MTA Technology

The MTA has soft-launched a newly revamped mobile site optimized for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users (but fully functional for those with other smart phones). Available at http://onthego.mta.info/, the new On-the-Go site streamlines the MTA’s previously unwieldy mobile site and offers schedules, point-to-point directions and a plethora of real-time information.

For now, the site remains a work in progress. It’s still in beta, MTA officials told me, and thus users might find some bugs and design aspects that need upgrading. Additionally, while the webapp requires an active data connection, the authority may begin to explore off-line features as well. “Directions cannot be offered off line using our Trip Planner platform because the algorithm is based on the server and the number of possible trips is infinite,” Sohaib Mallick, Senior Director of Information & Technology Services at Transit, told me. “Other items might have off-line potential. We will have them in future phases.”

This week, I took the On The Go site for a spin using an iTouch. Let’s take a tour. From the homepage, pictured above, users can choose one of nine options. We’ll start with the map, and it urges us to start with a borough. I went with Brooklyn.

After the map, the app offers the now-ubiquitous service status page. Users can opt for the subways and buses, the LIRR or Metro-North, and the display appears as it does on the MTA’s full-browser site and in the authority’s new information boards.

The Stops and Schedules feature comes equipped with MTA timetables and, if you allow it to do so, uses Apple’s GPS technology to identify the nearest stations. I went with Grand Army Plaza and discovered some strange late-night headways on the 2 and the 4 through Brooklyn.

The information from the 34th St. bus tracking pilot. During the day, when more buses are running, the results are populated as the website is. Overnight, few vehicles are making the rounds up and down 34th St.

The design bugs I encountered cropped up in the pages giving directions and service advisories. The text didn’t wrap to the size of the iPhone screen, and I had to scroll to the right to see the full advisory.

The MTA’s elevator outage information is also on hand.

Finally, another GPS-related feature rears its head. The webapp will automatically locate the nearest MetroCard vendor if you allow it to access your phone’s location. Considering that these vendors won’t be levying the $1 surcharge on new MetroCards come 2011, this feature might just become more handy in two months. I never knew so many businesses near me sold MetroCards.

Mallick, the lead developer on this project, told me that Transit wanted to include as many features with “service information” as possible, and as long as the user has a cell signal, the MTA’s reams of transit travel data are now literally at everyone’s fingertips. It won’t work underground though so the app is best used as a pre-travel planning tool. As the MTA moves forward with its embrace of technology, expect to see more mobile-oriented offerings. This is a true customer service initiative.

The MTA, via its official YouTube channel, posted the above video this afternoon. As the countdown clock rollout along the A Division nears its mid-2011 completion, the authority has installed nearly 100 clocks since October 2009. Considering how long it took to get the PA/CIS pilot from the L train to the IRT line, the rate of installation has increased markedly recently.

I’ve always been a big supporter of the countdown clocks because they eliminate a source of frustration. Instead of peering endlessly into dark tunnels while checking our watches every five minutes, straphangers waiting for their trains can rest peacefully knowing that the clock is accurate and that the train will soon be arriving. It takes the surprise of waiting, and it eliminates the fear of a delayed commute. It’s more comforting to know that you’re going to be on time. While staring into a tunnel is a time-honored New York City subway tradition, it’s one we’re not going to miss.

The video isn’t anything spectacular. Mostly, it tells us what we already know. But I appreciate the time-lapse photography of a work crew setting up a new countdown clock. Hopefully, technological innovation underground will continue for the foreseeable future.

Transit's new SAID sign on display at the Atlantic Ave. station. (Photo courtesy of MTA)

As I walked through the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. subway stop yesterday, I came across a variety of Transit workers tinkering with technology. On the mezzanine above the BMT platform on 4th Ave., two men with a computer were fiddling with the electronic information sign while the familiar voice of Transit’s train-information PA recording filtered through the loud speaker. It seemed as though Transit was prepping the B Division countdown system for wider system adaptation.

Today, the MTA confirmed that this innovation as well as a few others are coming to the system as CEO and Chair Jay Walder works to increase both the MTA’s willingness to share information with customers and bring badly-needed innovation underground. While the B Division countdown timer system is now in place between 207th St. and Columbus Circle with a rollout along Eighth Avenue down to 23rd St., the Atlantic St./Pacific St. stop will serve as the model station for the MTA with new technology in place for both the IRT and BMT parts of the station.

