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Borked sign spotted at Civic Center. How long were you planning on keeping it like this, Muni?
And hey, while we're at it, when were you planning in replacing these dinosaurs with the far-more-readable NextBus ones?
Oh, Muni, is There Nothing You Can't Break?
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No information is better than bad information! So many times I have watched the displays in the downtown MUNI stations telling me the next J Church would be coming in 3 minutes. The problem is 3 minutes come and go multiple times with no J Church. Usually after waiting 20 minutes I just give up and hop on whatever comes next.
it has been like this at civic center since i moved here
you guys are so hard on Muni.. i was amazed to find out that bus stops actually give you an estimated ETA!
come down to san jose and ride VTA for a day and you'll see what truly crappy pubtransit really means.
and at least you dont have to sit at the wheel in traffic!%@!
Yes, it would be easier if the mass transit systems simply operated on time (like they do in Switzerland and Japan) so you really don't need electronic signage telling you if the system is on schedule or not.
Sadly, MUNI has never had their shit together. For what we pay...
Oh, never mind.
Eh, the signs are still useful if you happen to not have a route's schedule memorized.
Hmm, yeah. Trains running on time. Wonder why nobody thought of that before, it's a great idea.
you guys are harsh
those signs are new! circa 2000 or so. i guess that's not so new anymore. fuck, when did i get old?
ps. it's readily apparent that someone has never experienced willie brown's muni.
Where's your Nat Ford now?
... willie brown's muni ...
truly, the 7th circle of hell.
Someone above had it right: those ETA signs are goddamn liars. They work about 60% of the time.
Ahh the disappearing J-Church. I'm all too familiar. Basically I think MUNI wants to send it down the line, but it gets changed in the tunnel to another line.
Have you ever seen the new display maps?
Have you counted how many trains are on the system, there are always 2-3 times more Ns than Js. It is the least represented line in the system.
Get used to it. Muni's budget has had a hole the size of a....Muni bus blown into it by the economic mess. State and city revenues are way down and cuts to MUni's budget are expected from these sources. In addition, parking fine revenue is way down as less people are working/shopping/parking in downtown SF. THe budget hole is something like $50 million.
These signs date back to the mid 90s. They came in as part of the OS/2 based ATCS that the city bought as part of the Muni Metro Extension project.
It doesn't matter how many cars there are on the line if they all come at one time.
I'll never believe the ETA signs, not after one night a month ago seeing, count em, 7 N Judas stacked up together in front of Duboce Park.
I literally stood there and gaped in disbelief, but so happy to have been on a bike.
What I like is that you have to STARE at these signs for a good 5 minutes before their stupid PSAs stop and they bother to tell you when the next train is coming. And then that lasts for about 20 seconds before you get another 5 minutes of safety PSAs.
The signs themselves are actually original equipment; they were in place when I moved here in '87. I'm sure the back-end systems haven't changed at all, and it's a good bet that those are of 1970s vintage.
I remember hearing that there's no direct connection between NextBus data and the LED signs. That's probably still the case, and goes a long way to explaining why the displays can be "optimistic".
Fun fact #1: The blank slots below the LEDs used to pitch the Chronicle and the Examiner, back in the days of the JOA. If you looked downtown, you saw the Chronicle ad, and if outbound, you saw the Examiner's.
Fun fact #2: The N gets a lot more business than the J. I'm not going to dig around Muni's site (too busy looking to see if anyone drops dog poop in my trash can), but as I recall, the J had fewer riders than any line except the K -- this was before the K-T combination.