Month: January 2007

TUPIDA

This is my new name for Atlanta’s transit system (www.itstupida.com). I am on the verge of – make that in the middle of – a MARTA rant. After moving and finally settling into the new school schedule I am testing out my multi modal options to and from the new house. I began my experimentation with a two key assumptions based on prior experiences: the 6 goes to Candler Park and the 45 runs between Emory and Midtown. (note: go to the text description of these routes or look on the main system map to see why I thought my assumptions held)

I should have added a third assumption, MARTA does not work. Consider website as proof. I always like the example of the Tourist Loop Logo. Well done by MARTA to harness some of the power of this medium to make their presentation more engaging. Their little moving gif’s for ‘o’s in tourist and loop add a nice touch. But the two in loop are moving backward just like the entire authority. The structure of MARTA is like something out of Mega Man video game plot. Dr. Wylie designs a machine that creates chaos and calls it MARTA.

So as for my experiment… The 6 has been changed to go to Inman Park and the 45 now goes to Candler Park instead of Emory Village. You can find this on the schedules but obviously the message from the website and paper maps at stations is mixed and confusing. I am noticeably bitter and biased in my assessment of MARTA. I am sure they has reasons for changing the routes, and I probably even had opportunities to take part in meetings that helped determine the fate of the routes. But changes should be promulgated throughout the system and users should have access to information that is up to date, clear and correct.

Tegna un gran dia.

Bollards

While researching bike bollards for our home, I found this treat. I should probably have posted it on the metrojungle blog but it was too good to pass up.

These bollards were recently installed in Manchester, UK to keep cars out of the bus only lanes. Watch what happens when drivers try to sneak in. Maybe we need a few of these in a 17th Street Bridge redesign.

Thank You (read in computer voice) MLK

On Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my family (visiting from Michigan) and I went to the Georgia Aquarium. It is a painful irony that on this day all the white-collar jobs have the day off and all the retail positions have to report to duty. My dad and I took a trip to Lowes and witnessed the whole situation with clarity. As I was driving and it is my town, I choose the radio selection. First I went to 89.3 and found that they were playing MLK speeches mixed with James Brown’s “Say it Loud”. I really liked it. On the way home I was delighted to find another speech playing on another station. Later in the day we got in the car again to go to the aquarium and I found another recording of a speech. This one was about all the negative synonyms for the word black and all the positive meanings for the word white and the subtle but repetitive, if not relentless ways the Negro has been taught to think less of himself and more of the Caucasian. I found listening to the speeches very thought provoking and a great way to squeeze in some reverence for Dr. King even though it was inadequate. No one else in the car seemed to thin the same. My dad asked me a few times to change the station.

The aquarium was much like the trip to Lowes; another venue held open on the holiday. This facility is different, however, the workers are not too strained. Which leads me to the thing that brought about this entry. the woman taking tickets at the entrance the the aquatic carnival that is the Georgia Aquarium. She takes your ticket and scans it just like at a sporting event or concert but the computer next to her chimes in and says “thank you” and you walk past. The scanner technology took the eye contact out of such a social transaction; focusing the attention of the employee on the bar code of the ticket and removing the handing back and forth of the ticket which would normally include some, albeit brief, face time. This latest innovation takes another facet of the exchange and completely removes it. It adds a new dimension (or rather removes one) to unteraction (non-interaction). I don’t like to think about jobs being taken by automation, but any thoughts of it are usually short lived because I can also think of tons of new jobs that exist today because of similar technologies. It is almost harder to think about giving people jobs that they are not needed for. Watching them try to do them may be even harder.

Regardless MLK Day in the ATL passed and he remains as much a fascinating and admirable figure as ever.

Pick Me Up

Rarely do I come into contact with celebrity. I have heard that all Atlantans have a Lenox Mall story about a sighting of Usher or Michael Vick, but the closest I usually get is seeing Lil Jon in his courtside seats at the Hawks game on the jumbotron from the nosebleed section. Sometimes I hear about a friend of a friend tied in with the news, but even this turns sour. Like when a guy I go to school with told me that he knew the ‘church-burning Alabama boys’ form his frat. Today I am proud to say that I know someone involved in something that is getting some positive press. My sister-in-law works for DK publishing (the visual publisher). She is part of a team which promotes a book called Pick Me Up.

This is a great new educational book for children and teens but is really interesting for anyone who has the curiosity to take the title’s advice. Recently it was featured the Today show and it also made the New York Times Children’s Bestsellers List. The first time I picked up the book I was skeptical but after I got into it I found it very intriguing. We passed on a copy to a friend of ours who is a kindergarten teacher and she loves it. It’s great to find an educational source so versatile across age groups. Kudos to the authors, but also to DK and Susan (my new contact with glamor) for endorsing good work.

This Christmas brought us into contact with another great book from DK. Now I can’t wait to see what DK and Susan will come out with next.