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Discomfort built into TTC redesign
Jacob Richler
National Post
Friday, June 16, 2006
Something strange happened to me last week. Two things actually. For starters, I rode the subway three times -- and two of those trips involved a return excursion to Davisville station. And that is where things got really odd, for I was there to hang out a little in the new TTC subway car that is on display there weekday afternoons until Tuesday on the secondary south-bound platform. And the procession of people dropping by to visit the thing is astonishing.
''Wicked!'' one guy said, when walking through the door his eye first alighted on the new backlit subway route map, which now uses LED lights to highlight station locations, and indicates the present location of the train for the benefit of passengers with acute short-term memory loss.
''That's so cool! It lights up!'' exclaimed the next guy who walked in, joining the crowd gathering around this new technical wonder.
''Check this out!'' his friend called to him from a few feet away down the car, pointing at an electronic display mounted overhead. ''It shows the name of the station! And the side the doors open!''
And yes folks -- it's really true. The new model TTC subway car that is due to be deployed for service on the Yonge-University-Spadina line sometime in 2009 does actually come equipped with an overhead display that indicates the name of the station for people who need a change of pace from looking out the window to read the old sign printed there. And it also has digitized arrows that point to the car's open doors to confirm for suspicious passengers that they really are open.
''Woah!'' said another fellow with his back to me, testing out the new backlit handicapped door access button. ''Whoa!''
Badly unsettled by all of this, I made a break for it, out through the far doors, where I narrowly missed being winged by a flying fingernail trimming, because a tall man with golf shirt tucked deep into his high-riding shorts who I had noticed earlier as he toured the new train had decided upon exiting that the platform just beyond its doors was a good place to stop and clip his fingernails.
''Public transit is ultimately about the public realm,'' city councillor Adam Giambrone, the well-spoken TTC vice-chair, said to me later whilst explaining the apparently substantial interest in the modestly redesigned new subway car. ''Some people spend an hour on it every day.''
I suppose that's so. And being a merely occasional user, my perspective is no doubt different. But on my tense and time-consuming ride back home from Davisville to the Spadina stop, a few questions came to mind.
1. Why on earth is it called The Rocket?
2. Why do Torontonians gather around the subway car exit in a huddle as suffocating as the old New Jersey Devils defence corps? Is it so hard to grasp that you will actually get on the car more quickly if you actually let those trying to disembark from the train step on to the platform unobstructed?
3. Why do train platforms like the one at Spadina, which stretches for 500-odd metres and has a capacity for hundreds for people, only provide bench seating for four?
4. And what's with all the nearly naked plump girls in the Dove billboards? And would any of them be smiling like that and feeling so pleased with themselves if they had ever tried to shoehorn one of those juicy bottoms into a seat on the TTC subway?
Well, no. And unfortunately the new TTC car as displayed at Davisville does not provide improved seating for people of slightly generous dimensions. For the new seat is still just 38 centimetres wide. Which is to say that while the new TTC car boasts innumerable new safety features -- from intercom systems to exit ramps, and pole design to microbe-resistant coatings -- the designers have not bothered to concern themselves with the fate of innocent thin people under attack from fat people attempting to settle into the half of a TTC seat for two. But what can you do -- that's public transit, just ride it standing up.
Discomfort built into TTC redesign
Jacob Richler
National Post
Friday, June 16, 2006
Something strange happened to me last week. Two things actually. For starters, I rode the subway three times -- and two of those trips involved a return excursion to Davisville station. And that is where things got really odd, for I was there to hang out a little in the new TTC subway car that is on display there weekday afternoons until Tuesday on the secondary south-bound platform. And the procession of people dropping by to visit the thing is astonishing.
''Wicked!'' one guy said, when walking through the door his eye first alighted on the new backlit subway route map, which now uses LED lights to highlight station locations, and indicates the present location of the train for the benefit of passengers with acute short-term memory loss.
''That's so cool! It lights up!'' exclaimed the next guy who walked in, joining the crowd gathering around this new technical wonder.
''Check this out!'' his friend called to him from a few feet away down the car, pointing at an electronic display mounted overhead. ''It shows the name of the station! And the side the doors open!''
And yes folks -- it's really true. The new model TTC subway car that is due to be deployed for service on the Yonge-University-Spadina line sometime in 2009 does actually come equipped with an overhead display that indicates the name of the station for people who need a change of pace from looking out the window to read the old sign printed there. And it also has digitized arrows that point to the car's open doors to confirm for suspicious passengers that they really are open.
''Woah!'' said another fellow with his back to me, testing out the new backlit handicapped door access button. ''Whoa!''
Badly unsettled by all of this, I made a break for it, out through the far doors, where I narrowly missed being winged by a flying fingernail trimming, because a tall man with golf shirt tucked deep into his high-riding shorts who I had noticed earlier as he toured the new train had decided upon exiting that the platform just beyond its doors was a good place to stop and clip his fingernails.
''Public transit is ultimately about the public realm,'' city councillor Adam Giambrone, the well-spoken TTC vice-chair, said to me later whilst explaining the apparently substantial interest in the modestly redesigned new subway car. ''Some people spend an hour on it every day.''
I suppose that's so. And being a merely occasional user, my perspective is no doubt different. But on my tense and time-consuming ride back home from Davisville to the Spadina stop, a few questions came to mind.
1. Why on earth is it called The Rocket?
2. Why do Torontonians gather around the subway car exit in a huddle as suffocating as the old New Jersey Devils defence corps? Is it so hard to grasp that you will actually get on the car more quickly if you actually let those trying to disembark from the train step on to the platform unobstructed?
3. Why do train platforms like the one at Spadina, which stretches for 500-odd metres and has a capacity for hundreds for people, only provide bench seating for four?
4. And what's with all the nearly naked plump girls in the Dove billboards? And would any of them be smiling like that and feeling so pleased with themselves if they had ever tried to shoehorn one of those juicy bottoms into a seat on the TTC subway?
Well, no. And unfortunately the new TTC car as displayed at Davisville does not provide improved seating for people of slightly generous dimensions. For the new seat is still just 38 centimetres wide. Which is to say that while the new TTC car boasts innumerable new safety features -- from intercom systems to exit ramps, and pole design to microbe-resistant coatings -- the designers have not bothered to concern themselves with the fate of innocent thin people under attack from fat people attempting to settle into the half of a TTC seat for two. But what can you do -- that's public transit, just ride it standing up.