Greater Greater Washington wants you to help make Metro greater

Compass roses of nearby attractions that greet you when you exit a Metro station. A Metro mural project. Signs that tell you which bus you’re on.
These are all early ideas in Greater Greater Washington’s MetroGreater campaign — a crowdsourced contest for small-scale improvements to Metro that launched last Wednesday.

.@MetroGreater is looking for small, actionable ideas to improve the #WMATA experience. Got one? two? Enter now! https://t.co/makuqeJUXJ

— Greater Greater Washington (@ggwash) June 22, 2016

David Alpert, founder of Greater Greater Washington, told Technical.ly the contest has its roots in Paul J. Wiedefeld’s appointment as WMATA general manager in November 2015.
Wiedefeld, according to Alpert, has been much more proactive than his predecessor in seeking out advice from groups and individuals outside his agency. Metro has some big issues to solve and yes, they’re working on that. But in the meantime, what’s not to like about a couple of “quick wins”?
This is the kind of thing Wiedefeld sought advice on.
When Greater Greater Washington got involved, Alpert said, the team thought “rather than just come up with a few of our own ideas … why don’t we get the public involved?” And so the MetroGreater site was born.
The idea is to collect as many suggestions for small-scale improvements to Metro as possible before July 15. After that a panel of experts including WMATA staff and various transit advocates will decide on a list of finalists. The public will then vote on the winner, a winning idea WMATA has committed to implementing. And you, yes you, can go submit your pet improvement now.
Submit your idea
But before you get too carried away with ideas, there are a few ground rules. From Greater Greater Washington:

Ideas must:
Improve the transit experience for all or some group of riders;
Be achievable by Metro on its own in 6 months or less (ideally 3);
Cost no more than $100,000;
Not cost much to continue into the future;
Not impair safety;
Not negatively impact service or interfere with other agency responsibilities; and
Comply with all laws and regulations.

“I’m really hoping people will come up with outside-the-box ideas,” Alpert said. He’s also hoping to see ideas for improvements to parts of the Metro system. The Metrorail gets a lot of attention (#SafeTrack), but what can we do to improve the bus system? Paratransit? More?
So go submit your best idea(s) and let’s make MetroGreater, internet.