bug: subway time tables
this did not make the list – though it was on my mind. in fact i didn’t post it as i was thinking about better solutions to the current problem. what bothers me on the subway is the lack of information.
- lack of information
- lack of time tables for trains
- lack of expected wait times for next train
- subway updates
There have been some solutions that have been posed and some that are in practice but not here in nyc. why is that? I hate getting on the subway and then finding out that the train line is not running. I also hate not knowing when the next subway is arriving in the station. I hate it when people bitch and moan about the NYC subway system. It’s well over a 100 years old!
But what i do not like is that the NYC Subway has not moved fwd with simple information. K.I.S.S.! There is basic info like posting when the next train is expected in the station. the London Underground updates passengers and is nearly as old. In fact the current head of the London Underground is an American who was formerly in charge of the NYC MTA. He and his team did great work to improve the subway, but there is more to be done.
I propose that the MTA change by posting time tables. Not like the stock market information tables, but approximate times of when certain trains will be in the station. And have this outside of the turnstiles. I also believe that installing sensors in each station that alert stations two stops away that a train is coming in 2 minutes would be ideal. Karen Bonna worked on a project last year called SubAlerts, a mobile subway alert system that would sms you information about the subway and time tables. Why can’t we implement this? I also would like to see some displays at each station reporting outages and delays on the various lines.
Maybe this has not been done because the NYC Subway is so old. Maybe because of fear of terrorism. Maybe because it costs too much. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I propose a little information will go a long way to many customers.
