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Electronic bus destination blinds
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) |
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