RTPI coming to a bus stop near you

[darkman]

Finally......






Pics from http://www.dublinbusstuff.com/PhotoWeek/NewRPTI.html Bus stop at Donnycarney church.

[missarchi]

I need my glasses

[kefu]

Well, credit where credit is due. It's been a long time coming but the signs look good and functional. The height of the electronic screen will make them difficult to vandalise, which is obviously the biggest consideration in Dublin. It's a wise investment on the part of Dublin Bus because real-time information will make the bus a more attractive option, with that fear of the unknown now gone at certain stops.

[EIA340600]

Could they not have put the dublin bus sign atop the display.Minimise visual clutter and so on...

[PVC King]

Agreed on the bus sign the lack of rails in combination with the digital display does convey the mode one can expect to arrive;on the specific design it is crisp and a lot fresher than those in London.

[Frank Taylor]

boo hiss, more poles.

the sign is too high for pedestrians and is oriented to be legible by oncoming truck drivers.
see london for example of display built into bus stop oriented so that the passengers can read it

[hutton]

boo hiss, more poles.

Agreed - my thoughts exactly. More street junk, where consolidation is accepted international practice.

Can somebody please provide me with 'real time information' as to when such muppets are not going to be paid out of our taxes inflict further damage onto the public domain

[PVC King]

In London when real time displays were added they used the excuse to erect very many more bus shelters where previously much smaller poles existed; ask yourself which creates a much larger scale clutter. What DB have done on this is provide stand alone bus stops that can provide real time information independent of Bus shelters which lets be honest are an antiquated concept.

I would suggest that funding for the renovation of existing bus shelters when next vanadalised should be axed from the budget. Sadly the height of the display information can be directly linked to the collapse in behavioural standards over the past decade; St Pats night in town anyone?

If you want to see a real scandal on bus signage go no further than Waterloo Road Dublin 4 where DCC were obligated to errect large unsightly 'National Development Plan' signs at a scale beffitting a motorway sign in return for some minor works that equated to QBC; don't the NDP and FF logos look suspiciously alike?

[adrian5987]

PVC - St Pats night in town anyone? so whats the excuse for vandelism over the summer months?

can anyone tell us tho if the buses are fitted with some sort of gps so it actually is REAL TIME or if it is still some deluded idea that the buses actually run to a timetable after they leave the first stop. it says in the piece that for the 15mins he watched it, it was accurate but says nothing of traffic, time of day etc.
but i will admit it is still an improvement, but if it is just expected time why cant they just replace the sign in the bus stop that says when they leave the depot with one that says when they reach the stop? it would be a bit cheaper

[StephenC]

I understood the buses have been fitted with a tracking device to ensure RTPI is reliable.

[Frank Taylor]

The buses are fitted with GPS and there's a device in the bus to tell the driver to speed up or slow down to ensure an even spacing between buses.

[PVC King]

Speed up or slow down; it rerminds me of the system in Santiago wherer rival bus companies have scouts on the route who hold up the number of fingers that signify the number of minutes since a rival companies bus has passed; crazy crazy drivers. RTPI is a great step forward and in tandem with adding more QBCs and tram lines to places like the airport will give passengers a much more balanced and reliable system

Adrian

There is never an excuse for vandalism but the number of vandalised phone boxes and bus shelters indicates that many punters don't need a festival to destroy civic furniture; its just more prevalent on one night of year. Prevention (Removal) is better than constant cure.

[darkman]

It has to be acknowledged though that the same argument was put against the Dublin Bikes scheme - by me aswell. In fairness the bikes have hardly been touched by vandals.

[adrian5987]

pvc i was just emphasisng the fact that its constant all year and to just associated pats in a bit unfair...but agreed never an excuse. anyway its off the point.
in general when something is used its less likely to be vandelised, but something like the dublin bikes are usually in busy locations which also helps, i think only time will tell as they are installed

if the buses have gps then thats great, cant wait for it to be rolled out over the rest of the city. (was just worried because lets face it this country has a habit of doing somethings half assed!)

[Cathal Dunne]

I thought this thread deserved a bump given all the progress made on this over the past few months. I was walking around Town today and I've noticed that a lot of pole mountings on Dame St. and a number on Leeson St. have the screens fitted now. This is good to see and hopefully they'll be turned on soon.

There's also a few active displays in the city centre at Eden Quay and Merrion Square. They've been pretty accurate whenever I've seen them in action. Have any other archiseekers seen RTPI displays been fitted in their area?

[hutton]

I wish to dissent from the positive consensus on this.

The decision to erect additional street clutter without embedding these units into existing shelters is a small detail that is indicative of a bigger badly-done wasteful job.

The delivery of this project is so late that it has long since been surpassed by technology. RTPI could be inexpensively provided by a mobile phone text service, as well as separately online for the many who already use 3G phones. That such is not being done is indicative of a scheme so behind schedule that it worth remembering that it was conceived in the last millennium.

The current scheme is resulting in more unconsolidated street clutter cheapening Dublin city's appearance, and to my mind appears to be a profligate waste of other people's money by a public sector who appear to have long since stopped caring.

I await with interest to see how much the folly will ultimately cost.

[wearnicehats]

how does this actually work? For example - I occassionally get a bus in the morning. The bus comes around a corner about 100 yards away. The traffic is generally appalling as there is no bus lane for about another mile after my stop. I know, from being in a car that it might take me 5-10 minutes to travel 1 mile along the same stretch of road. IF the GPS reckons the bus is 1 minute away am I going to be staring at the screen for another 9 minutes?

[GrahamH]

It alters accordingly using predictive modelling. So the display changes or stays static - a bit like DART in the bad ol' days.

[Cathal Dunne]

I wish to dissent from the positive consensus on this.

The decision to erect additional street clutter without embedding these units into existing shelters is a small detail that is indicative of a bigger badly-done wasteful job.

I would agree, I think they should have integrated the displays into bus shelters like the trial RTPI scheme done 10 years ago. However some of the RTPI poles are beside bus statues so it's difficult to know where an RTPI display could be fitted on them, especially when the statues aren't near electric wiring or anything.

The delivery of this project is so late that it has long since been surpassed by technology. RTPI could be inexpensively provided by a mobile phone text service, as well as separately online for the many who already use 3G phones. That such is not being done is indicative of a scheme so behind schedule that it worth remembering that it was conceived in the last millennium.

AFAIK a mobile and online service which will complement the on-street poles will be launched this year too. That will cover the bus stops which won't have the electronic displays. Each bus stop has a four-digit code which commuters can enter on their mobile or laptop and the service will tell them which buses are due to stop there in the next 30 minutes.

The current scheme is resulting in more unconsolidated street clutter cheapening Dublin city's appearance, and to my mind appears to be a profligate waste of other people's money by a public sector who appear to have long since stopped caring.

I await with interest to see how much the folly will ultimately cost.

I remember reading that this is due to cost €6.5 million in total. In terms of clutter, this scheme could be offset by a council campaign to get rid of empty and unnecessary poles.

[Cathal Dunne]

I saw a couple more live displays in the city centre today. Essex Quay, Dame St. and Leeson St. all have active displays. They seem to be on track to deliver this project by the Summer when hopefully the full mobile and internet service is launched as well.

[Conorworld]

It's about time! 10 years this has been mentioned. I use the bus nearly every day, generally the 39 from Blanchardstown village. There's nothing worse than waiting and waiting, no bus coming and thinking you could go to the shops and get something in between, especially now since they have reduced the service but alas you are afraid of your bus flying by. It's a very welcome addition.