5 ms·

Do we really need wifi and USB ports on the train? There are already a lot of wifi access points on the platform, but it requires clicking on a prompt to agree

by bko 10y ago

Do we really need wifi and USB ports on the train? There are already a lot of wifi access points on the platform, but it requires clicking on a prompt to agree to T&C which is an extra step many don't bother taking. I'm reminded of TVs the Taxi and Limousine Commission mandated to be placed in all yellow/green cabs in NYC. It's always dubious improvements that people often don't ask for. What people really wanted was more availability as evidenced by the success of Uber. I imagine in regards to train service, New Yorkers would settle for cleaner, less smelly stations and more regular service, especially on the weekends. But I guess that wouldn't get as much press coverage.

AznHisoka 10y ago
As well as functional clean elevators in more stations. More seats (trains like the R maximize seat/space ratio while trains like the 4/5/6 don't) Also ban bums from sleeping on trains.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  > Also ban bums from sleeping on trains. I think there's likely already a law against it, it's a matter of enforcement. And I for one have a hard time being mad at someone sleeping on a train at night during the winter time; shelters aren't fun places, they fill up and have stringent requirements, and for many of them, the alternative is freezing to death outside.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    New York's answer to the homeless problem is to throw them in jail, and considering many suffer from severe mental illness, this is really cruel and inhumane. So they're swept under the rug. It's absurd.
    - cududa 10y ago
      Compared to San Francisco where they're let to just wry in the wind?
      - astrodust 10y ago
        Most American cities I've visited take an indifferent and/or actively hostile attitude towards people with mental illness. It's actually kind of scary.
        pavel_lishin 10y ago
        Yeah. If you have a family history of mental illness and live in America, make sure you've got a big support network of friends and family, in case you develop a mental illness. That would probably be more useful than healthcare coverage.
        astrodust 10y ago
        In America anyway where having health-care is tied to employment and employment can be difficult to maintain when you're increasingly mentally ill. Somewhere more civilized it's not as much a problem to see a psychiatrist, the cost is fully covered. If there's medication and you can't afford it there's ways of getting that covered too. It's much better to have people "in the system" where they're receiving disability support, subsidized housing, and medical care than to just turf them on the street or treat them as profit centers in private prisons.
- egypturnash 10y ago
  They gotta sleep somewhere. All the shelters are full.
giarc 10y ago
The option of USB ports on the trains is likely such a small percentage of the overall cost, but it likely gets enough people thinking "The MTA is thinking about things that matter to me."
- astrodust 10y ago
  They cost almost nothing and can help people out when they're in a jam, so why not? I just wonder how long it'll take before they're all broken from people inserting their connectors backwards, or before they become an anachronism since they're the wrong type of USB.
  - robotresearcher 10y ago
    Or full of gum.
    - pavel_lishin 10y ago
      Gum if we're lucky.
      - jpindar 10y ago
        I'm picturing a piece of cardboard in the shape of a USB plug that you stick in a jack to see if it's clean and not too broken before you insert your real cable. Maybe wallet-sized cards with a diagram of how to fold them into that shape?
        robotresearcher 10y ago
        A perfect implement for inserting gum.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - akiselev 10y ago
    It'll probably cost quite a bit more than you think. For example, in flight entertainment systems are way more expensive than the cost of the touchscreen monitors because they require a power subsystem that draws from the plane's generators but is completely isolated from the rest of the avionics for safety reasons. This requires literally miles of extra wiring for a jumbojet which is very labor intensive. For something like the Boeing Dreamliner, which has about 60 miles of wiring, that's a significant expense. That's not including the extra cost of maintenance for yser facing electronics that the trains have never had before. That said, airports like SFO and LAX have had charging ports and plugs for a while so there's data to estimate from.
dforrestwilson 10y ago
^ This one trillion times. Make the general experience better rather than lipstick on a pig.
parent5446 10y ago
Personally I find on-train connectivity to be very useful. And if you read the rest of the article, those features are really just in addition to the various other improvements, like wider doors and (of course) just having more trains in general. I imagine the USB and WiFi were just a small, trivial add-on they planned since they're already blowing money on new train cars in the first place. It doesn't cost too much, makes your train ride a little nicer, and gets the MTA better press and reputation. In the end I don't see any problem with it.
- lbotos 10y ago
  Do you live in NYC? I don't expect these ports to last longer than 3 weeks. Wifi sure, but USB, charging stations are the exact opposite of what I want on a commuter train.
  - parent5446 10y ago
    If the USB ports at the Staten Island Ferry can still work (well, barely work, but work nonetheless) then I have faith these USB ports will last at least a few months. Although I don't see what that should have to do with me wanting to have them.
    - potatolicious 10y ago
      Funnily enough, they just shut off most of the USB ports on the SI Ferry because passengers were literally fighting over them... I still feel like USB ports are one of those things that's really marginally beneficial.
  - Overtonwindow 10y ago
    You are an optimist it seems! I give it a week before someone either does something incredibly annoying or stupid with them, the system gets hacked through a USB port (because this is MTA afterall so of course the USB's are connected to a vital central mainframe system with no security), or it's used by peddlers selling crap on that platforms. That or the mob finds a way to install Jimmy The Idiot to charge you a quarter to use it. This is New York. If it can go wrong you bet your last nickel that rolled off the roof it will happen.
melling 10y ago
USB-C, sure. It becomes the standard with 24 months
- noobermin 10y ago
  Will it? I am biased here, I have one of those fancy new macbooks, so I am worried to shit I made the wrong calculation here. But all evidence I see seems to suggest they won't.
  - melling 10y ago
    In the fall, a lot more Macs are going to ship with USB-C. At any rate, Android phone usage will drive adoption.
throw7 10y ago
I wonder if the wifi is coordinated with LinkNYC/SidewalkLabs (that consortium providing those kiosks).

