MTA Does a Terrible Job of Informing People about the Existence of Emergency Intercoms on NTTs

[BrooklynIRT]

seriously, the NTTs started coming in 14 years ago and mad people still do not know they have emergency intercoms. that is not good at all if there is a real emergency to report..

[Joel Up Front]

I'm sorry, what?

[S78 via Hylan]

seriously, the NTTs started coming in 14 years ago and mad people still do not know they have emergency intercoms. that is not good at all if there is a real emergency to report..

People should look for the emergency intercoms on their own. The MTA shouldn't have to tell people where everything is.

[BrooklynIRT]

Joel, I meant a lot of NYC subway riders still do not know the NTTs have emergency intercoms and if an emergency occurs on the train, it is not good if they do not know to use the intercom to contact the crew.

 

alright, perhaps I went overboard in saying MTA does a terrible job of informing the public about emergency intercoms.

 

but still, do you think that most subway riders (and people in general), many of whom have a lot of stuff to think about (like going to work), should be expected to be that observant? perhaps they should, but I am not sure whether the consensus would be to excuse their inobservance or not...

 

if a moderator wants to change the thread title to something less accusatory, please do so. "MTA could do a better job..." might be a better title.

[R160]

Joel, I meant a lot of NYC subway riders still do not know the NTTs have emergency intercoms... 

 

What are you basing this off of? 

[BrooklynIRT]

most of the people I know personally (I only know about 5 transit buffs personally) are regular subway riders. yesterday I told 4 people I know (all of whom ride NTTs nearly every day, all of whose home lines only run NTTs, and none of whom are transit buffs) about the intercoms and they all said they never knew the NTTs had the intercoms until I told them about the intercoms.

 

a small sample size, but I would not be surprised if I spoke to even more people whose home lines only run NTTs about the intercoms and only a few would say they knew about the intercoms before I told them.

 

same thing if anybody else asked them about the intercoms and/r started telling them about the intercoms.

 

one other time I used an intercom when I was with a friend (he realized what I was doing only after I went up to it and pressed the button); I forget whether he had known about the intercoms prior to him seeing me use this intercom. I do not think he did, but I can ask.

 

do not worry; I used it for a real emergency. I never use intercoms for nonsense.

[Snowblock]

So what in the F do you want us to do, make an announcement at every stop saying "be advised, there IS an emergency intercom located at both ends of each car" and then walk through every car and point it out to the customers?

[Phantom909]

Joel, I meant a lot of NYC subway riders still do not know the NTTs have emergency intercoms and if an emergency occurs on the train, it is not good if they do not know to use the intercom to contact the crew.

 

alright, perhaps I went overboard in saying MTA does a terrible job of informing the public about emergency intercoms.

 

but still, do you think that most subway riders (and people in general), many of whom have a lot of stuff to think about (like going to work), should be expected to be that observant? perhaps they should, but I am not sure whether the consensus would be to excuse their inobservance or not...

 

if a moderator wants to change the thread title to something less accusatory, please do so. "MTA could do a better job..." might be a better title.

 

 

nothing is more important than being aware of who and what is around you, not playing words with friends or listening to an ipad which most do

 

joe.

[Gorgor]

If you ask me off hand then I couldn't tell you exactly where the emergency intercom is, but in the even of an emergency then it would be fairly obvious where it is.  I know that it's some panel with text above it and a button, which wouldn't take more than 10 seconds for someone on the to locate.  Also I have absolutely no idea where the emergency intercom is located on any non-NTT train model, or whether it even exists, however in an emergency I'm positive that I, or another passenger, would easily be able to find it.

[BrooklynIRT]

So what in the F do you want us to do, make an announcement at every stop saying "be advised, there IS an emergency intercom located at both ends of each car" and then walk through every car and point it out to the customers?

snowblock, please. the answer to your question is no.

 

I did not say any employees should make any announcements about these things..

 

I was only thinking they should put up signs/ads/posters telling people where the PEIs are or something along those lines. having crews do extra labor over this stuff was NOT an idea of mine or something I would support at all.

 

If you ask me off hand then I couldn't tell you exactly where the emergency intercom is, but in the even of an emergency then it would be fairly obvious where it is.  I know that it's some panel with text above it and a button, which wouldn't take more than 10 seconds for someone on the to locate.  Also I have absolutely no idea where the emergency intercom is located on any non-NTT train model, or whether it even exists, however in an emergency I'm positive that I, or another passenger, would easily be able to find it.

no passenger emergency intercoms on anything currently in service that was built before the R142.

 

I was thinking that people (not me or you) may not want to report emergencies in their train cars if they cannot easily find the PEIs (pass. emer. intercoms). I know this is not supposed to happen, but still.

 

 

 

take note: I am not sympathizing with anybody for being apathetic or whatever. I am just stating observations and thoughts based on said observations.

[pjbr40]

one suggestion like in SPACEBALL THE MOVIE. In beginning of the movie after scrollling of what is happening they put at the very end saying "IF you cant read this you need glasses" so for me to these riders "if dont recognize the PEI on both end of the car they need glasses. As soon those cars came out i saw them right away but it funny it took me a day to know that NJ transit multilevel cars have PEI. When that get activated the whole train know there a PEI got activated. Most of the time it was bogus.

[MHV9218]

People should look for the emergency intercoms on their own. The MTA shouldn't have to tell people where everything is.

