crs1026
Superstar
Good letter.
Has anyone ever seen a chart showing a superimposed view of where all the station exits align along a 10- and 12- car train? I suspect that some percentage of patrons do make strategic decisions about where on the platform they will stand, with an eye to being close to their platform exit at the far end of the trip. I wonder if the line is 'loaded' because a greater number of people actually want to be at one end rather than the other. ( Last night's adventure cost me a full-platform-length hike afterwards, because the Mimico platform exit was at the west end also)
I agree - the time for making announcements is before the train arrives, when people can do something before the 'herd' mentality takes over. People get remarkably stubborn - myself included - if directed to move 'promptly' either by PA or by 'greeters'. But they will succumb to common sense and reason if they have a minute to mull the choice over and feel they are moving of their own accord. We tend to hate authority figures!
I experienced this recently with a TTC subway evacuation: it makes no logical sense to remain someplace unsafe, but the crowd on the platform angrily stared down a TTC supervisor who was asking them to evacuate - even though the smell of burning rubbish was already wafting through the station. It took transit security's arrival to make them move.
= Paul
Has anyone ever seen a chart showing a superimposed view of where all the station exits align along a 10- and 12- car train? I suspect that some percentage of patrons do make strategic decisions about where on the platform they will stand, with an eye to being close to their platform exit at the far end of the trip. I wonder if the line is 'loaded' because a greater number of people actually want to be at one end rather than the other. ( Last night's adventure cost me a full-platform-length hike afterwards, because the Mimico platform exit was at the west end also)
I agree - the time for making announcements is before the train arrives, when people can do something before the 'herd' mentality takes over. People get remarkably stubborn - myself included - if directed to move 'promptly' either by PA or by 'greeters'. But they will succumb to common sense and reason if they have a minute to mull the choice over and feel they are moving of their own accord. We tend to hate authority figures!
I experienced this recently with a TTC subway evacuation: it makes no logical sense to remain someplace unsafe, but the crowd on the platform angrily stared down a TTC supervisor who was asking them to evacuate - even though the smell of burning rubbish was already wafting through the station. It took transit security's arrival to make them move.
= Paul