New Street Announcements?

[Railwaymodeler]

On the 572 briefly this morning, a new street intersection announcement was in use. Instead of the familiar Ms. Pace, we now have a Mr. Pace. Plus the text on the ADA sign inside was formatted different: "**Genesee Street" was one, with the two asterisks in front of the street name.

If this is a new system, it is worthless. The audio system is supposed to inform the blind where they are. I suppose for a straight line route, it may work, but only announcing the cross street (And not the street you are on as well, as it used to announce "Washington and West" for the stop on Washington Street, crossing West Street". Now it would just announce "West Street", which is a poor indicator of where exactly you are.

Anyone else heard a new system today? I actually like the new male voice better, kind of creepy at times to think Ms. Pace is a real person with the computer-like tone she used.

Curious to why they needed a new voice, but I am guessing Ms. Pace is no longer available for new words. The 568 bus, westbound trips call at "Whispering Oaks", the Section 8 compound. Eastbound calls it the newer name "Woodland Village", but Woodland sounds obviously stitched together from separate words. I take it this means she was unavailable to record the word "Woodland"?

[MetroShadow]

I think it's started on 250 and 270 last year, especially with the Posted Stops rule in effect.

[Railwaymodeler]

The 572 is posted stops only as well.

Even if they needed a new voice, don't see why they had to change the format of the announcements. Only announcing the cross street is fairly useless as I have pointed out.

[Busjack]

The 572 is posted stops only as well.

Even if they needed a new voice, don't see why they had to change the format of the announcements. Only announcing the cross street is fairly useless as I have pointed out.

Depends how snaky the route is. If 572 stays on Washington, then I don't see the need to say "Washington" every couple of blocks. But did you ride somewhere where the bus route turns (on that route, only around COL and Mudelein)? The only North route that seems sufficiently snaky is 564.

[Railwaymodeler]

572 makes a lot of turns around Mundelein into Libertyville.

Yes, I did ride it when it makes a few turns. Leaves Washington/Sheridan facing north. Turns west on Clayton, south on County, then west on Washington. Never announced a cross street for any of these turns.

On the 569 today, the Lewis Ave bus (Used to be called Lewis Crosstown, as it is mostly straight line running), and it still used Ms. Pace for announcements with the cross streets. For as few turns as the Lewis bus has, I would think using it as a prototype route would make more sense, but then again, if they want to see if it creates any confusion or inconveniences by not annoucing the cross street, then yeah, a route like the 572 would make sense.

[artthouwill]

On Pace West routes, we still have Mrs Pace. Last night the rear door.waa inoperable. I heard an announcement saying,"please use the front doors, the rear doors do not open", or something close to that. Mrs Pace was still announcing. I asked the driver and he played a few other announcements I never heard before, all by Mrs Pace.

[artthouwill]

The 572 is posted stops only as well.

Even if they needed a new voice, don't see why they had to change the format of the announcements. Only announcing the cross street is fairly useless as I have pointed out.

Are they announcing every street or just the major streets?

[Railwaymodeler]

@Busjack,

Seemed like every street, but I was not on long. Only went from Washington and Sheridan to Washington and West. Back and left knee were in a lot of pain, so I decided to take a bus partway home.

@artthouwill,

There's a lot of messages that the IBS system can play, most of which never get used. One that a certain driver often used was "Please remain seated until the bus stops before deboarding". They also have one for exiting through the rear doors, one for loud music, one for foul language, one for "excessive conversation" with the driver, and some others I can't recall off the top of my head.

[Busjack]

What are the odds of a driver hitting the "excessive conversation" one? Probably similar to Andy Richter paying off PowerBall.

[Railwaymodeler]

Or about the same as the Cubs winning the World Series, or an honest politician in Crook County.

[artthouwill]

@Busjack,

Seemed like every street, but I was not on long. Only went from Washington and Sheridan to Washington and West. Back and left knee were in a lot of pain, so I decided to take a bus partway home.

@artthouwill,

There's a lot of messages that the IBS system can play, most of which never get used. One that a certain driver often used was "Please remain seated until the bus stops before deboarding". They also have one for exiting through the rear doors, one for loud music, one for foul language, one for "excessive conversation" with the driver, and some others I can't recall off the top of my head.

I heard "Please stand behind he white line" and 'Thank You for riding Pace". The last one I heard for the first time as a stand alone announcement. Usually I have heard that one tagged to the end of some other announcement.

Also on the newer Eldorado Axxess buses, from 6340 and up, there is an annoying announcement from some other lady than Mrs Pace, When the drivers are turning (and the radius goes beyond 45 degrees), you hear the announcement "Caution, look both ways." It will play even if another announcement is simultaneously playing. It is a stupid announcement, in that a driver should look both ways BEFORE entering into an intersection, not halfway into a turn in the intersection.

[jesi2282]

On Pace West routes, we still have Mrs Pace. Last night the rear door.waa inoperable. I heard an announcement saying,"please use the front doors, the rear doors do not open", or something close to that. Mrs Pace was still announcing. I asked the driver and he played a few other announcements I never heard before, all by Mrs Pace.

What a small world, I was the driver of that Orion (6058), the back door would close, but not lock.

As far as announcements, we only have two not said by Ms. Pace... the 313 and the "North Shore July 4th" announcement...

[Railwaymodeler]

I heard "Please stand behind he white line" and 'Thank You for riding Pace". The last one I heard for the first time as a stand alone announcement. Usually I have heard that one tagged to the end of some other announcement.

Also on the newer Eldorado Axxess buses, from 6340 and up, there is an annoying announcement from some other lady than Mrs Pace, When the drivers are turning (and the radius goes beyond 45 degrees), you hear the announcement "Caution, look both ways." It will play even if another announcement is simultaneously playing. It is a stupid announcement, in that a driver should look both ways BEFORE entering into an intersection, not halfway into a turn in the intersection.

I've heard the one about the white line and the very seldom used "Thank you for riding Pace". Only times I've ever heard the thank you one, is when a passenger has been belligerant and obnoxious, and the driver plays it upon said passenger's exit from the vehicle.

The Eldorado Axxess announcement sounds incredibly dumb. "Look both ways?" Gee, I would have thought that was pretty much self explanitory, that if you are driving a transit bus with many people's lives in your hands, you would look both ways before turning a corner. Guess not.

[jajuan]

I've heard the one about the white line and the very seldom used "Thank you for riding Pace". Only times I've ever heard the thank you one, is when a passenger has been belligerant and obnoxious, and the driver plays it upon said passenger's exit from the vehicle.

The Eldorado Axxess announcement sounds incredibly dumb. "Look both ways?" Gee, I would have thought that was pretty much self explanitory, that if you are driving a transit bus with many people's lives in your hands, you would look both ways before turning a corner. Guess not.

That announcement sounds pretty dumb to me since for all the legitimate faults spoken of with CTA or Pace, operators not looking both ways before a turn is not a rule I remember an operator from either ever breaking while on a bus from either agency. Heck, I've observed CTA operators still regularly follow the rule of a bus stopping and looking before passing over a rail crossing even though track at that rail crossing had fallen into obvious disuse by that rail's owner. That sounds to me further spreading of this syndrome I've observed with both private companies and public agencies of late where management acts if the employees are incompetent when actually the questionable competency is with management.