$68,000. That’s how much money WMATA earned from web advertising in the last fiscal year. It’s also, according to the Examiner, what the agency says is keeping Washington’s public transit riders from being able to use Google Transit, a story which has picked up considerable steam since Greater Greater Washington got it started and we reported on it last weekend.

Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith told the paper that “[integration with Google] can’t just be a private company getting something off the back of a public agency.” Because making only $68,000 from 16 million monthly page views is worth protecting? (Hint: that’s really not much revenue based on that kind of traffic, guys. You should be doing way better than that).

WMATA is far from the only public transportation system in the United States facing budgetary problems. But somehow New York, Chicago, and Atlanta managed to make the incredibly large sacrifices required in order to join Google Transit’s growing list of participating jurisdictions.

Certainly Metro needs to protect its revenue streams, but at the same time, doesn’t a “public agency” have a responsibility to act in the best interest of that public? Stringing along a much-clamored for external service for almost a year, then canning it by claiming that it could cut in to all of $68,000 of the agency’s dollars is pretty silly. Metro, we deserve better.