Post by Steven Dale
Verisimilitude is a big word for a simple idea.
Verisimilitude refers, quite simply, to fictional works of art that don’t replicate reality, but instead create an approximation of reality that feels realer than actual reality.
TV shows built around lawyers, crime and courtrooms are notorious for this. CSI, Law & Order and Matlock have implanted in our collective popular consciousness an understanding of our legal system so divorced from reality you might as well just put it in a bikini, photoshop it, and slap it on the cover of Cosmo.
Ditto with television shows about doctors. Doesn’t matter that the world portrayed aren’t true or even really very accurate. The stories they tell feel real and credible to the people watching them and therefore take on a truth of their own.
So what stories are people telling about your transit agency? You can bet they aren’t good.
Too often we’re telling stories about how crowded the subway was.
Too often we’re telling stories about how late the streetcar was.
Too often we’re telling stories about how rude the bus driver was.
Too often we’re telling ourselves that buses are for losers and that transit is a weapon yielded largely by terrorists.
How often have we heard the tale about Benito Mussolini who, despite being one of history’s most despicable villains, is still remembered for miraculously making Italy’s trains run on time? That story – which isn’t true, by the way – isn’t about Mussolini. That’s a story about how the only thing capable of making Italian trains run on time is fascism.
Or how about the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). TTC service quality has degenerated so much so that it’s become Torontonians’ de facto excuse for tardiness of any kind. You could walk into work, drenched in sweat, wearing bike pants and a helmet and everyone in your office would believe you if you moaned about how the TTC made you 45 minutes late.
The TTC has become the Toronto commuter’s equivalent to the dog that ate their homework. The only difference being that no one believes the dog ate your homework but everyone believes the TTC is solely responsible for ruining your day.
It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of transit functions perfectly well for the vast majority of users for the vast majority of time – that’s even true for the beleaguered TTC. But those bad experiences we have – and the stories we tell about them – build up and begin to craft a reality in the public’s mind that influences their willingness to use the system.
Ninety-nine trips out of a hundred could go perfectly, but it’s that one trip that we’ll remember. It’s that one trip we’ll tell everyone about. Statistics don’t mean a thing.
That’s verisimilitude in action.
Transit agencies don’t seem to worry much about what stories people tell about them – or if they do, we don’t see it. Ditto for most government agencies and large corporations in general. Why would they care? Their monopoly positions confer upon them the power not to care what stories people tell.
But a monopoly isn’t a right – it’s a privilege.
If you’re in a monopoly position, you have the greatest obligation of all to care about the stories people tell about you. You’ve gotta’ find a way to get people telling positive stories about you because if the only stories people are telling are negative, you may not be in a monopoly position for long.
And then what are you going to do?
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Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
