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TTC's Fancy New Technologies Thread

2

299 bloor call control.

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TTC's $9.9M system to update riders on bus arrivals

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | 2:05 PM ET

The Canadian Press


The Toronto Transit Commission's board has given its approval for Grey Island Systems International Inc. to develop a system that gives travellers constantly updated information on the arrival times of their TTC rides.
Grey Island says its Next Vehicle Arrival System, or NextBus, will use GPS satellite technology, the internet, interactive signs and cellphones or other wireless devices to inform the public of when vehicles will arrive at a stop.
The total value of the TTC contracts is estimated at $9.9 million, Grey Island said in its announcement Tuesday.
The TTC operates the third-most heavily used transit system in the United States and Canada.
The NextBus system will be installed to work with existing automated vehicle location tracking systems used by TTC personnel.
It's envisaged to collect information in a central server, analyze vehicle arrival times at various stops and relay the information to the public.
 
This is very exciting. The possibility for data collection are fantastic, allowing a proper assessment of on-time performance and of where delays occur most frequently on the system. This should help the TTC focus where improvements should be made. The ability of travellers to make an educated decision will be great as well, allowing us to minimize the time that we waste waiting.

If we get bus countdown timers for our stops, may I suggest that the TTC look at the design used in Salzberg. Photo. By limiting the electronic display to a cheap seven-segment LED (as opposed to a full dot-matrix LED sign, such as is used in London), with the rest of the post being permanent, there are fewer parts that could potentially break.
 
This is really great.
Mississauga Transit is also supposed to be getting this, which is why they did a test using GPS on route 19 a couple years back, but nothing has happened so far.
 
TTC??

Fancy??

Technology??

21st Century??


They just do not go together...
 
CDL.TO said:
If we get bus countdown timers for our stops, may I suggest that the TTC look at the design used in Salzberg. Photo. By limiting the electronic display to a cheap seven-segment LED (as opposed to a full dot-matrix LED sign, such as is used in London), with the rest of the post being permanent, there are fewer parts that could potentially break.
Click to expand...

Naw. They won't go with something simple like that. They'll go with the full LED treatment so that they can also show dumb safety or courtesy messages ("make the TTC the kinder way...') or PR campaigns ("TTC employees are heroes...") So much so, you'll wait two minutes between actual countdowns.

And that's if they don't have ads.
 
LIVE UPDATES PLANNED FOR TTC BUS SHELTERS


JEFF GRAY
September 3, 2008

TTC riders - now accustomed to staring down the streetcar tracks and looking in vain for a sign of the next vehicle - should soon find themselves with constantly updated information at their fingertips about how long their wait at a transit shelter will be.
A $9.9-million plan to use global positioning satellite data to relay real-time bus and streetcar information - via electronic signs and eventually directly to BlackBerrys or cellphones - was approved last week by the nine city councillors that oversee the Toronto Transit Commission.
TTC chairman Adam Giambrone said the system will roll out later this year, along with a related system to provide information on subway platforms about when trains and buses are to arrive, all in the name of making the wait less onerous.
"It makes it easier when it is minus 35 and you know you have time to buy a coffee at the Tim Hortons," Mr. Giambrone said.
 
Pretty soon, something like this will be a familiar sight:


*************************************************
WED SEPT 03 20:16


501 Long Branch..........DUE
501 Long Branch..........39 min
501 Humber................41 min
501 Long Branch..........43 min
501 SHORT TURN.........44 min

NEED A BOARDING KENNEL? CALL (416) 493-INFO

*************************************************
 
Adam Giambrone was just on CBC Radio One, next train countdowns on the subway will be pilot tested in the next couple months and then fully rolled out across the OneStop screens in November.
 
299 bloor call control. said:
Adam Giambrone was just on CBC Radio One, next train countdowns on the subway will be pilot tested in the next couple months and then fully rolled out across the OneStop screens in November.
Click to expand...
Is anyone else thinking that we really don't need this on a system where the max subway headways are five minutes? It just seems like a waste of money to me.
 
Panzerfaust said:
Is anyone else thinking that we really don't need this on a system where the max subway headways are five minutes? It just seems like a waste of money to me.
Click to expand...

Definitely. I see no real purpose for this on the subway. It's not like they can go out and get a coffee, because they'd have to pay again to get in.
 
I think I'd go crazy if the countdown said the next train was due in 3 minutes but the train itself got stopped at the previous station for whatever reason, forcing the countdown clock to stay stuck at 2 minutes for 10 minutes.
 
Panzerfaust said:
Is anyone else thinking that we really don't need this on a system where the max subway headways are five minutes? It just seems like a waste of money to me.
Click to expand...

No, I disagree. They have it on the Paris Metro and I found it incredibly usefull, and I think it would be even more useful here because unlike in Paris, we actually have retail in our stations. 5 minutes? Cinnebon time! ;)
 
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