Welcome to Twitter Tuesday, a weekly feature here at The Source in which we’ll round up the latest Metro related tweets in the Twitterverse. To follow Metro on Twitter just search for @MetroLosAngeles. We recommend adding the #MetroLosAngeles tag to your tweets to get our attention.

Twitter Tuesday is back after a brief hiatus and now features a cool new icon – thanks Metro Design Studio!

Before moving forward with our regularly scheduled programing I’d like to talk a bit about a post from Human Transit last month entitled “New media and transit complaints“. It’s about using social media like Twitter to post complaints to a transit agency – and the possible pitfalls of communicating issues with service to an agency in this manner. Human Transit’s Jarrett Walker – a real life transit planner with ample experience on the way transit agencies work – concludes that Twitter can be great way to vent your frustrations but as far as getting an agency to fix a specific issue you’re better off going down traditional avenues. In Metro’s case that means filling out an online customer comment form or calling Metro Passenger Relations at (213) 922-6235 or heading to a Metro Customer Center in person to report your complaint. We’ve even done a post on the best way to let Metro know about your problems with service. While Twitter is a great way to communicate, Jarrett is right – 140 characters can’t possibly provide enough information for an agency to effectively fix a problem.

That being said, 140 characters can still say a lot and that’s what Twitter Tuesday is here for – to bring attention to tweets that might otherwise be lost in the ether. So let’s see what people have been tweeting about this past week – after the jump.

Here’s an example of a valid complaint, but one that’s not likely to be able to elicit any real change because of the vagueness:

themunson @metrolosangeles Tardiness due to Metro’s unreliability is getting old. Happens at least once a week. Could y’all please step it up? K thx.

As to be expected, there were a few tweets about TAP, specifically asking for the long-awaited debit capabilities – as it stands now riders can only purchase passes on TAP:

soulbarn @metrolosangeles hey, metro, when in flaming heck are you actually going to institute the promised “cash purse” TAP upgrade?

jhvu @metrolosangeles where my cash purse at!?

One observant Metro rider noticed some upgrades to Metro.net which I’ll be covering in more detail tomorrow:

SimonOh @metrolosangeles Thanks for putting up a Quick Links box on the Metro website. Searching for schedules used to be harder than finding Waldo.

Another website related post notes that Metro.net was down for a period of time last week:

AlaiaWilliams @metrolosangeles your website is down. sad

Unfortunately Metro.net was the victim of a hacker attack and Metro’s web team had to spend the day taking measures to stop the attacks and get things running smoothly again.

The Dodger Stadium Express made its way to the Dodger’s season opener today, and Metro riders were tweeting away:

LaGrandeOrange Take @metrolosangeles Gold Line from LGO Cafe to Union Station for shuttle to opening @DodgertownUSA game! Do Dodgers!

sexcyy http://twitpic.com/1fdim6 – On the Dodger Stadium Express bus

cherrybomb0123 Onn the dodger stadium express…almost there baby…GO BLUE!!!

militantangleno the line for the Dodger Stadium Express is going some 3/4 around the Patsaouras transit plaza. More buses rushing to fill the need!

diglounge Dodger Stadium “not too” express. Sigh…

A recent post on Transit TV got a lot of people riled up on Facebook and it looks like some of the dislike for the bus bound entertainment programming spilled over to Twitter:

glossedover Sexist jokes on Transit TV this morning. Unaccceptable, @metrolosangeles. I am appalled.

Twitter might not be the best place to get specific service issues resolved, but it is a fantastic place for sarcasm:

ometro Thanks @metrolosangeles for the heads up re: the bus rerouting today on Sunset. No signs at bus stops yesterday; no tweets today. <3

If you’ve ever been to a Metro event, you know it’s a great place to pick up some sweet Metro swag, as one Twitter user notes:

ElRandomHero I love how #metrolosangeles gives free buttons, maps and model trains at events. Keep it coming 🙂

Here a Twitter user makes full use of the 140 characters Twitter offers by including not only the bus line number, but also the bus vehicle number in the tweet. But wouldn’t you know, it’s for a compliment not a complaint:

wiyum @metrolosangeles just got off hybrid bus 4204 from s pas to w 5/grand (line 485). smooth ride. much better than my 1st (which was choppy).

Last, but certainly not least, yours truly decided to add the #metrolosangeles hash tag to a Tweet as I took Metro to get to a concert on the Sunset Strip this past week. I don’t just post Go Metro Weekends, I live them:

FredCamino Red Line to Hollywood/Higland, transfer to Metro 2 Bus to Key Club for @AndrewWK show! #metrolosangeles