Last Round of Ithaca Photos

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Here is my last posting of TCAT photos for the foreseeable future:








TCAT Destination Follies, part 48357405827309845 (Does anyone else think they could have fit the word BROOKTONDALE on there without abbreviating it?  Even so, that isn't the folly, there is something wrong on the sign as photographed!):




TCAT Destination Follies, part 8684967296729476927365 (the sign just says 43 EXPRESS and never actually indicates where the bus is going): 


Destination sign nitpicking -- It is supposed to say Collegetown, not College Town (one word instead of two, but they had it right before)


Downtown Ithaca is NEVER called Downtown Ithaca...




With this photo, I completed photographing the entire fleet as it currently stands (I had it all before, but then they bought more buses): 


The whole fleet remains available for your viewing pleasure at www.orenstransitpage.com.

Hope you've enjoyed the various Ithaca photo threads over the years.  Perhaps there will be another one in the future, but for now, this is it.

[RailBus63]

As always, great shots of the TCAT fleet.

The destination sign 'follies' you pointed out is just laziness, in my opinion.  Today's destination signs allow for various display sizes and formats, and there really isn't any excuse for incomprehensible abbreviations like 'BRK'TONDALE' or displays of 'EXPRESS' with no additional information provided.  TCAT is typically of many smaller systems in which route names aren't very helpful because the actual routing meanders down various streets and through multiple neighborhoods and towns, but they should be able to properly size the font to avoid most abbreviations.  I've also seen TCAT buses which exhibit the opposite flaw of showing too many stops and destinations, resulting in a sign reading that must cycle through four and five displays.   

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Thanks!

To be honest, I doubt they know how to stack or else they would.  Signs have been cut off because they don't fit properly for example, and the Gilligs were sidelined for a few days because they had different signage and they couldn't just put what was on the existing program on those buses.

TCAT simplified its readings in the summer of 2006 because they were taking too long to scroll through.  They then redid the signs again in early 2008 on the Gilligs, and later in the year on the rest of the fleet.  Each version has had its own problems, but I think the pre-2006 were overall, the best and most informative with the least confusion.  They get to redo things once their route redevelopment plan is implemented in January, we will have to see what crazy ideas they come up with then.

PS:  On the 53 to Brooktondale, they put the apostrophe in the wrong place...