Sure is. I wonder how many people in MTA have actually spent some part of their life riding buses every day.
I'm a little on the fence here. Bus shelters are a mixed bag. They can be nice if they work against the wind, but on a cold afternoon they tend to feel even worse than sitting in the sunlight. Plus they're giant targets for vandalism and graffiti.
I agree 1000000% that every bus stop should be well-lit, however! And I think there should be a decent amount of room, too. Having a sign on a narrow sidewalk feels so dang dangerous when you're waiting for a bus.
One thing the article doesn't mention is the high amount of vandalism. I think the penalties for vandalizing public property are much lower than they should be. unlike, say, shoplifting some food from a store, there really isn't a good explanation for breaking a bus stop bench or a glass windshield on a bus shelter. But people are assholes and do it anyway! Then they vandalize the buses and trains too. Those things are expensive! And anti-grafitti/anti-vandalism materials make them a lot less comfortable to use.
Like, silly silly example, but if you ever take one of the retro streetcars in SF they have padded leather seats that are quite nice. Then you go hop on a newer muni train and they have hard plastic benches lol. With holes in the middle so that if someone spills something (or urinates lol) the liquid doesn't pool up on the seat. Hahaha I saw this on an AC transit bus once when I was a kid.. lol. It's actually the only time I've ever seen something like that.
I disagree. The US could be importing a lot more ideas than it does.
When living in other countries than the US, it has always been notable to me how often conversations about almost anything involved considering how other countries did things.
But after drawing on the world for better ideas, you would expect better results.
America could benefit from looking at what other countries are doing and implement the best ideas to improve quality of life in the US.
La Sombrita, however, is a uniquely American invention, designed by Americans, to solve American problems within the constraints imposed by America. LA spent $300k on a bus stop that neither provides the homeless population with any benefits, nor provides the ridership with shade nor adequate lighting.
Maybe if they had a little more to show for it I could be more understanding. Money has a lot of good uses; I feel certain the $300k spent on this POS design could have a far greater impact elsewhere.
Travel is great, but in a pinch you can find most of the world’s great ideas are written down in books or on the internet. The difference in cost is quite substantial.
I agree completely, the results are quite inadequate.
There are clearly decision makers somewhere in the situation who just shouldn’t be involved.
But travel is cheap education and research when compared to a city wide problem.
Traveling isn’t just about exposing yourself to ideas. It’s about exposing yourself to how they actually work in practice, pros, cons, unexpected dependencies, etc. while carrying your own situations needs around with you.
You can’t get all that coupled perspective second hand. That’s a false economy.
It would be negligent and unprofessional to not travel, for a problem on this scale.
You can import ideas from other countries without paying for airfare, hotel, and meals for people to jaunt off to essentially vacation in those countries.
On the other hand, I would gladly have paid extra money if the Chicago CTA would take a trip to Paris to see their architecture. It is shocking just how good the signage is there. Even with my pidgin French, I could easily make sense of which trains were going where, and how to utilize the map. In contrast, the Chicago system is poorly labeled and trips up native English speakers regularly.
I'm a little on the fence here. Bus shelters are a mixed bag. They can be nice if they work against the wind, but on a cold afternoon they tend to feel even worse than sitting in the sunlight. Plus they're giant targets for vandalism and graffiti.
I agree 1000000% that every bus stop should be well-lit, however! And I think there should be a decent amount of room, too. Having a sign on a narrow sidewalk feels so dang dangerous when you're waiting for a bus.
One thing the article doesn't mention is the high amount of vandalism. I think the penalties for vandalizing public property are much lower than they should be. unlike, say, shoplifting some food from a store, there really isn't a good explanation for breaking a bus stop bench or a glass windshield on a bus shelter. But people are assholes and do it anyway! Then they vandalize the buses and trains too. Those things are expensive! And anti-grafitti/anti-vandalism materials make them a lot less comfortable to use.
Like, silly silly example, but if you ever take one of the retro streetcars in SF they have padded leather seats that are quite nice. Then you go hop on a newer muni train and they have hard plastic benches lol. With holes in the middle so that if someone spills something (or urinates lol) the liquid doesn't pool up on the seat. Hahaha I saw this on an AC transit bus once when I was a kid.. lol. It's actually the only time I've ever seen something like that.