 

What? C'mon, that's such a nonanswer. "Find it yourself." Really? 99% of the time I agree with you that the MTA shouldn't have to tell people where everything is, that the system is adequately easy to figure out. But one thing that the MTA SHOULD make obvious? Things to use in an emergency. I just had a friend of mine have a homeless dude pull a knife on her last week, she had no idea there was an intercom anywhere and so that guy stayed on the train while she ran to the next car. Those intercoms should be unbelievably obvious, not just to transit fans. If there's a significant number of people who don't know there's an intercom, the MTA hasn't made it clear enough.

[Snowblock]

In my experience working the NTT's, plenty of passengers know where the PEI's are, and most of them know how to properly. 9 out of 10 times, when the PEI gets activated it's because somebody hit it accidentally when the train is crowded - and when I say "Car 9000, what is the emergency?" EVERYBODY at that end of the car now knows what and where it is. The 10th time it's usually a sick customer, and once in a blue moon I'll get somebody screaming about the f**kin Yankees on it after a game. VERY VERY rarely do I ever get people hitting it to ask for directions.

 

And in case you didn't notice, there ARE signs on the train pointing it out. I don't get why you think this is a problem. *DANCING LOCK ICON!!!!!*

[RollOver]

nothing is more important than being aware of who and what is around you, not playing words with friends or listening to an ipad which most do

 

joe.

+infinity.

[LTA1992]

seriously, the NTTs started coming in 14 years ago and mad people still do not know they have emergency intercoms. that is not good at all if there is a real emergency to report..

That's there own fault for not observing their surroundings, not the .

[QM1to6Ave]

In my experience working the NTT's, plenty of passengers know where the PEI's are, and most of them know how to properly. 9 out of 10 times, when the PEI gets activated it's because somebody hit it accidentally when the train is crowded - and when I say "Car 9000, what is the emergency?" EVERYBODY at that end of the car now knows what and where it is. The 10th time it's usually a sick customer, and once in a blue moon I'll get somebody screaming about the f**kin Yankees on it after a game. VERY VERY rarely do I ever get people hitting it to ask for directions.

 

And in case you didn't notice, there ARE signs on the train pointing it out. I don't get why you think this is a problem. *DANCING LOCK ICON!!!!!*

HAHA!

More seriously, when you respond to the PEI, does your voice go over the main PA or just through the little speaker on the PEI itself? I've never actually seen anyone use one (though I do think most people know it is there, it is pretty well labelled). 

[YankeesPwnMets]

HAHA!

More seriously, when you respond to the PEI, does your voice go over the main PA or just through the little speaker on the PEI itself? I've never actually seen anyone use one (though I do think most people know it is there, it is pretty well labelled). 

I once saw a baby hit it by accident and the conductor's voice came out of the speaker itself

[QM1to6Ave]

I once saw a baby hit it by accident and the conductor's voice came out of the speaker itself

thanks

[BrooklynIRT]

In my experience working the NTT's, plenty of passengers know where the PEI's are, and most of them know how to properly. 9 out of 10 times, when the PEI gets activated it's because somebody hit it accidentally when the train is crowded - and when I say "Car 9000, what is the emergency?" EVERYBODY at that end of the car now knows what and where it is. The 10th time it's usually a sick customer, and once in a blue moon I'll get somebody screaming about the f**kin Yankees on it after a game. VERY VERY rarely do I ever get people hitting it to ask for directions.

 

And in case you didn't notice, there ARE signs on the train pointing it out. I don't get why you think this is a problem. *DANCING LOCK ICON!!!!!*

so does the TOD of any NTT tell you the car in which the PEI is being used? or at least there is some other way by which the crew finds out the car in which the PEI is being used without the passenger stating this. good to know. I had been trying to find this out.

 

sorry the nonsense you mentioned happens as often as you said.

[m7zanr160s]

People should be aware of their surroundings. These PEI's are obvious enough. I don't think that they need to be flashing hot pink neon signs.

[MHV9218]

Look, I think they're pretty obvious. But it's a matter of principle, you wanna set a perfect precedent here. If ANYBODY doesn't know where the PEIs are, then that's a problem. Not the C/R's fault, not the T/O's fault, that's an issue for a different branch of the MTA.

[Turbo19]

I'm in agreement the the MTA doesn't attempt to inform passengers regarding the existance/location of NTT's, or PEI's as the conversation has evolved.

 

However, while it isn't right, could it be that MTA is also attempting to prevent abuse of these systems? I don't agree with that if it is the case, but could it be a possibility?

[Guest Lance]

Alright, I'm going to play devil's advocate on this one. How should the MTA inform riders of the emergency intercoms? Should there be signs on the platforms alerting them on the existence of the coms? Should they (the agency) be issuing brochures about them? Obviously someone's going to say there should be something on the website, but where on the site should it be? On the homepage or on one of the many subsections of the site? I'm just posing the questions in response to your question.

[Snowblock]

Yes a image appears showing every car in the set, and the car # and also the end (there's one PEI at each end of every car) will blink, and you speak through the PEI speaker. And if you are on a train equipped with cameras, a live feed will appear on the CBTC screen whenever the PEI or emergency brake gets activated.

[ttcsubwayfan]

Yes a image appears showing every car in the set, and the car # and also the end (there's one PEI at each end of every car) will blink, and you speak through the PEI speaker. And if you are on a train equipped with cameras, a live feed will appear on the CBTC screen whenever the PEI or emergency brake gets activated.

 

Off topic, but some trains have cameras now? How long ago was this implemented? This is news to me.