Let's Talk Bus and Subway Signage

[BrooklynBus]

I decided to double post this.

 

http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2013/05/lets-talk-subway-and-bus-signage/

 

[MHV9218]

If bus stop sign heights and 'annoying' announcements are the biggest problems the MTA has to worry about, they must be doing an absolutely stellar job. 

[BrooklynBus]

If bus stop sign heights and 'annoying' announcements are the biggest problems the MTA has to worry about, they must be doing an absolutely stellar job.

 

Your statement is absolutely ridiculous! Where is it written that everything written about the MTA has to be a list of the MTA's biggest problems? (Nowhere does the article state or imply that. The article merely states that this is one area where there has been significant improvement.) If we thought that way about everything we would only devote our attention to to the monumental problems and no one would every pay attention to the small problems that are easy to solve because many times they cost little or no money to solve. No conclusions are drawn here regarding how good or poor of a job the MTA is doing. I write every week and have touched on the serious problems as well.

[MHV9218]

Look, I know New Yorkers have a god-given right to b!tch, and I certainly exercise mine all the time. But I don't see the point in having a perpetual bone to pick with the TA...

[BrooklynBus]

Look, I know New Yorkers have a god-given right to b!tch, and I certainly exercise mine all the time. But I don't see the point in having a perpetual bone to pick with the TA...

Are you referring to me? I was giving the MTA a compliment how they have handled signage. However, there is always room for improvement and I've highlighted a few areas.

[Guest Lance]

Since most of your article pertains to the bus system, I'll only deal with the subway aspect of the discussion.

 

Pertaining to the vague signs along the station platforms, there were more detailed service signs on the platforms, as I'm sure you're aware. The problem with those older signs was that you literally had to be right next to said signs in order to read all the service patterns in place at a particular station. In my opinion, the ones around today, while not as informative as the ones of yesteryear, convey enough information to be useful. Using your B-line example, if it's around 10pm, it's probably in a rider's best interest to catch the D or Q instead of hoping they didn't miss the last B train.

 

Regarding the new tech trains, specifically the 160s since you mentioned the FIND system, a conductor punching in the wrong time of day/week for a route is not that big of a deal. Again, riders should be semi-aware of the route schedule (ie; when X route runs) so that if a line announced/displayed by the computers is not actually running, nobody's looking for it.

 

What I'm surprised was absent from your article is the lack of flexibility on the transfers, especially during weekend/late night service changes. You mentioned how Cortlandt St was lit up as a stop when trains were in fact bypassing said station, which was probably a simple oversight by the train crew. But if you want to talk about inflexibility of the so-called FINDs, there are the transfers which are announced regardless of what's actually going on in the subway due to a lack of remote update capabilities.