Although the A Division stations now feature to-the-minute countdown timers that rely on a new (and expensive) PA/CIS set-up, the B Division system leverages preexisting technology to bring information that international subways have brought to customers for years. This system uses the track circuits to follow the progress of trains. These circuits can detect the train and trigger a message displayed or broadcasted in the stations ahead. Unfortunately, for train routes that share tracks, the system can only tell if an express or local train is coming and cannot identify whether, say, a D or N will be next to arrive at Pacific St.

On 4th Ave. and Pacific St., the SAID sign simply resembles any outdoor video ad. (Photo courtesy of MTA)

The SAID sign seen above is another example of the MTA’s latest customer outreach initiative. The Station Advisory Information Display boards are now online in Grand Central and at the 4th Ave. entrance at Atlantic/Pacific. Installed in the fare-control area, these signs inform potential straphangers of any delays before one must pay their fare. “The installation of the SAID signs will test NYC Transit’s ability to successfully transmit real-time subway service information, as reported on the “Current Service Status” portion of the MTA website, to large LCD screens located in station areas outside of the turnstiles,” the agency said in a release.

As the photo shows, the screen will feature a split with the line groupings and train service status on the right and specific changes on the left. If any lines show “Service Change,” “Delay” or “Planned Work,” the explanation and alternative routing will be provided on the other side. “We want riders to see something electronic before you get into the station so you know what’s going on before you pay your fare,” Walder, whose one-year anniversary at the MTA is today, said to reporters yesterday. “It could be a game-changing event. I’m envisioning a screen that will be out there and can lay all of this information out. We can put the information in the coffee shop on the corner and other places located near the bus stop. What we’re trying to do is give information that allows people to relax. It gives riders a sense of control that they know what’s going on.”

For the MTA, times are tough. Their finances are a mess, and the authority has come under attack — sometimes rightly, sometimes not — from politicians of all stripes. Yet, the authority, not know for its customer service outreach or technology initiatives, has been making an effort to bring more information to the public and keeping riders better informed.

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Postscript: The authority has also debuted a prototype of their Help-Point Intercom system at the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. station complex. It’s only on display to show how these will appear on the platforms at stations come 2011. Check out a quick photo right here.

After the jump, a view of the SAID sign as it appears in the fare-control area at the 4th Ave. entrance to the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. station.

Earlier this month, The Post highlighted the mixed results for the MTA’s attempts at bringing automatic train operation to the L line. Various glitches and a higher-than-expected failure yet has plagued the three-year effort to bring this technology — a part of a communications-based train control suite — to the New York City subways, and this weekend, the news got worse. According to the Daily News, Transit had to temporarily suspend the ATO program to fix a handful of glitches with the system.

According to Pete Donohue, a series of incidents required Transit to request software updates as trains were moving on their own according. Since automatic train operation began in 2009, these problems have popped up frequently. Donohue reports on the latest developments:

In one incident, a train that was stopped at a Brooklyn platform took off on its own – traveling three to five feet before a crew member on board hit the emergency brakes, NYC Transit confirmed yesterday. With two other similar incidents recently on the Brooklyn-to-Manhattan line, the agency suspended use of the computerized train control system on Aug. 16, NYC Transit said in a statement yesterday.

Train service continued the old-fashioned way – with motormen doing the driving, not computers – until software fixes were finished last weekend, the agency said…In automatic train operation mode, the Robotrains are controlled by computers telling them when to stop and how fast to travel. After discharging passengers at a station, a train should remain idling until the motorman, who’s monitoring its operations at the cab’s computer, authorizes departure with the push of a button.

“Train operators have the authority to take manual control of their train when necessary while still maintaining a safe operation,” NYC Transit said in the statement. “It’s important to note safety was not an issue, but reliability was.”

As of now, many of the ATO-equipped trainsets have been updated and are back in service, but this problem is one in a long line of issues plaguing the L train, the guinea pig of the transit system. Since the late 1990s, the MTA has tried to bring this technology to the Canarsie Line, but various difficulties — from overcrowding to backwards compatibility concerns — have prevented a smooth upgrade. A 2007 report said the service would be ready to go in January 2010, and while ATO commenced a year before that, the implementation has been anything but smooth.

