much within walking distance, it was one mile from the end of the VTA line. That was all I needed to make the situation work. Because I could count on the VTA, I was able to accept the job, move across the country, get an apartment I could afford in some other neighborhood, and not have to get a car (whose gas and maintenance I couldn’t afford). If it weren’t for VTA I would have had to either turn down the job or spend hours walking to and from work until I could afford to move (or to buy a bike or finance a car), or take on more debt. But because VTA ran reliable, regular service all the way to the edge of the city, I was able to accept the job and start living my California life. I literally don’t know where I’d be without VTA (probably still on the East Coast?)
My story isn’t special and it’s nowhere near as dramatic as tons of other transit riders. My various privileges mean I’m living life on “easy mode” and I can only imagine the lives of the millions of people who depend on VTA and transit agencies across the country as a vital lifeline. I can only imagine living without transit service as part of the social safety net. I can only imagine being car dependent and one expensive car repair away from losing mobility, losing a job and potentially losing housing. I can only imagine the stress and fear that comes from waiting late at night for a bus to take me home that might never come because of budget cuts and underinvestment from the state. There are millions of people with unique transit stories I don’t know, will never experience first-hand, and can only imagine.
And here’s the key part– most elected officials cannot imagine that. It’s your job as a transit advocate to help elected officials bridge that gap in imagination if you are going to win your expanded bus or train service. You need to make sure decision makers hear compelling stories that stick in their hearts and minds which highlight the human cost of the issue. Help decision makers see, feel, and understand that if they agree with your demands, they will meaningfully improve the lives of the people they care about.
Tell it with stories, not just statistics and data. Stories stick. Statistics can stick, but only if they are woven into a story. Statistics are just numbers, forgettable and bloodless. But when a statistic is used to undergird a compelling story, that’s when it can really win people over.
Take “on-time performance.” I picked a random bus agency and found its on-time performance is 70%. When you are just given a number, you need to make your own context to make sense of it. To me, 70% sounds not good but it’s still a C and what’s a few minutes being late between friends? A number without context is easy to forget and hard to judge. 70% probably means something different to you. If I want 70% to mean the same thing to you as it does to me, I need to add more context and tell a richer story.
Let’s add in more numeric context and make the story a bit stickier and alarming. Ends up 70% on-time performance is a drop from 86% in 2020. Now 70% sounds really bad and maybe someone should do something? But who should do what? Who is at fault? If it keeps dropping, maybe that’s just the way things are? Elected officials have a full plate and are bombarded with stats and numbers all day long: if you want the point to stick, you need to have a good story told by a compelling story teller.
86% to 70% on time performance is potentially devastating to someone who rides the bus to and from work every weekday. For that person, the bus used to be late a little more than once per week. Once a week? Could be an issue, but also, life happens and maybe that’s ok with their boss or picking up their kid or whatever else they’ve got going on. But now, the bus is late three times during their work week- that’s not everyday, but it sure can feel that way! How long until they have to change their plans and aim to catch an earlier bus just to avoid being late? Can they afford to leave work early like that? What’s it like to wait extra-long at the stop? How does the repercussions of that pile up in their day? It might be hard for you to imagine, and you might not know the answers. That’s ok, there is someone in your community who doesn’t need to imagine it: they live it every day. They have viscerally experienced it. Find that person.
Get that person and their story in front of the decision makers who can authorize the funding and policy changes needed to fix that issue. Get as many different people sharing their different stories about how that same problem hurts them and how the action you’re asking the elected official to take will help them. Can’t bring the storytellers to meet the elected officials? Then bring the elected officials to the storytellers. Invite them to take transit themselves with you and hear the stories from their constituents.
Transit is filled with compelling and memorable stories because transit is inherently about journeys. It’s about people trying to get places and everything that happens in between point A and B. Help decision makers feel those stories, help them understand that it’s not about whatever solution you are advocating for– it’s about people. Transit is about lots and lots of people– so tell lots and lots of stories.
Need support and/or training to help win your effort to improve transit? Let’s talk. Email me at Carter@carterlavin.com