When I was living in Milan, many of the bus stops had electronic signs showing the eta of the next 2-3 buses. It was fantastic, because you could figure out right away whether you needed to just get a cab or walk instead. Or, you know, if there was a 20 minute wait (which was exceedingly rare), you could go into the bar and get an espresso without worrying that you were going to miss the one bus that came by.

I actually found it most useful to figure out whether it was worth waiting for the *second* bus. Often, the first bus to come by would be packed to the gills, but there’d often be a second bus only one or two minutes behind that was half empty – but you wouldn’t know that there was any second bus without the signs.

The reason why the sign looks like it’s in Klingon is because of the mismatch between the refresh rates of the camera and the sign.

There was already one of these at Water St & Hanover Sq, in the financial district. Doesn’t do much, though.

Amazing that we’re finally catching up with late 20th C technology… Kudos to the current DOT/MTA for stepping up to the plate!

Google pulled up this informative set of pages:

http://www.siemensvdo.com/products_solutions/public-transport-solutions/news/news05/20050905.htm

It says that eventually the system can be accessed on buses and on cell phones. Pretty cool.

In 1991 I made my first trip to London.

There I saw similar signs in all Tube stations and at major bus stops telling you exactly when the next train or bus was arriving.

So here we are, SIXTEEN years later and our MTA has just discovered this. How incredibly pathetic.

My cat could do a better job of running the MTA and she died almost eight years ago!

I was at that stop a couple times this week. Once it told me the bus was 4 minutes away — which it was. The other time, I hailed a cab because instead of a time it say, “Service is temporarily delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

I my cab right up from there to 91st, I didn’t see a single bus. So yeah — I’d say the sign is working okay for now. I want more of them!

(So here we are, SIXTEEN years later and our MTA has just discovered this. How incredibly pathetic.)

The MTA has been trying to implement this for buses for that long. Contractors have failed because they were unable to get their GPS systems to work between the tall buildings of Manhattan. A recent contractor was defaulted, and the MTA got its money back. The MTA could have just implemented an existing system in the outer boroughs, but it wanted one system that worked. I know this because I used to work there, but it was also in the newspapers at the time the more recent contractor defaulted.

Similarly, the MTA could have used existing technology and identified when trains were coming using track signals. But track signals can’t tell if that 6th Avenue express is a B going to the Brighton Line or a D going to the West End. Most systems don’t have routes that merge and diverge. The MTA wanted to be able to identify how far away a train was on each route.

Spending billions twice, once with the easy tech and replacing it with more complicated stuff later? Not under federal rules, which require infrastrucutre funded in part by federal money to remain in place some number of years.

It isn’t that easy. But it would be cheaper if the entire system could be closed overnight for maintenance, and if entire lines were shut down long term for construction projects, as in London. My daughter was just their and complained about this, but it sure is cheaper.

Just hope the pilot project works this time.

One of these signs has been at Lenox and 116th since the middle of july. anyone ever go uptown?

Also, I know the display signs in LA are starting to fail because the hardwired telephone system that fails them is being poorly maintained. They will be switching to cellular based system. So, don’t go thinking NYC is that far behind.