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The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and R o u n d d d
Though we’re in the midst of a very un-February-like heat wave, the smart money is on a few more weeks of snow and pain. And when that snow strikes, you may notice the return of a familiar TTC glitch: our beloved automated stop announcements will, along with the rest of us, give up the will to live. Gibberish will flash across LED screens, and the comforting, measured voice of Cheryl Bome will no longer mark the passage of streets and stops.
Astute observers will notice, however, that the dispirited LEDs are found specifically on buses. What’s with the favouritism? As explained by TTC signage sensei Joe Clark, though the next stop announcements are intended to run off GPS trackers, the system isn’t yet operational for all surface vehicles. In the meantime, the position of many buses is “calculated by counting wheel rotations (!) and relaying the data to a network of transmitters in most parts of the city.” Much snow leads to spinning wheels, and spinning wheels lead to a befuddled stop announcement system.
We were unable to get the TTC to tell us precisely when the conversion to a GPS-run system will be complete and thus cannot say how long this particular malfunction will be with us. We’re inclined to think that the frustration it causes, however, is compensated for by the adorableness of the explanation.