Meanwhile, the union, which stands to lose jobs if ATO is implemented properly, continue to claim that the problems prove how untrustworthy this system is. Kevin Harrington, a higher-up at the TWU, said that the recent problems show how ATO and CBTC are “potentially dangerous.” Yet, other transit systems throughout the world have brought these systems online with fewer troubles. As the MTA gears up to computerize the 7 line, the L can serve as a valuable practice run, but the kinks must still be worked as well.

For when you don't want to know how or when your long wait ends.

From the folks who brought you Star Wars in a subway car, come the latest and greatest in guerilla labeling. Jason Eppink, a self-proclaimed mischief maker who says he “engages the public with victimless pranks, urban interventions, and interactive sculpture,” has decided that New York City Transit’s countdown clocks are just too practical. So to restore an element of surprise to the tedious task of waiting for the subway, Eppink has installed Spoiler Alert signs to the system’s signs.

He offers up an explanation on his website:

In 2007, the New York City Transit Authority began installing LED signs on subway platforms that display estimated wait times for arriving trains. Unfortunately the information is little more than trivia: except for a few stations, it is only visible to travelers after they’ve paid their fare, so the data has little bearing on commuter decision-making.

Their primary effect, then, is to erode faith in the system, to create expectations that can’t always be met, to raise false hopes, and to erase the mystery and magic of the wondrous system that transports more than five million riders a day.

These LED signs also threaten historical social behaviors, rendering obsolete the time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge with the hope of glimpsing headlights from an approaching train.

The Spoiler Alert signs warn waiting riders of this potentially unwanted information – allowing them to avert their eyes so they may preserve their spirit of adventure – while still leaving visible the data for travelers who wish to ruin the surprise for themselves.

I, for one, love the countdown clocks. I find myself consciously taking rides on the IRT lines just so I can enjoy the stress-free experience of waiting with a clock, and even though the clocks aren’t bug-free, they’re right more often than they’re not. I don’t miss that “time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge” one iota even if, as Eppink notes, it is a distinctly New York thing to do.

I’m sure some New Yorkers — and the MTA — won’t appreciate these signs and will find them too subtly sarcastic or cutesy for the serious business of riding the subway. But as the countdown clocks have made riding less stressful, this public art/prank can add a moment of levity to a dour subway commute.

A Case for Open Data in Transit from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

For the past year, the MTA has engaged in a widespread effort to overhaul its relationship toward data. Since my charge that the authority’s close-minded approach to sharing put it on the wrong path in an age of open information, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder has led an effort to work with — instead of against — developers. The authority has released its full scheduling data for application and web-based programmers to use, and more on data sets on everything from ridership numbers to stairwell locations are being released each month.

Throughout the nation, many transit agencies are involved in similar data programs, and this week on Streetsfilms, Elizabeth Press discussed these efforts and how data availability can improve everyone’s commutes. She summarizes the video, embedded above:

Ever find yourself waiting for the next bus, not knowing when it will arrive? Think it would be great if you could check a subway countdown clock from the sidewalk? Or get arrival times on your phone? Giving transit riders better information can make ridng the bus or the train more convenient and appealing. And transit agencies are finding that the easiest and least expensive way to do it is by opening data about routes, schedules, and real-time locations to software developers, instead of guarding it like a proprietary secret.

I recently got the chance to dive into the topic of open data in transit with my colleagues at OpenPlans. We went up to Boston to see what transit riders got out of the transportation department’s decision to open up its data. We also talked to New York MTA Chair Jay Walder, City Council Member Gale Brewer, Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase, and Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White to paint a full picture of what it would mean if cities shared their transit and transportation data. The information is there, waiting to be put to use to help people plan transit trips, waste less gas driving, or make their streets safer.

Making schedules available in the right format can go a long way toward bringing in more customers and tearing down the veil of secrecy that often hides transit operations. I’m glad to see the MTA taking the right steps, and I’m glad to see the right people highlighting those efforts while urging transit agencies to become more and more transparent.