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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

W. K. Lis said:
What if you are using your phone to talk with your doctor or bank. Do you tell them to wait as you have to look up the next departure time of the bus you want to use? What if you were on hold waiting for some customer service for the past 10 minutes and the recording tells you that you are #3 in line and please wait another 5 minutes.?
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Then you put your earbuds in, if you don't already have them in, while you switch to the other app. Most modern phones support keeping a phone call active while using another app, since maybe about 2008.
 
Megaton327 said:
Then you put your earbuds in, if you don't already have them in, while you switch to the other app. Most modern phones support keeping a phone call active while using another app, since maybe about 2008.
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While holding a backpack and shopping bag, with one hand holding the correspondence you're talking to the other side of the phone, as your kids start to wonder off.
 
TTC piloting two new accessibility features

August 9, 2023

As the TTC continues to work towards increasing accessibility for all customers, it has begun piloting two new technologies across the system.

The first, a subway-style, rear-door exit chime on new hybrid-electric buses, gives customers who experience low vision an audible cue that doors are about to close. The second pilot is the Contactless AccessTM elevator app at select subway stations, which allows customers to control elevators at certain stations, providing a quick, sanitary, and touch-free experience.

Beginning this month customers will hear a three-tone rear-door exit chime on select buses, similar to the chime heard on subways. This sound will be embedded in all New Flyer hybrid-electric buses, purchased as part of the TTC’s transition to a zero-emissions fleet.

The TTC has begun taking deliveries of 134 forty-foot, and 68 sixty-foot, New Flyer hybrid-electric buses, which will operate from the TTC’s Mount Dennis Division, serving customers in North York.

After testing the effectiveness and performance of the rear-door exit chime system, the TTC expects to make it a standard feature on all future new vehicles in its bus fleet.

The Contactless Access™ elevator app pilot project allows customers to use their smartphone to control elevators, providing a touch-free experience, especially for customers with disabilities, seniors, and those who may be carrying large objects or pushing strollers.

Stations included in the pilot project are Finch, Kennedy, Kipling, Union and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre stations. Customers will need to download the free Contactless Access™ app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, either before getting to the station, or by using the TCONNECT Wi-Fi network, available at all subway stations. They can also scan the QR code posted at any of the elevators included in the pilot.

The app uses Bluetooth Low Energy technology to allow wireless control of elevator buttons from up to 10 feet away, and does not require customers to be connected to WiFi or a data network to use the app. No personal data will be collected or stored by the app. Use of the app is optional, and customers can also continue to use the existing buttons to control elevators included in this project.

The pilot will run until Sep. 30, 2023. Customers can provide feedback by completing a Suggestion Form in the Customer Service section on ttc.ca, by calling 416-393-3030 or emailing accessibility@ttc.ca.
 
drum118 said:
The first, a subway-style, rear-door exit chime on new hybrid-electric buses, gives customers who experience low vision an audible cue that doors are about to close.

Beginning this month customers will hear a three-tone rear-door exit chime on select buses, similar to the chime heard on subways. This sound will be embedded in all New Flyer hybrid-electric buses, purchased as part of the TTC’s transition to a zero-emissions fleet.

The TTC has begun taking deliveries of 134 forty-foot, and 68 sixty-foot, New Flyer hybrid-electric buses, which will operate from the TTC’s Mount Dennis Division, serving customers in North York.

After testing the effectiveness and performance of the rear-door exit chime system, the TTC expects to make it a standard feature on all future new vehicles in its bus fleet.
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It’s interesting to see that TTC management wants to teach passengers that subway doors function the same way as bus doors. Presumably they’ll also be installing LiDAR sensors used in the Flyers above subway doors so they’ll re-open if you obstruct them.

This is the kind of thing that makes the TTC unintuitive to use from the passenger perspective. When you play the chime for doors that re-open if obstructed, passengers will perceive that it is safe to obstruct doors that play the chime. That’s not an issue if it’s always safe to obstruct doors that play the chime, but I don’t think that’s currently the case.

Safety should be intuitive to passengers.
 
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EastYorkTTCFan said:
Personally when I'm at an unfamiliar transit stop i check my phone way before I start looking around for a sign mostly because I'm already using an app like city mapper or transit to give me directions to where I'm going to.
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The TTC is for everyone, not just you.

