I’ve had some gripes about those maps in the new trains that show the stops along the route. You know the ones with an LED for each stop and the arrow showing which way the train is moving. I think they’re a great idea (it’s like watching a preliminary 1-D version of Pacman), but that they’re done poorly. You can tell cost was a major factor, and usability was not. Here’s what I’ve come up with while staring at the map, shaking my head in disapproval.
Off means on and on means off
My first complaint is about the way the maps indicate where you�ve been and where you’re going. The stops you�ve passed are not lit up, and the ones coming up are. This is the opposite of what it should be. In the real world things leave trails. People leave foot prints, airplanes leave vapor trails, snails leave mucus-y goo. Remember the Indiana Jones map montage? That red line traversed the globe marking where Indy had been. This map serves the same purpose. By showing where it’s been, you know where it’s going. This isn’t a map to find your way. Instead, it’s a map to show your path and location.
Yes, no, or maybe
Most likely because of cost, the MTA only used 1 LED per station. Which means any given light can be either turned on, off, or blinking, representing only 3 different conditions: you have passed the stop, you haven’t yet reached it, or you’re currently there. But there are actually 4 different conditions.
- You have passed the stop
- You are at the stop
- You are going to pass the stop
- You will skip the stop
The map makes no distinction between stations you’ll skip and ones you have already been to.
If there were a third state for the light, say just the outline of the circle, it could represent stops you will go to. It would still be mostly unlit, like stops you won’t go to at all, but still be partially lit, like stops you have been to. This would make your direction clear as well, and eliminate the need for the directional arrow, my next peeve.
My left or your left?
At first I thought the directional arrow was completely useless. You can feel which way the train is moving and match that to the map. But you’ll notice sometimes its pointing in the opposite direction of the train’s motion. See, some trains stop at the end of the line and then go in reverse, like the L at 8th ave. But others, like the 2,3 at South Ferry go in a loop, and continue going forwards. The latter results in the map being backwards half the time. Ideally, the map would be a real screen, and it could flip it orientation a tthe end of the line. But that would cost a hell of a lot more.
The problem is this will never get fixed. I guess it’s not that big a deal because no one is missing their stop because of it, or getting epilepsy from the blinking lights. But I’ll be damned if I won’t complain about it!
0 Responses to “Led Astray by an LED Subway”