by bko 10y ago

AznHisoka 10y ago

As well as functional clean elevators in more stations. More seats (trains like the R maximize seat/space ratio while trains like the 4/5/6 don't) Also ban bums from sleeping on trains.

pavel_lishin 10y ago
> Also ban bums from sleeping on trains. I think there's likely already a law against it, it's a matter of enforcement. And I for one have a hard time being mad at someone sleeping on a train at night during the winter time; shelters aren't fun places, they fill up and have stringent requirements, and for many of them, the alternative is freezing to death outside.
- astrodust 10y ago
  New York's answer to the homeless problem is to throw them in jail, and considering many suffer from severe mental illness, this is really cruel and inhumane. So they're swept under the rug. It's absurd.
  - cududa 10y ago
    Compared to San Francisco where they're let to just wry in the wind?
    - astrodust 10y ago
      Most American cities I've visited take an indifferent and/or actively hostile attitude towards people with mental illness. It's actually kind of scary.
      - pavel_lishin 10y ago
        Yeah. If you have a family history of mental illness and live in America, make sure you've got a big support network of friends and family, in case you develop a mental illness. That would probably be more useful than healthcare coverage.
        astrodust 10y ago
        In America anyway where having health-care is tied to employment and employment can be difficult to maintain when you're increasingly mentally ill. Somewhere more civilized it's not as much a problem to see a psychiatrist, the cost is fully covered. If there's medication and you can't afford it there's ways of getting that covered too. It's much better to have people "in the system" where they're receiving disability support, subsidized housing, and medical care than to just turf them on the street or treat them as profit centers in private prisons.
egypturnash 10y ago
They gotta sleep somewhere. All the shelters are full.

giarc 10y ago

The option of USB ports on the trains is likely such a small percentage of the overall cost, but it likely gets enough people thinking "The MTA is thinking about things that matter to me."

astrodust 10y ago
They cost almost nothing and can help people out when they're in a jam, so why not? I just wonder how long it'll take before they're all broken from people inserting their connectors backwards, or before they become an anachronism since they're the wrong type of USB.
- robotresearcher 10y ago
  Or full of gum.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    Gum if we're lucky.
    - jpindar 10y ago
      I'm picturing a piece of cardboard in the shape of a USB plug that you stick in a jack to see if it's clean and not too broken before you insert your real cable. Maybe wallet-sized cards with a diagram of how to fold them into that shape?
      - robotresearcher 10y ago
        A perfect implement for inserting gum.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- akiselev 10y ago
  It'll probably cost quite a bit more than you think. For example, in flight entertainment systems are way more expensive than the cost of the touchscreen monitors because they require a power subsystem that draws from the plane's generators but is completely isolated from the rest of the avionics for safety reasons. This requires literally miles of extra wiring for a jumbojet which is very labor intensive. For something like the Boeing Dreamliner, which has about 60 miles of wiring, that's a significant expense. That's not including the extra cost of maintenance for yser facing electronics that the trains have never had before. That said, airports like SFO and LAX have had charging ports and plugs for a while so there's data to estimate from.

dforrestwilson 10y ago

^ This one trillion times. Make the general experience better rather than lipstick on a pig.

parent5446 10y ago

Personally I find on-train connectivity to be very useful. And if you read the rest of the article, those features are really just in addition to the various other improvements, like wider doors and (of course) just having more trains in general. I imagine the USB and WiFi were just a small, trivial add-on they planned since they're already blowing money on new train cars in the first place. It doesn't cost too much, makes your train ride a little nicer, and gets the MTA better press and reputation. In the end I don't see any problem with it.

lbotos 10y ago
Do you live in NYC? I don't expect these ports to last longer than 3 weeks. Wifi sure, but USB, charging stations are the exact opposite of what I want on a commuter train.
- parent5446 10y ago
  If the USB ports at the Staten Island Ferry can still work (well, barely work, but work nonetheless) then I have faith these USB ports will last at least a few months. Although I don't see what that should have to do with me wanting to have them.
  - potatolicious 10y ago
    Funnily enough, they just shut off most of the USB ports on the SI Ferry because passengers were literally fighting over them... I still feel like USB ports are one of those things that's really marginally beneficial.
- Overtonwindow 10y ago
  You are an optimist it seems! I give it a week before someone either does something incredibly annoying or stupid with them, the system gets hacked through a USB port (because this is MTA afterall so of course the USB's are connected to a vital central mainframe system with no security), or it's used by peddlers selling crap on that platforms. That or the mob finds a way to install Jimmy The Idiot to charge you a quarter to use it. This is New York. If it can go wrong you bet your last nickel that rolled off the roof it will happen.

melling 10y ago

USB-C, sure. It becomes the standard with 24 months

noobermin 10y ago
Will it? I am biased here, I have one of those fancy new macbooks, so I am worried to shit I made the wrong calculation here. But all evidence I see seems to suggest they won't.
- melling 10y ago
  In the fall, a lot more Macs are going to ship with USB-C. At any rate, Android phone usage will drive adoption.

throw7 10y ago

I wonder if the wifi is coordinated with LinkNYC/SidewalkLabs (that consortium providing those kiosks).