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What do you think about recorded announcements?


Zeynel

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And today on the subway home I managed to fall asleep in a car with the automated announcements. They didn't bother me at all, but I know that if I heard a conductor trying to speak then I probably would've woken up at every stop.

 

Well, thanks. This is why I asked my question here. So far, I don't think that people are bothered by recorded announcements.

 

But your experience also proves my point that announcements are useless. Did you miss your stop because you slept? I assume not. As commuters we can sleep through the ride because our body is conditioned to the same ride everyday. Then, why bother riders with useless announcements to people who take the same ride everyday?

 

For tourists? Let them take care of themselves.

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Imagine your on a train and theres an emergency and the C/R says. "Ladies and Gentlemen, there is an emergency. The emergency is CCOOOSSSHHHHEEEEJJHGYGJJSK cloverfield hhhhddgdggdgeeeeShoooooshblblb the only way to survive is to dusshhhhhfhffhhffshshhhhhhhhhhssss." :)

 

Am I missing something here? If there is an emergency the recorded messages will be no help. The conductor will make the announcements.

 

So you make a good point about how useless recorded announcements are in the case of an emergency. And I want MTA make announcements only to give valuable information as in route changes and in case of emergency. And both of these must be done by the conductor.

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Guest lance25

@Zeynel: First off, welcome to the forums.

 

Secondly, the automated announcements are almost a necessity, for regulars and tourists alike. Compared to manual announcements, the automated ones are much clearer and easier to understand. Most people would probably prefer the monotonous announcements from the Bloomberg gang than ones done by Charlie Brown's teacher.

 

Also, many tourists use the transit system and it's confusing if you don't know the system.

 

Yes, once the **** hits the fan in terms of service disruptions, the conductor usually has to go on the PA to make an announcement, but those announcements are usually just as garbled.

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Especially in a crowded train, how is someone supposed to know that this is the stop for the (L) transfer?

 

By asking. And I think personally that MTA must cater to me, not to tourists; I pay the taxes here and I take the train everyday. My priorities come first. I am talking about workers who take the train everyday to go to Manhattan.

 

Also, I believe that, from my own experience, tourists do not "hear" the announcements. Just the other day, the doors at E opened and a tourist family standing on the platform, the father peers into the car and asks if the train goes to Statute of Liberty. As you know the MTA now has speakers outside the train and blasted the entire platform about where the train was going. The tourists did not hear that. They don't know downtown from uptown.

 

Furthermore, people are extremely helpful and they answer questions. Several people told them to get in and explained to them how to get to Statute of Liberty.

 

In my years of using the subway I have not witnessed 1 case where people failed to help a tourist asking directions.

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During rush hours almost everyone is an experienced rider who knows where he is going and he does not need to be told.

 

If MTA has a research showing that during rush hours most people riding the system are clueless about where they are going and they need to be told by constant recorded announcements, I would greatly appreciate it if you could point me to that research.

 

Ok, im already at the point where im annoyed so im going to be as nice as possible.

 

1.Not everyone riding the subway during rush hour is a experienced rider.

2.Its not about being experienced, if thats what you think then your an ass.

3.Like I said if you dont like the recorded announcements play your music and stop crying like a girl.

4.When I rode with my cousin on the (5) there was this one guy who always asked if this train was stopping at 86th and he lived on the upper east side.

5.What does research have to do with this? For crying outloud its announcements.

6.The point of the train is to get your lazy ass to Point A and Point B.

7.If you know where your going, then shut the hell up and keep moving.

8.This is a public transit system, its not for you to cry and moan about announcements.

9. The annoucements helps in a situation when a (N) gets re-routed via West End or the (2) via Lexington Ave ect.

10.There are a ton of tourist in the subway at any given time.

 

Again, if you dont like the announcements put your damn earphones on and stop crying.

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By asking. And I think personally that MTA must cater to me, not to tourists; I pay the taxes here and I take the train everyday. My priorities come first. I am talking about workers who take the train everyday to go to Manhattan.

