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How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

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Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#91

Post by Manozco »

mjmahone17 wrote: post #66
candiodari wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what you mean to say, with safety issue, is that government-provided infrastructure is so badly designed and ill-equipped to be used at the necessary scale attempts to improve matters must be stopped !

All infrastructure is a matter of trade-offs. Sure, they could have built the platforms 3 times wider, with funnels leading to the doors, and gates that open/close to prevent people from falling onto the tracks. But that would be an extreme increase in cost to build, and wouldn't lead to a significantly larger number of people able to take the train. This app doesn't improve matters: it causes an additional "tragedy…

Except that (correct me if I'm wrong), the platform is displayed 10 minutes before the train arrives, so there is already people waiting when the train arrives

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#92

Post by GauntletWizard »

jogjayr wrote: post #87
GauntletWizard wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mass transit is dehumanizing. Cities are dehumanizing. A significant amount of the way that giant infrastructure works is making assumptions and rote; Turning the human problem of "how do I get here" into a mechanical process of "There are two ways to do so, X and Y, each of which follow these steps". This is great for efficiency - that's why it's done. It's terrible for humanity. It's stagnant, it kills creativity,…

> It's terrible for humanity. It's stagnant, it kills creativity Your other points may be valid but I'm not so sure about this one. Artists tend to cluster in big cities, often with mass transit (and sometimes without, like LA). I sincerely doubt there's any sort of correlation between mass transit and creativity.

Mediocre artists cluster. Good artists hermit. Great artists do both - But don't maintain city apartments.

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#94

Post by DontSueMeBro »

jrockway wrote: post #52
DontSueMeBro wrote: post #31

I've been collecting Penn Station NJT and LIRR track assignment data for almost a year now. I've been intending to use ML to predict track assignment, but haven't gotten there yet. I should post it to Kaggle or somewhere similar.

Do you think the track assignment is something that's learnable? I feel like there is some schedule where, under normal operations, the train will end up. But then there are unpredictable events that cause this to change.

I think it is. Like in the article, you can see that given certain parameters like train number and time, you predictably end up with a certain track assignment. If you can also consider track assignments leading up to this time, you can discount those tracks. For example, the 8:02PM Long Beach train always leaves on track 18, except when any 7:56 train left on track 18. As a novice to ML it's currently beyond my ability to model, but my intuition is that it should be doable.

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#95

Post by CalRobert »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #70
eveningcoffee wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is also dehumanizing.

Mass transit is dehumanizing. Cities are dehumanizing. A significant amount of the way that giant infrastructure works is making assumptions and rote; Turning the human problem of "how do I get here" into a mechanical process of "There are two ways to do so, X and Y, each of which follow these steps". This is great for efficiency - that's why it's done. It's terrible for humanity. It's stagnant, it kills creativity,…

I mean, I don't think your point is wrong but I would hardly call cities, at least good ones, terrible for humanity or killing creativity.

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#96

Post by vonmoltke »

Manozco wrote: post #91
mjmahone17 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All infrastructure is a matter of trade-offs. Sure, they could have built the platforms 3 times wider, with funnels leading to the doors, and gates that open/close to prevent people from falling onto the tracks. But that would be an extreme increase in cost to build, and wouldn't lead to a significantly larger number of people able to take the train. This app doesn't improve matters: it causes an additional "tragedy…

Except that (correct me if I'm wrong), the platform is displayed 10 minutes before the train arrives, so there is already people waiting when the train arrives

It is displayed 10 minutes before the to train leaves. If a train is being turned over it will have already arrived and unloaded at that point.

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#97

Post by bogomipz »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #90
bogomipz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your points. I am curious about your use of the phrase "tragedy of the commons" though, specifically how it relates to mass transit. I would think the "tragedy of the commons" would people who elect to drive a car during rush hour rather than taking a similarly viable mass transit option if one exists. Or are you using the term just in the context of overpopulation? Thanks.

I'm really not as convinced that mass transit is a good deal. Certainly, there are some places where it is, and some huge benefits. Less time/money/space spent on parking, for example. But the oft-cited statistics about energy-use-per-passenger-mile, while true, are far from the whole story - The human cost in additional time spent commuting and inflexibility of schedule are very real. It takes me twice as long to ge…

I see, so the overcrowded cities(and by extension the mass transit) are the "commons" by which the individual is trying to reap the biggest reward from. Thanks.

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#98

Post by zavulon »

mjmasn wrote: post #2

Would have been interesting to see if you could reliably crowd-source the data from commuters themselves.

Thank you! I definitely considered doing something like that, however — the amount of work required to crowd source the data would be significant. There would be a “chicken & egg” problem — the app wouldn’t be useful to first users, and without the first users, there wouldn’t be enough data to make it useful for everyone else — so this would require a fairly large marketing campaign to get off the ground. But — one day I may still do it :)

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#99

Post by zavulon »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #10

Why didn't he switch to a crowd-sourced data model like GasBuddy?

See my comment above - it would require a significant effort to get off the ground, as the app without data would not be useful to first users, and without the data provided by those first users, it wouldn't be useful to others.

Re: How MTA shut down my app for Penn Station commuters

#100

Post by InitialLastName »

dirtybirdnj wrote: post #74
throwaway20148 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Following some rules is dehumanizing?

Being treated like cattle shuttled down a narrow pathway. Being forced to wade into a compressed crowd of people who apparently forget all manners and will push and shove you. It's basically one of, if not the worst parts of every day. And there is nothing you can do to avoid it.

There's always Port Authority!
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