Back Doors on Buses
Over the course of my nineteen years of existence, I've witnessed a wholesale change in opening mechanisms for back doors on buses (o, the stories I'll tell my grandkids: When I was your age, the bus driver pressed a button, and the doors opened! *violently waves cane*). It occurred to me yesterday morning, on my commute to school in an above-capacity Route 144, that the back doors were actually slowing down the bus. The new, motion sensor door-opening mechanism, which I've seen increasing in use throughout the cities I've recently been to, would simply not close, because of the shuffling of passengers right by it.
It occurred throughout the route: the bus driver, seeing the crowding at the front, told passengers to get on via the back door. As the driver prepared to leave, he was left with a back door seemingly stuck halfway through its opening motion. The few people near the door crammed into each other momentarily to let the bus depart.
The technology on older buses in STM's fleet uses an air-compression system and manual bars on the door, which open the doors when pressed by the rider looking to exit. Growing up in Seattle, it was even simpler; getting off Route 8 on my way home frequently involved politely shouting at a bus driver from 50 feet away to request for the door to be opened.
A particularity of some of the Seattle buses, such as the 3600-3800 New Flyers, is that these doors open out onto the sidewalk instead of back into the bus, saving the space for one or two extra people in a really packed bus. Obviously, this has its downsides; I seem to recall this type of door getting tangled with a sad-looking tree at 3rd & Prefontaine on a repeated basis.
The air compression-push bar combination on most buses isn't without its faults, either. Most notably, it takes a frustrating amount of time just for the doors to open. I've occasionally witnessed unsuspecting customers take a swift whack in the face as well, as the doors close without warning.
All three systems have their downsides. Is this new-fangled motion sensor stuff really that great? I don't know, quite frankly. But sometimes, I just wonder if simplicity is too often overlooked.
Trump and the Second Avenue Subway
I'll keep this one short. Why would a billionaire who taxis around in private vehicles for a living fund a multibillion-dollar transportation project? I feel that there's been a slight wave of confusion that a seemingly stark conservative like him would be willing to give so much to a subway project.
I'll quickly refer to my previous post on megaprojects for an explanation; what more could an egotist of Trump's degree want than to have a shiny, glamorous, multibillion-dollar infrastructural feat remembered for his contribution? If the project cost less and didn't boast massive mezzanines full of art and shiny sundries, then it might not have been so high on Trump's leaked funding shortlist.
Real-Time Arrival Info Sees... Another Delay
Montreal residents were promised real-time arrival information in 'Early 2017' no earlier than late November 2016 by the STM Board of Directors. After their public assembly yesterday, I spoke to one of the members afterwards, who did not hesitate in describing how difficult and problem-ridden the process of publishing real-time data had been. His estimate for availability was 'not for at least a few months.'
While I'm somewhat sympathetic to the supposed difficulty of this entire process, I can't help but question this series of delays. STM signed a contract in 2012 to, among other objectives, install real-time information systems throughout the network, with a projected end date of late 2014. It's been pushed back for almost two and a half years now. It's hard to believe that the reason for this is just 'technical difficulties.' STM's lack of transparency throughout the process raises additional red flags.
I could dedicate a whole article to the merit of real-time information. Simply put, I can think of few transit investments that have such a low cost-benefit ratio today. Given the contracting and process to date, it looks like this won't be so cheap after all, but in a city marred by construction issues and road closures, real-time data is an excellent way to provide users with relatively accurate information for route-making decisions. There's a certain irony to the fact that the best mobile app for real-time transit arrival information is developed in a city that can't even provide it.