 

Also, I believe that, from my own experience, tourists do not "hear" the announcements. Just the other day, the doors at E opened and a tourist family standing on the platform, the father peers into the car and asks if the train goes to Statute of Liberty. As you know the MTA now has speakers outside the train and blasted the entire platform about where the train was going. The tourists did not hear that. They don't know downtown from uptown.

 

Furthermore, people are extremely helpful and they answer questions. Several people told them to get in and explained to them how to get to Statute of Liberty.

 

In my years of using the subway I have not witnessed 1 case where people failed to help a tourist asking directions.

@ first part: This city's economy would be DEAD without tourists (well, almost).

 

@ second part: Just because the train said that it was "Brooklyn-bound" does not mean anything, because trains, as far as I know, do not announce their every stop at every station.

 

@ third part: I've heard about conductors ignoring tourists' questions!

 

P.S. If it's really such a big deal, listen to some music. It's actually helpful to know where one is without having to constantly look up or decipher gwrblewd announcements.:) (especially in an unfamiliar area) (and yes, NYers go to unfamiliar places too).

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@Zeynel: First off, welcome to the forums.

 

Thanks!

 

Secondly, the automated announcements are almost a necessity, for regulars and tourists alike.

 

Well, this is what I've been trying to understand. Why, as a regular rider of the system, it is necessary for me to hear recorded announcements about the next stop, about the transfer, and about the station the train is entering. I know all this.

 

During rush hours everyone in the train knows where they are going. The few people who do not know must plan where they are going before they board the train. Now this is very easy to do. MTA advertises their own site about how to plan your trip.

 

So where is the "necessity" to tell regular riders what they already know? This is an earnest inquiry. It just does not make sense to me.

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Guest lance25
Well, this is what I've been trying to understand. Why, as a regular rider of the system, it is necessary for me to hear recorded announcements about the next stop, about the transfer, and about the station the train is entering. I know all this.

 

During rush hours everyone in the train knows where they are going. The few people who do not know must plan where they are going before they board the train. Now this is very easy to do. MTA advertises their own site about how to plan your trip.

 

So where is the "necessity" to tell regular riders what they already know? This is an earnest inquiry. It just does not make sense to me.

 

Because not everybody's you. Not everyone rides the subway on a regular basis to know the stops/transfers/etc. I know what you're talking about - they can get monotonous after a while, but like stated, invest in an mp3 player and put it on full blast so you don't hear the announcements.

 

Plus, even if the (MTA) switched back to manual announcements, conductors are supposed to make announcements about stations and transfers at every station, so it's about the same thing, just with Charlie Brown's teacher.

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There's plenty of regular New Yorkers who don't know the subway system that well. In fact, there's many who only know one little section of their line and won't dare venture into Manhattan via subway for fear of getting lost. In fact, I know very few people who would be able to function without those announcements. I've almost memorized the system so I'd be fine, but I don't know anyone in my family, friends, or even distant friends that could be. Being as adept with the system as you are is a gift, treasure it because not many people have it.

 

As per the ridiculous noise pollution argument, if its SO treacherously loud for you, invest in a set of proper earphones that can double as ear-plugs (in-ear ones work great for this). I've done this in the past where I wanted to doze off and shut out the rest of the world. You can listen to music or not, but either way it gets rid of the noise.

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@ first part: This city's economy would be DEAD without tourists (well, almost).

 

Sure. But nowadays anyone can go online and find out how to get where they are going.

 

@ second part: Just because the train said that it was "Brooklyn-bound" does not mean anything, because trains, as far as I know, do not announce their every stop at every station.

 

So. Once again, this is a pointer to how useless recorded announcements are.

 

@ third part: I've heard about conductors ignoring tourists' questions!

 

I can believe that. But riders will help. Someone will help.

 

In any case, if MTA stopped making announcements now, recorded or otherwise, no one in this forum will miss their stop. But no one here is bothered by the announcements and they think that it is a good thing in principle. This was exactly what I was trying to understand. So thanks again to everyone who took time to reply.

 

Is this also the case with general public who ride the system everyday but who are not interested in the system as people here are? I do not know.

 

Any opinions about what average person thinks about recorded announcements?

