Friday, May 9, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
a different transit world
I was reading a DC-area blog and clicked on a transit-related link in the story. Ended up looking around the web site for the DC transit system. I was amazed to find this.
When incidents happen on CTA, even when they cause significant service interruptions, how often can we get any information from CTA about them? And wouldn't it be nice to be able to get real-time delay information from Metra? One day recently I was waiting at LaSalle Street station for the 5:50 Rock Island train. It was 5:55. There had been no announcements. The train had not appeared. It's usually in the station before 5:40. A barely intelligible announcement came over the crackly speakers. "Attention Rock Island commuters....train number 619 will be delayed." Many groans were heard. "Tell us something we don't know." The train appeared 10 minutes later.
Wouldn't it be nice if those big new LED displays could actually be used for useful information, like current time, service delays, etc.? Nah, that would make too much sense.
When incidents happen on CTA, even when they cause significant service interruptions, how often can we get any information from CTA about them? And wouldn't it be nice to be able to get real-time delay information from Metra? One day recently I was waiting at LaSalle Street station for the 5:50 Rock Island train. It was 5:55. There had been no announcements. The train had not appeared. It's usually in the station before 5:40. A barely intelligible announcement came over the crackly speakers. "Attention Rock Island commuters....train number 619 will be delayed." Many groans were heard. "Tell us something we don't know." The train appeared 10 minutes later.
Wouldn't it be nice if those big new LED displays could actually be used for useful information, like current time, service delays, etc.? Nah, that would make too much sense.
Monday, May 5, 2008
misspoken
This recent New Yorker piece is an an excellent assessment of some recent political slips of the tongue - well worth a read.
JazzCity: Jazz Cabaret on 5/9
Want to check out a cool free jazz concert at Foster Park (1440 W. 84th St.)? Click here for info.
feeding the world at a cost
Nitrogen fertilizer has been responsible for great increases in crop production, but at a high environmental cost.
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