It is recognized by almost all that the TTC website is badly due for a redesign, and supposedly this will finally take place next year, perhaps bringing the site into the new millennium. However, there are two recent additions that are worth mentioning.
Service advisories and updates
At the top of the page, a new service advisories link has been added, a one-stop page for all service issues, from current delays in the subway, to long-term construction projects. Most of this information (apart from the live current delays) was already on the website, but hard to find. The escalator and elevator page is still not very useful – it only shows planned maintenance, and not current elevator outages, a crucial piece of information for disabled riders, and the “expected completion and/or start date” for escalator outages are still vague – a cynic might suggest adding the year as well as month. While the live subway service updates are potentially very useful, like the GO Transit service updates, are so far somewhat inconsistent (only some delays have been mentioned) and sometimes untimely (displaying information about delays that have already happened).
This addition is a step in the right direction, but still much needs to be done to add useful features to the TTC site, such as a useful trip planner (something that Brampton Transit even got around to implementing earlier this month).
TTC Surveys
One other new link I found was for “TTC Surveys” for cellphone service in TTC stations and on the One Stop advertising screens. The small link was on the lower right of the home page.
Cellphones in the TTC?
The first asks riders about cellphones on transit. The first series of questions asks about cellphone ownership and use on the TTC. The second series of questions appears to hint at the TTC having a company put cellphone transmitters into stations and asks respondents’ their thoughts on this. Amongst the questions: “If the TTC made it possible for its customers to use their cell phone reliability anywhere on TTC property or in a TTC vehicle, would you be (strongly opposed, somewhat opposed, indifferent, somewhat in favour, strongly in favour of cellphones) to having this service on the TTC?”
While I have a cellphone, and use it on the TTC occasionally, (part of my daily commute is in a surface part of the subway) I feel rather strongly against opening up the entire subway to allowing cellphones. I find it a quiet refuge compared to on the bus, where one of my few pet peeves are people who forget to use indoor voices when making a call. In addition, the survey asks whether respondants are in favour or not of offering cellphone service for customers of one company, or having an additional levy for calls in the TTC to pay for coverage, something that I think most should be against if the TTC (or OneStop) was to go ahead and add cellphone service in the subway.
Give out valuable marketing data and you could win a Metropass!
The second of the two studies asks simple questions about the One Stop advertising screens, with very simplistic yes/no questions like “do the screens enhance your TTC experience”, and what ads and features you recall seeing. The survey goes on to ask about gender, age, marital status, occupation and household income, questions that would be of interest to advertisers (especially as it also collects data on what stations passengers enter and leave the subway), but you can win a Metropass if you give them your name and email! Even given One Stop’s apparent eagerness, many stations are still with the old, outdated and now mostly non-functioning Metron ad tickers, where even the “cuddly Husky pups” (the last paid ad was for a breeding and kennel service out by the airport) scrolls have finally disappeared.
(Finally, one question that should have been asked is whether anyone pays attention to the unfunny and pointless Dudson cartoons, but I shouldn’t give One Stop too many ideas on what to ask in a survey).
Photo by SirCharlie.
16 comments
The Metron ad tickers may have been old, but at least they had a clock that you could read if you were more than ten feet away from it. The only useful thing in the damn One Stop screens is the clock, except even that is useless if you’re not right next to the screen. Ditto for the tiny “service advisory” line (if it ever gives service advisories).
One would think the powers that be at the TTC would have ensured by now that the Metrons right under their noses in the Davisville Station would have already been replaced.
A few comments:
1. Cell phone service has been available on Berlin subway trains for a decade and I have never found in the 7.5 years of living there that people talking in subway cars was at all disruptive. Service should be available system-wide, including subway cars, so as not to disadvantage transit users who may need to coordinate pickups/change of plans etc. Alternately, a Japanese model of “quiet cars” could be followed, where the use of cell phones is not allowed.
2. I have tried a couple of times to get One Stop to display (say every minute for a couple of seconds) a large analog clock face in the main space on the left of the screen. Two things are important about an analog display versus digital. One, it is a LOT easier to read from a distance, and two, the position of the hands on the display also allow one easily to ascertain what time it is NOT (these are not my own thoughts but rather based on years of graphical design research).
3. I am not sure why we have to wait until 2009 to get a transit planner for the TTC. The software system that the 393-INFO line operators currently use to provide trip info and that the TTC uses to schedule its own operations is from a company called Trapeze Software. They can provide a ready-to-use web interface for trip planning (I was trying to get the TTC to develop merchandise in 2002 to fund the web-based portion of the trip-planner, and had enquired with Trapeze as to feasibility. That went nowhere: see http://spacing.ca/archives/29/).
I saw the kennel ad two days ago, albeit on a screen where only 2/3 of the display was working.
Steve
I am not opposed to cell phones on the subway, but the TTC should not be paying for this. The cell phone companies should be paying for the entire cost of installation and operation of the equipment. Furthermore, the cell phone companies should also be paying the TTC fees or royalties for having their equipment on TTC property.
If there is no business case for a private company to provide the luxury of cell phone service on the subway, then this project should not proceed. There are many more important places for the TTC to spend money.
Dudson TV falls into Susan Sontag’s “so bad it’s good” territory.
It’s another one of the TTC’s star icons of lameness, right up there with the “this bus driver is a hero because he called transit control” ads, and the logic puzzles (“HOROBOD”).
People use cell phones to kill time. On buses it is mostly mindless blather. I am against cell phones in the subway for that reason. If there was a 1 dollar surcharge I would be for it as it would decrease the “what are you doing, oh nothing, where are you, I’m here” conversations.
And I do find the time hard to read on the new screens so for that I never look at them.
I took the surveys. The second one about one stop really is more about getting info for advertisers. I found the occupation listing a bit odd….the categories seemed to leave out many people including myself …there was not one that applied to me.
“Is Dudson supposed to be funny?” is one of the great eternal mysteries of the universe.
I know this is kind of off-topic, but does anybody know when the cameras are supposed to be in place on the subway? I think this is an awful idea and I think it would be easier to fight if we had some kind of timeline.
I like cameras in subways.
I love how the listing of stations is missing Don Mills.
You would think the ones at davisville would at least have correct time.I wish they would add analogue clocks with hands and stuff so people can read them in places.
I know there’s probably going to be more annoyances coming with the cell phone usage on subways, but it’s also a very valuable and useful thing to have especially for planning events, trying to meet up with people, last minute changes to schedules, etc. It’s not always people “mindlessly blathering”, granted I bet the majority of the time, it would be.
In the end, I think the “quiet refuge” thing is a bit lame, sorry Sean. If cell phone usage can introduce some convenience and ease into peoples’ lives, why not do it?
Here’s a fun factoid from the Urban Decoder in Toronto Life (November 2007). The company who runs the old black and red ticker-advertisement-clocks is Versa Digital. They also maintain the signs – and apparently they have to go to each one individually in person.
“In exchange, Versa is allowed to display its own messages on the signs. Here’s where it gets weird: it turns out that the people behind Versa also own the boarding kennel company. They’re using the advertising space on subway platforms to push their won, ahem, pet project — and that’s why Canada’s biggest transit system seems so fixated on puppies.”
A reasonable compromise would be to allow text messaging and data transfer only, not voice.