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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

Amare said:
Im curious to know what others think about the new seating arrangements on the Nova (40 footers). Are any of you fans of facing the rear of the bus, not knowing where you're going?
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I wouldn't say I'm a fan of it but I don't mind it really. I don't have a problem with it on the new streetcars and when I took the UP Express during one of the pre-service I was one of the few people who didn't suddenly realize they were facing the 'wrong' way when the train started moving.

I've also been on a few planes that had rear-facing seats, such as the Hawker-Siddeley Trident and the BAC One-Eleven, which is supposed to be a safer configuration, but it does feel a bit weird to be leaning forward on takeoff.
 
One thing I wish was done better is that I wish buses parked in the bus bays at subway stations had a time limit.

For example, you're transferring from a subway to bus at Eglinton or Finch, sometimes the bus stays in the bay for 5-10 minutes, gets more and more packed over time, and you have no idea when the driver will return and start driving.

If there are multiple buses, you don't know which one will leave first. If you knew that the bus won't leave for 10 min you could walk instead or choose another bus.
 
They wait until the scheduled departure, it's no mystery when that is if you check the schedule. It's to prevent schedule inconsistencies from building up over the day.
 
P23 said:
They wait until the scheduled departure, it's no mystery when that is if you check the schedule. It's to prevent schedule inconsistencies from building up over the day.
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That's not necessarily true.
For example, I've seen piles and piles of people build up for the airport bus, and then two will arrive, unload and pick up at the same time, but you never quite know which one is leaving first.
 
the lemur said:
I wouldn't say I'm a fan of it but I don't mind it really. I don't have a problem with it on the new streetcars and when I took the UP Express during one of the pre-service I was one of the few people who didn't suddenly realize they were facing the 'wrong' way when the train started moving.
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With buses, rear seating is a little trickier though. They (obviously) stop much more frequently and have a tendency to be at crush-load more often. I think back-facing seats at the rear will make it tougher for people to exit the bus, especially when its coming to a stop. The end result in my opinion will be longer dwell times at stops.
 
kotsy said:
I find this really depressing. Damn you, TTC :(
http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/1420754/say-goodbye-to-human-voices-on-the-ttc/
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Some of the robot voice's pronunciations are unnatural ... "DuPont", "Dum-ass", and "Lawrence!", which sounds like a parent chastising a naughty child, come to mind. Perhaps someone can tweak the pronunciations to make the robot sound more natural. Wait until it has to speak all those street names with odd pronunciations... how will it cope with those? At least the street names are reasonably good in the recordings.
 
I really think the change to synthesized voices is a mistake and I wish the TTC would reconsider. One, it's a branding problem. The voice speaking the stops is the voice of the TTC for many people, and now it's a faceless robot. This change also shows just how little thought they give to accessibility. The recordings were much easier to understand, especially with background noise. Do you think the TTC ever did any A/B testing between the old and new announcements? Did they even run this change past an accessibility expert? I'd honestly like to know.

It's things like this that make riders feel that the TTC doesn't respect them. Sure, it would take a bit more time and money to maintain proper human announcements for every stop, but good stop announcements aren't a frill. They're an essential part of the riding experience, especially for those with accessibility needs.
 
smably said:
I really think the change to synthesized voices is a mistake and I wish the TTC would reconsider. One, it's a branding problem. The voice speaking the stops is the voice of the TTC for many people, and now it's a faceless robot. This change also shows just how little thought they give to accessibility. The recordings were much easier to understand, especially with background noise. Do you think the TTC ever did any A/B testing between the old and new announcements? Did they even run this change past an accessibility expert? I'd honestly like to know.

It's things like this that make riders feel that the TTC doesn't respect them. Sure, it would take a bit more time and money to maintain proper human announcements for every stop, but good stop announcements aren't a frill. They're an essential part of the riding experience, especially for those with accessibility needs.
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Oakville Transit is in the process of rolling out stop announcements and they have been recorded by a human voice, I think it's actually Tish Iceton of 98.1 CHFI, who also does a lot of voice work and commercials. A real voice can do much better with street names than someone trying to do phonetic spelling for a robot voice.
 
I expressed my displeasure to Brad Ross on twitter. He said all big systems have made the switch to which I replied that it's simply untrue and that New York and London are all professional done, save for some New York lines that are still done live. Does anyone know of any other city's announcements that aren't computer generated?
 
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