(1) On Tuesday February 24th, a new era rolled onto the tracks on New York City's subway. The L train, from Brooklyn to Manhattan, was the first to have its trains running automatically. The computer-driven trains will still have someone to monitor the train's operation, as well as a conductor (if only the transit union didn't win in their court battle against the MTA a few years back when the MTA tried to go conductor-less on the G train.) Right now, the trains will run with this technology during the morning rush hour as well as during off-peak hours. The technology, developed in-house from their Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC)
and new signaling technology.
(2) Secondly, I just wanted to point out that there exists a better New York City subway map. KICK Design came out with KICKMap, a revitalized version of NYC's subway map. It shows each line as its own separate entity, with stops (day, night, etc.) and transfers with symbols at each station. These two features allow for a more coherent distinction between which and when trains stop at which stations, instead of the MTA's current map, which often throws all of the information at you in one block. Its "combination of both diagrammatic and topographic features," make it just so much more easy to read. As my own encounter with a mother and daughter from London (October '08?) showed, tourists often have a hard time attempting to understand the map. (Admittedly, sometimes I do too, especially for lesser-traveled lines.) Unfortunately, the MTA decided against adopting this design, even ridiculing it, when its creators presented it to the agency.
Published Post Number:112/118
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Inspect away Congestion! The city should toughen inspections for medical, psychiatric and vehicle reasons to cut down the number of congestion. This way, we will also get the voters against congestion pricing, who live in Bayside and Staten Island, to move away.
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