The City of Toronto and the TTC are asking for your opinions on their new video screens that are slowly being installed on subway station platforms. You can fill out the survey by clicking here.
While I think the screens should be on our platforms, there are some serious problems with the content:
• the time display has shrunk significantly from the previous Subway Online digital clocks. When I’m on a platform, the time is what I want to see more than anything.
• The best thing video consoles can provide riders with is information on arrival times of the next subway train or other TTC delays across the system. The new screens do not give arrival times, and only dedicate a small strip along the bottom of the monitor to TTC news and delays. GO sends email alerts to its riders who subscirbe to their schedule tracker service.
• While ads have sadly become a mainstay of TTC revenue, albeit a very small proportion (about 3.5 cents of every ride is subsidized by ads), the looped commercials take up over half the monitors, a signicant increase from the ticker-style ads that appeared on the Subway Online displays. The ad revenue from the screens will only save riders a tiny amount. According the Toronto Public Space Committee, you would have to ride the TTC 3,733 times to save a dollar from the amount of ad revenue that finds its way back into TTC coffers.
