On Saturday, August 15, 2009, THE NEW YORK TIMES ran an entertaining article on page A11 decrying the lack of "next train" clocks in the New York subway. The article stated (in part): "It's unexpected that a city of control freaks and speed-walkers should have anything less. In an era when physicists can pulse light for one quintillionith of a second, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should surely be able to let New Yorkers know, within a minute or two, those broad temporal strokes when they can expect to be moving. Then again, the subway is already a major throwback as cognitive experiences go - it's an information blackout zone, the rare place where you can't have, within instants, a rundown from Wikepedia on the history of rapid transit and information from your iPhone app about the fastest route to take to Coney Island. Why should any other information about the subway's whereabouts be readily available?"
The article went on to report that there is one "next train" clock in the entire system at the 5th Avenue station on the L train and that the authority "has had plans to start introducing them for all the numbered train lines as early as January . . ."
Quote from: WMAveteran on August 15, 2009, 04:02:29 PM
On Saturday, August 15, 2009, THE NEW YORK TIMES ran an entertaining article on page A11 decrying the lack of "next train" clocks in the New York subway. The article stated (in part): "It's unexpected that a city of control freaks and speed-walkers should have anything less. In an era when physicists can pulse light for one quintillionith of a second, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should surely be able to let New Yorkers know, within a minute or two, those broad temporal strokes when they can expect to be moving. Then again, the subway is already a major throwback as cognitive experiences go - it's an information blackout zone, the rare place where you can't have, within instants, a rundown from Wikepedia on the history of rapid transit and information from your iPhone app about the fastest route to take to Coney Island. Why should any other information about the subway's whereabouts be readily available?"
The article went on to report that there is one "next train" clock in the entire system at the 5th Avenue station on the L train and that the authority "has had plans to start introducing them for all the numbered train lines as early as January . . ."
The on-going "feud" between MTA and Siemens. If the whole bus fiasco didn't tell us anything, then I don't know what. As for bus, Clever Devices is testing its tracking equipment along 34th Street along buses on the M34 and a couple other routes that serve 34th Street. It's ironic how they went back to Clever Devices after trialing it back in 2002 (IIRC).
They did have the displays in subway stations near the turnstiles to alert riders of approaching trains. Unfortunately this a very basic system. The signs were simply linked to track circuits that were activated as a train approached the station.
The idea was to provide a safer environment for passengers waiting for trains during off-peak hours. Usually there was an "Off Hours Waiting Area", often near the token/change booths, just inside of the fare control area. This way the clerk could see the passengers and call for transit police, if necessary. So when a train was about a minute or so from the station the alert of beeps and an arrow pointing the the platform would start. The sign would also read something like "Manhattan", "Uptown" etc. The downside to this is that since it was simply track circuits, it didn't indicate what train was approaching and all trains (including those not in service) would trip the alerts.