Friday, August 7, 2015

Signs of the week


I've ridden public transportation in many of the great cities of the world, and as a visitor, have spent lots of time checking out the information displays.  You don't want to miss your stop or end up on the wrong train, so systems that tell you what's ahead are much appreciated.

Although Paris and London, my two most recent great-city-transportation experiences, have good maps and markings, I have to give points to Tokyo for their in-car displays.  These are all digital, appearing in sequence on a screen above each door.

First of all, they number the stations on the line, a useful practice I don't believe I've ever seen elsewhere.  Here we are nearing the end, approaching Inaricho station G-17.  We'll be there in one minute; three minutes to the next, and five minutes to the last.

The display toggles between Japanese and English.

The doors open on this side.

We're in car 3, which is going to stop just a bit before the exit, so we'll turn right when we hit the platform.

It'll take some doing to louse up this train ride.

2 comments:

  1. Having "how many minutes until" signs in the cars is so organised! It's a big step forward to have those signs on the platforms - it's certainly made a big difference in London, compared with the bad old days of never knowing when the next train might arrive. But what makes the most difference is being able to run the trains more closely together ... and to have more trains on the line.

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  2. This is terrific! We have so much to learn . . . .

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