The amount of information on the internet, and the various ways to use it, continues to amaze me, and its only getting better.
I’ll explain.
It started after I read this article about how how the Chicao Transit Authority is once again having budget problems.
Tax revenues the CTA receives for its operating budget are estimated to fall below projections by $58 million for 2008 when the final figures for December are received and $155 million less than targeted for 2009 out of a $1.3 billion budget, according to Regional Transportation Authority documents obtained by the Tribune.
That was weird I thought. Didn’t they just raise fares within the last month? Wasn’t CTA ridership up five percent in the last year?
This caused me to start searching to see how much of these budget problems are the result of, well, unions and pensions. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did find this searchable database of CTA salaries. More than CTA Salaries however, it contains job and salary information for 157,000 Illinois state, Cook County, city of Chicago and CTA employees.
Moving on, I found the RSS feed page for the CTA. You can select any rail line or bus line and get alerts sent to you. You can take advantage of feeds by adding them to many modern Web browsers, e-mail programs, RSS/news aggregators, and customizable start pages offered by major Internet services.
Incredible.
Continuing my stumble, I found the Everyblock.com page for my neighborhood (and associated RSS feeds). What’s there you ask? Crime data, business reviews, real estate listings, business licenses and more. All easily digestable and updated daily.
And then, while I don’t have the iPhone, or any other smart phone right yet, here’s the iPhone widget to get the CTA BusTracker on the iPhone.
I don’t know. I just find all of this rather cool. And yet, with all the advancements in public transportation, especially the CTA Bus Tracker (congrats guys, you nailed a home run on that one), there’s one thing that still really bothers me. One thing that continues to grate on me as I use the bus.
Why does the bus need to stop at every corner? Why do we allow people to get on or off the bus basically wherever they want? How much faster would travel by bus be if we removed every other bus stop? How much less annoying?
The train doesn’t stop mid-station to let you off. Why should the bus?
Brian, you hit the nail on the head. Ever try to take the bus down Michigan Ave. on a saturday or sunday. Its unreal. There are five or six bus routes that crawl down the street because the bus stops at every corner. Because its a tourist trap, the bus driver is also asked to serve as “Information” to all the tourists. And of course nobody has a fare card, so its not uncommon to sit through a light while all the passengers load their dollars and quarters one by one into the slot.
The biggest problem is bunching. I think the CTA really needs to focus on this much more than they currently are. Ill tell you this. I would pay $3 for a ride that shaved an extra 5-10 minutes off my trip.
For those of you that have never seen these, basically they’ve changed the “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” signals to “Walk” and a timer that counts down telling both the driver and the pedestrian how many seconds until the light turns yellow.
At a cost of $15,000 per corner and $45,000 at the oldest signals, the countdown signals aren’t cheap. But in my opinion, they are the single greatest traffic improvement made since, well, I don’t know when.
Way back when, in drivers’ ed, we were taught to look at the crosswalk icon for an indication of how long they have before the light turns. If the crosswalk was blinking, we knew we had less than seven seconds or something like that.
With these new signals, you know exactly how long before the signal changes and you drive accordingly. Sure, you might speed up a little some times. But just as often I find myself slowing down ahead of time because I know that there is no way I’m going to make the intersection.
Random Sioux City note: Contrast these new signals with what they’ve done in Sioux City on Hamilton Blvd. They put in new signals up and down Hamilton. The turn lanes, instead of going the normal, “Left-green arrow, green circle, yellow, red” now go “Left-green arrow, yellow, flashing left yellow arrow, yellow, red.”
Its the dumbest thing I’ve seen, in well years. Not only did they invent a previously non-existent signal “Flashing left yellow arrow” that serves the exact same purpose as “Green circle” in the left turn lane, but now when you drive down the street, you get hypnotized by the almost non-stop lashing left yellow arrows.
Countdown timers are a great idea. They should just start including them on any new installations and replacements. Over the next 10 years, most intersections would have them. I’m sure it would be cheaper this way too.
With regard to the Sioux City note, I’ve not seen it but it does sound pretty stupid. It actually reminds me of my workplace. The owner is so concerned about being liked, that instead of teaching people the proper behavior (e.g. Left turners yield on green), he has to invent stupid new policies to get the same behavior. It’s maddening. But, like I’m sure is the case with Sioux City, my boss is incredibly well-intentioned.
Yeah, and they’re especially nice in Chicago because we have so many 6 and 8 way intersections which require you to basically go through two sets of lights within a half-block of each other (the intersections aren’t symmetrical).
Both the count-down signals and the blinking yellow arrow are attempts at making things easier/better. Its funny how some things just “work” and others don’t.
