In the message ...
"David Bradley" wrote:

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:03:24 -0000, "Dave Liney"
wrote:


"Alan (in Brussels)" wrote in
message
...
In the message ...

Indeed, I recently travelled on (London) route 390 in a bus with such a
screen in the centre of the upper-deck windscreen, and was similarly
disappointed to see that none of the above-mentioned information (apart
from
generic TfL messages and advertising) was displayed. But AFAIK this is
par
for the course in today's narrowly commercially-oriented world; even
the
idea that the advertising would be more effective if it alternated with
information of real value to passengers (the more specific the better,
eg
real-time details of alterations to the services...) has obviously not
crossed the minds of those concerned.

To do so would require a realtime link to pick up this information
whereas
the present system can be updated at depots. I'm sure your idea has
crossed
the minds of those concerned but perhaps their investigations showed that
the present control-to-bus link was not up to the job and upgrading it
just
for this not cost effective.

Dave


I friend of mine writes on this subject:

------------------------------------------------------------
The problem in the UK has been that whilst it is all theoretically
possible, the environment on a bus going over the UK's somewhat
indifferently maintained roads has proved much more challenging to the
equipment than when it was being tested sitting on a desk or bench
top. There have therefore been a very large number of reliability
problems resulting in partial or complete failures of the systems
(hence different displays externally on front and sides).

Generally for external displays, the electrically operated roller
blind (as fitted to Croydon Tramlink) has proved to be more cost
effective and more reliable. You can get into quite high costs with
LED's particularly if you want true descenders on the lower case
(requires more lines of LED's for effectively the same size of
lettering). From a DDA perspective (for poorly sighted people of whom
there are many more than wheelchair bound) , I personally think blinds
are much easier to read than LED's on a moving vehicle. Internally I
think that most companies have now managed to get their acts together
and the equipment is now robust enough to be reliable (I saw some very
good location based internal displays on buses in the Harrogate area,
so they do exist in the UK).

One thing that you have to get right and often separates the skilled
'sheep' from the cheapo 'goats' is the issue of buses being diverted
or not completing whole routes. This is of course a matter of
compiling the logical algorithms thoroughly enough to allow for all
likely possibilities. There are unfortunately companies (often the
well known 'big boys') who seem to either lack the skills or
motivation or both to achieve this and hence the problems!
----------------------------------

Surely the *main advantage of using electronic technology* is the
possibility of changing the displayed information en route, to take account
of unforeseen situations - and there are various ways of compensating for
any potential loss of readability, such as using larger font sizes with
scrolling. So there's little point in making the change unless and until
real-time updating is available as part of the *system*. And don't all TfL
buses already have mobile radio facilities that could easily be adapted for
selective text broadcasting?

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels)