New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens

Submission 2,545

About

New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (abbreviated NUMTOT^[1], with members called "NUMTOTs") is a Facebook group dedicated to jokes and memes about public transit and other urbanist topics. The group grew popular after its creation in 2017, and currently has over 200,000 members. It has been covered by national news media.

History

The Facebook group New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens was founded on March 14th, 2017.^[1] The group has three admins and a team of nine moderators.^[1]

Content

The group features content related to public transportation and other urbanist topics, whether that be memes or transportation-related news articles and conversations. For example, Facebook user Michael Rose posted a Milk Edinburgh meme about the group on January 16th, 2020, gaining over 1,500 likes and reactions (shown below, left). On January 15th, user Sam Janson posted an article from the New York Times which covered cities considering free public transportation, gaining over 2,600 likes and reactions (shown below, right).

Recurring topics of praise include urbanism pioneer Jane Jacobs (the group's custom URL spells out "what would Jane Jacobs do?"), bicycles and bicycle infrastructure improvements (such as protected bike lanes), trains, buses, transit-oriented development, city planning nerdiness, and YIMBYism (an acronym for "yes in my back yard", referring to those who endorse urbanist reforms). Recurring topics of scorn include automobiles and car culture (for instance, excessive parking allotments), NIMBYism (an acronym for "not in my back yard"), negligent landlords, and suburban sprawl.

The demographics of the group lean young, educated, urban, and progressive. The group rules post states "We are not explicitly Leftbook, but we are certainly left-leaning. We won’t ban you for being a capitalist, but don't expect us to defend you either."^[9]

Memes in the group include asking "is this peak transit" alongside an image of an unusual transit photo, and referring to buses or trains endearingly as "bois".

Online Presence

In addition to the group's 183,000 members, the group has established an online presence outside of Facebook. The group has been covered by several news publications, including The New York Times,^[2] The Guardian,^[3] Citylab,^[4] and others.

Bernie Sanders Endorsement

On January 15th, 2020, the group endorsed Bernie Sanders for President.^[5] Sanders' Facebook page joined the group and thanked it in a statement^[6] that gained over 16,000 likes and reactions (shown below). The endorsement was covered by media outlets including The Verge^[7] and Mashable.^[8]