Before I moved to the bay area I felt the CTA could trim its fat by eliminating many of the bus stops. My hypothesis to eliminating nearly 50% of the bus stops could help some of the CTA’s budget shortfalls and, this is a long shot, eliminate obesity. On Irving Park, near 90/94, there seems to be bus stops almost every block. Eliminating many of the bus stops can speed up bus times and minimize the amount of buses required and only needing express buses during rush hour times. When I was in Italy last year I noticed how the elderly get around better than many young americans, in a country that doesn’t have an enforceable accessibility requirement like the ADA to my knowledge.
Being back in Chicago now, the bus tracker web site is a great tool for those who have web access, but why can’t they just keep to a schedule too? If they can track buses why can’t they do the same for trains? Living in the bay area, I rode the BART as part of my commute from the East Bay to Downtown San Francisco. Typically, the trains were on time and clean. You always new when the next train was arriving and how many cars long the train was by the electronic displays. Based on the amount of cars the train was also determined where the train would stop at the station. On top of that, markers on the floor surface would indicate the door locations to each car. While waiting for a train in Chicago is a free for all during rush hours, in the Bay Area, people are little more civilized and orderly by forming lines. There are then some other unwritten rules about lines formed in San Francisco versus the East Bay. The CTA should begin to model some of these strategies.
As far as the countdown timers on lights go, I think it is a great idea, but the cost seems to be outrageous. If this will help reduce red light violations, maybe exchanging them for the cameras they put in could offset the cost. Since those don’t seem to be paying for themselves either. Many of the street lights in downtown San Francisco have had these countdown timers for years. In some locations you can walk diagonally, where traffic is stopped in all directions. Maybe we should just take this one step at a time.
The difference between the circular green and the flashing yellow arrow is that the circular green also has meaning for drivers who are not turning left. Thus, the flashing yellow arrow can be displayed at times when the circular indications must be red, because straight ahead traffic is not allowed to go. The circular green on a left turn signal can’t be displayed without also having a “go” meaning for straight ahead and right turning drivers.
Larry,
The only situation that I can think of where the difference between flashing yellow arrow and circular green would come into play would be if oncoming traffic has circular green in the oncoming straight ahead lanes and a green arrow in the oncoming left turn lane. I guess that you could find that situation if you wanted one turn lane to have a longer arrow than the other. A fairly unusual situation from my perspective, especially on the particular road that these lights are on…
But thanks for the clarification.
This is needed where the left turn on one side needs to be placed before the opposing straight ahead, but the left turn in the opposite direction needs to be placed after the opposing straight ahead. Such a “lead-lag” signal makes it a lot easier to provide the progression “green wave” on a two-way street.
Other advantages:
The permissive turn can last longer than it can if the circular green is used.
Odd intersections (5-leg, or offset) can greatly benefit by this. The flashing yellow arrow can be used to allow a left turn that would otherwise need an extra phase in the signal cycle.
One place where the flashing yellow arrow face can be used without using the green arrow is an offset intersection with the near leg on the left. The normal method of double clearance causes yellow trap, as the left turn is cleared first, but the oncoming traffic still has a green for a few seconds (to clear out the space between the legs). A flashing yellow arrow can continue to allow the left turn across opposing traffic until the space between the legs is cleared out.
Wow, thanks for the clarification Larry. If you don’t mind, a couple of questions.
These particular lights are on a four-lane road through a commercial district. Think: “four miles of strip malls.” As a result, there are lots of side streets that (arguably) have unnecessary lights to get on the street. In other words, just too many lights. The too-be-expected result is that traffic flow is ridiculously slow along this thoroughfare even though it is, relatively, not that crowded.
With that background, my question is this: Once the system is fully up and running, would you expect that the purpose of the flashing yellow arrow is to reduce the amount of time that green arrows are “on,” thereby increasing the amount of time that green circles are on the street?
Why? Isn’t the end result the same? The permission to turn left if the oncoming traffic permits it?
Thanks for your input!!
[quote]With that background, my question is this: Once the system is fully up and running, would you expect that the purpose of the flashing yellow arrow is to reduce the amount of time that green arrows are “on,” thereby increasing the amount of time that green circles are on the street?[/quote]
Yes. Turns on a circular green can’t be allowed if one direction has the green left turn arrow after the oncoming straight ahead green light.
[quote]The permissive turn can last longer than it can if the circular green is used.
Why? Isn’t the end result the same? The permission to turn left if the oncoming traffic permits it?[/quote]
But the flashing yellow arrow can be used at times the circular green can not be on, because traffic moving straight ahead is not allowed to move. There are two cases where this happens:
1. After a short green left turn arrow ends, but before the left turn arrow for the oncoming direction ends: The flashing yellow arrow can go ahead and start flashing during this period. But the circular green can not be displayed then, because oncoming traffic still has a green left turn arrow.
2. During a lagging left turn phase for oncoming traffic: After the circular green turns yellow and red for straight ahead traffic, trhe flashing yellow arrow for that approach can keep flashing during this period, until the oncoming circular green changes to yellow. But the circular green facing the left turner can not be displayed, because oncoming traffic has a green left turn arrow. Straight ahead traffic is not allowed to move.