So beginning today and running throughout the August recess, we're turning our Instagram account over to you. Just snap a photo – please do it safely! – of the worn-out infrastructure in your neck of the woods and share it with @USDOT using #ShowUsYourInfraWear. — transportation.gov
Public shaming has long been a tactic of the U.S. criminal justice system – there were the stocks of yore, the scarlet letters, and more recently, the tactics of felony court judge Ted Poe. Nowadays though, we tend to skip all the messiness of the public square and go straight to the internet to delve out shame – less as a sanctioned method of retributive justice, and more as a form of activism. Now, fed up with Congressional obstinacy to fund a long-term highway-planning bill, the Department of Transportation is joining the fray.
Using #ShowUsYourInfraWear, USDOT is imploring people to share pictures of surface infrastructure in disrepair with their Instagram, @USDOT. This isn't like a city's 311 service – tagging it isn't going to actually report it to local authorities – it's a rallying call for Congress to fund better transportation maintenance once it returns from a 5-week recess in September. The American Society of Civil Engineers issues a national "report card" every four years to grade US infrastructural condition and performance – as of 2013, across categories such as levees, bridges, roads, dams, bridges, rail, and transit, the score fluctuated between a C+ and D. US infrastructure has reached a point of such neglect that, according to the USDOT, 1 in every 4 bridges are in need of replacement or drastic repair.
A photo posted by U.S. Dept. of Transportation (@usdot) on Aug 3, 2015 at 8:06am PDT
More from the DOT:
Former NYC DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan on how to change the transportation status quo
3 Comments
#lovethissomuch
Shame Congress?
Talk about a tall order.
Show them video, in a loop, of the 35W collapse in Minneapolis, along with the constant barrage of "This Was Our 9/11"!!!
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