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Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.
Riders of the TTC may have noticed a new kind of stop announcement on buses and streetcars over the last few months, and it's a welcome change. LED panels mounted to the ceiling behind the driver now display the upcoming stop, accompanied by an automatic, emotionless female voice (although not the calming lilt of TTC employee Susan Bigioni used in the subway system). We see a missed opportunity here—the TTC could have a tourist draw and instant geek-cred had they solicited Majel Barrett, voice of the U.S.S. Enterprise and wife of Gene Roddenberry, to record the voice.
Granted, the TTC had to be forced into using the automated stop system. In July, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the Commission discriminated against visually-impaired transit users by only announcing some stops or not using the public address system at all. Though a plan to install an automated announcement system had been in the works for more than a decade, the TTC mounted an undue hardship defence at the tribunal, claiming that driver-initiated announcements for all stops were too dangerous, but then boasted of drivers who already announce all stops.
The ruling fast-tracked the existing plan to automate announcements and display stops. On surface transit, the automation is done by GPS, whereas the subway operates by transponder. It works well, despite having to annoyingly flash back and forth when the text is too long for the screen. For example, when approaching Yonge Street on the King streetcar, the display reads KING SUBWAY on the first screen, and then flashes to a strangely truncated and unnecessary STN. Still, they're fantastic not only for the visually impaired and casual riders, but essential for tourists too.
Photo by Miles Storey.
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No, TTC did not advance an undue-hardship defence (i.e., that it would cost too much in money or “resources”). They argued (I’m paraphrasing) that announcements were generally unnecessary because blind people could ask for them and were dangerous because they distracted drivers. The Tribunal found that not only did TTC not advance evidence on the latter claim, they never even asked any drivers for their experiences. On the former claim, Lepofsky tendered his own evidence that requested announcements were sometimes skipped.
We still need somebody to start a screen-reader-accessible Wiki for mispronunciations and misspellings in the announcement system.
They're also handy for those of us who tend to fall asleep on public transit!
I don't think this is really one to be celebrating too much, as the statements were forced upon the TTC. They resisted them. I think this whole "Hero" and "Villain" thing is a little weird, Torontoist. Why couldn't you just stick with "Good" and "Bad"? Heroes and Villains are generally people [and occasionally aliens or fantastic monsters, with the odd computer or deity thrown in there] and usually we associate them with stories told to provide us with morals.
Also, damn it, random celebrity guest voices! Darth Vader. Hannibal Lecter. Cruella DeVille. Jessica Rabbit. Donald Duck. The Terminator.
C'mon.
Cheryl Bome was the other TTC employee used for recording the streetcar/bus announcements.
[I'm not sure how Bome's recitations are any more 'emotionless' than Bigioni's, but whatever]
I like the announcements and displays, but I don't understand why the TTC went for 1970s (1960s? 1950s) display technology with no revenue source whatsoever. In some European cities, buses have dual high-def LCD screens: one with the next 3 stops, the other with community announcements or (gasp!) ads - both of which could potentially be tailored to the actual location of the vehicle.
And there's a missed opportunity here to also include connecting routes as for example, Streetcars approach intersecting bus/streetcar routes - A run through the London Tube has all sorts of useful transfer information conveyed as stops approach . . .
On the topic of naming this "Heroes" and "Villains": "heroes" are technically only supposed to be men (the OED's primary meanings are "A name given [as in Homer] to men of superhuman strength, courage, or ability, favoured by the gods"; "A man distinguished by extraordinary valour and martial achievements"; "A man who exhibits extraordinary bravery, firmness, fortitude, or greatness of soul"; and "The man who forms the subject of an epic"). But, ya know, who cares?
I think it's easy to get the gist––"good" and "bad" are really general terms, "heroes" and "villains" are more specific, words that have to do with someone's (or, as we're getting away with, something's) actions. It seemed like a more fitting term to apply to stuff that's happened over the course of a year. All of the things we're praising or hating on have people behind them, so it's not like there's no human agency involved. Plus, we also get to name something a Superhero and Supervillain, which is way more fun than naming something Supergood and Superbad.
And that is a way-more-thorough-than-necessary explanation of why this magnificent end-of-year feature is called "Heroes and Villains."
I find the mix of upper and lowercase letters in the signs really fascinating. Unfortunately as I've mentioned here in the past, it seems as often as not that the sign and voice aren't working on the buses. Particularly out of Pape Station. They should be announcing connecting routes too, but that wouldn't take much to correct.
Villains: Lazy TTC employees
Not all buses and streetcars have these systems set up, and among those that don't, I find more often than not the bus drivers refuse to call out stop names (which they are now required to do). And in the rare occurrence that they do, it is often a mumble that is barely audible 5 feet away.
The ttc should make sure those lazy drivers get the routes with the automated system and leave the decent drivers for the routes where they are needed more.
Or better yet: don't let your employees be such lazy bastards!
I find it irritating that the TTC is now making disingenuous announcements in the subway system how they are improving customer service by introducing automated stop announcements, when in fact they were forced to do this by the OHRT.
I agree too with cbqtn above that the LED displays they have opted to use are very ancient technology. Displays such as this one http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/DFI_Dobritz.jpg allow much better readability.
On the other hand, I was on a College streetcar the other day that was making its way down to King, and the sign correctly displayed all of the stops along this somewhat random route along College, down Ossington, along Dundas and then down Bathurst, presumably based on the GPS signals it was receiving. Cool!