It's the height of selfishness to think that just because something works a certain way for you that it will work perfectly well for everyone else that same way.

My 80+ year old mother still uses transit regularly but lives a completely offline existence. She also deserves to know when the next bus is coming, be that by her watch and an accurate and up-to-date printed timetable at the bus stop, or via a screen. In this day and age of inexpensive display and communications technology however, I'd be surprised if a screen wasn't cheaper than dispatching labour to update every printed stop listing whenever timetables, routings, and detours are changed.
 
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W. K. Lis said:
While holding a backpack and shopping bag, with one hand holding the correspondence you're talking to the other side of the phone, as your kids start to wonder off.
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FFS, what if you have no hands, are blind and cannot hear? We are talking about the need for EVERYONE to have access to public screens that show when the next bus or streetcar is arriving. Don't keep creating straw-men and then demolishing them, it's getting VERY tiresome!
 
MovingBlock said:
That’s not an issue if it’s always safe to obstruct doors that play the chime
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I disagree.

It may not be a safety issue, but that kind of perception will lead to a whole generation of entitlement, who will think they have the right to block the doors whenever it is convenient for them.

The messaging should be if the chimes play, GTFO.

As far as the chimes go: I'm not against chimes sounding off before the doors close, but it should be a single tone chime, like on the Flexitys*. Anything else wastes too much time compared to the current system.

* If there is anyone from the TTC reading this, this does NOT mean I endorse having loud beeps before the doors open. It would be very nice if those were removed.
 
T3G said:
I disagree.

It may not be a safety issue, but that kind of perception will lead to a whole generation of entitlement, who will think they have the right to block the doors whenever it is convenient for them.
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It is a safety issue when there are inconsistencies in safety procedures between modes.

Today, there are some modes (e.g. streetcar and the rear door on the TTC’s Flyers) where doors will automatically reopen if you obstruct them. This means that passengers who primarily ride those vehicles may have the perception that it is safe to obstruct doors on all modes. If this results in them trying to obstruct doors on a mode where it is not very safe to do so (e.g. subway), you could get a safety incident where a passenger gets killed or seriously injured through no fault of their own.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
So what do you want me to say that I agree with you that we need to spend money that the TTC and city don't have on installing signs at every stop? I really don't care either way. I understand that not everyone has cell phones.
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I do live in hope that I could be that persuasive, but alas, I have no illusions that I can sway you. My comment wasn't meant to pile on, I just have a different opinion and know of others who are impacted and thought I'd share why I think the TTC is wrong.

Hold whatever opinions you wish, it's a free country. But when you decide to share them in public, you might be prepared that people could disagree.
 
MovingBlock said:
It’s interesting to see that TTC management wants to teach passengers that subway doors function the same way as bus doors. Presumably they’ll also be installing LiDAR sensors used in the Flyers above subway doors so they’ll re-open if you obstruct them.

This is the kind of thing that makes the TTC unintuitive to use from the passenger perspective. When you play the chime for doors that re-open if obstructed, passengers will perceive that it is safe to obstruct doors that play the chime. That’s not an issue if it’s always safe to obstruct doors that play the chime, but I don’t think that’s currently the case.

Safety should be intuitive to passengers.
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If any door (bus, streetcar, light rail, subway, whatever the Ontario Line trains are) is obstructed and opens, there should be an irritating sound at the door in question. Be it a buzzer, screech, or a human "OUCH!" Just to tell them "don't do that again".
 
Yeah I hate this debate of if we should even have next-time arrival displays at stops because everyone “apparently” has a phone, and everyone apparently has mobile data.

From that logic, we shouldn’t even include the bus route numbers on the bus stop, just let people scan a QR code instead!
 
H4F33Z said:
Yeah I hate this debate of if we should even have next-time arrival displays at stops because everyone “apparently” has a phone, and everyone apparently has mobile data.

From that logic, we shouldn’t even include the bus route numbers on the bus stop, just let people scan a QR code instead!
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Indeed! In fact, really no need for numbers (or even destinations) ON buses are required. If you are waiting on a street with only one route you want 'THE bus" and if a street has more than one route the TTCs ability to run all services on time would mean that if a bus arrived at 15.14 it must be the X bus to A as the Y one going to B would not arrive until 15.16. Ha!
 
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