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Human-annoucement: "This*static*sixty-fir*static*ave*static**static*Next stop*static*ish*fitty-second*static*street*staaaaaaaaaaaatic*Standclearoftehclosin'doorsplease* DING-DONG*

 

Automated announcement: "This is a Manhattan-bound N local train. Next stop is Lexington Avenue-59th Street."

 

"Stand clear of the closing doors, please!"

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9. The annoucements helps in a situation when a (N) gets re-routed via West End or the (2) via Lexington Ave ect.

 

 

Are these recorded announcements or are they done ad hoc by the conductor? I have no problem with announcements made by the conductor. I take the N occasionally and every time it is rerouted the conductor turns off the auto system and makes the announcements himself.

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Guest lance25

@Zeynel: The (N) via the West End, (2) via Lexington Avenue, like many other reroutes, are in the automated announcement system. The conductor on the train you took probably didn't feel like cycling through the options to select the proper announcements and decided to do it him-/herself.

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Human-annoucement: ...

 

Automated announcement: ..."

 

"Stand clear of the closing doors, please!"

 

Yes, that's funny. But do you take the same train everyday? Do you know your stop? Do you miss your stop if it is not announced? I bet that you don't. So can you answer why do you want MTA tell you your stop? Not tourists? Not clueless people who happened to take the train. But you. You know your stop and you still want MTA announce it to you?

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Not tourists? Not clueless people who happened to take the train. But you. You know your stop and you still want MTA announce it to you?

Oh, so now they should make separate trains with tourists-only and local-only and play the announcement on the tourist-only ones?:)

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Guest lance25

You fail to realize that the announcements aren't catered for the regular rider who takes the same train to the same place everyday; it's for the ones who don't ride the subway on a daily basis.

 

Trains have been using automated announcements since 2000. If people really didn't like them, they wouldn't be on three (five if you count the variations) different trainsets and around for over ten years. You seem to be in the overwhelming minority and like I said in an earlier post, buy an iPod and tune out the announcements. Other than that, you're out of luck on getting the (MTA) to change their tactics concerning this relatively minor issue.

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@Zeynel: The (N) via the West End, (2) via Lexington Avenue, like many other reroutes, are in the automated announcement system. The conductor on the train you took probably didn't feel like cycling through the options to select the proper announcements and decided to do it him-/herself.

 

I take the N train to Queens and sometimes at Queesnboro plaza it goes express and never heard the automated system. But I welcome such announcements whether recorded or not. I am just objecting to "dumb" recorded announcements that tells you the train is entering a station when I already see that the train is entering the station. But even in such cases MTA is covering for visually impaired people as previously mentioned in this thread. So if no one except me is bothered by recorded announcements then MTA must be doing something good and my apologies to everyone and to the MTA.

 

Again, I thank everybody who commented.

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I think you mean "I'd rather not hear anything". The manual announcements are inaudible.:)

 

PS If you don't like them, drown them out with music or anything else.

 

Yeah you're right in a way. But there's some really funny and entertaining conductors that I don't mind hearing once in a while. My iPod stays in the car 90% of the time so I don't carry it with me anymore.

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I take the N train to Queens and sometimes at Queesnboro plaza it goes express and never heard the automated system. But I welcome such announcements whether recorded or not. I am just objecting to "dumb" recorded announcements that tells you the train is entering a station when I already see that the train is entering the station. But even in such cases MTA is covering for visually impaired people as previously mentioned in this thread. So if no one except me is bothered by recorded announcements then MTA must be doing something good and my apologies to everyone and to the MTA.

 

Again, I thank everybody who commented.

 

Ok, so what about someone that blind? They can feel the train is slowing down, but cant see it....

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My opinion is I do not like them. It's the same voices everyday. The first few times it's okay but then it kinda gets annoying. I'd rather hear the broken, too low, too loud incomplete announcements from a real living person.

 

I could not have said it better. Thanks!

 

And a few years ago there was a conductor on 2 and 3 who would give interesting (and touristic) information about the area for each stop. And everyone in the train would enjoy the information. I am sorry that people in this forum accept total dehumanization of an environment that they find themselves everyday. Well, no doubt, I am in the minority.

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