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Better barrier for subways 'an obsession'
Inspired by news report, small-town inventor pitches her idea to any civic official who'll listen
Published On Wed Nov 04 2009
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/article/720810--better-barrier-for-subways-an-obsession
Sharon Yetman totes a reusable grocery bag of props through a day of meetings that would wear on a seasoned executive.
The Sundridge, Ont., hockey mom, who works the phones and Internet constantly, spent three days last month in Toronto calling on any civic official willing to hear the pitch she makes Wednesday night on CBC's Dragon's Den.
Based on a brief news report about 18 months ago, Yetman set to work designing and patenting a subway barrier system she claims would perform the double function of crowd control and blocking access to the tracks.
The TTC has taken a pass on her idea, but she is not discouraged.
"This has become an obsession, because when you know you are onto something important you can't stay silent," she said of her mission.
Rather than the de rigueur PowerPoint, Yetman uses her interactive, homemade model to demonstrate how a series of gates and designated platform waiting areas would prevent the chaotic rush-hour collision of TTC riders entering and exiting trains.
To simulate the crowds of commuters in her model, she has borrowed the figurines from a decorative Victorian Christmas village.
More importantly, she says her system would save lives by barring access to the tracks.
"There are several designs," she said. "You can use basic railings, you can use a lift-arm gate, you can use automatic glass doors – your traditional grocery store. It can be as simple as a dog fence. Anything's better than nothing."
Yetman suggests motorized screens could run all along the yellow line of the platform, ascending only when the train is in the station. The cost she estimates at about $500,000 per station is a far cry from the TTC's rough estimate of $5 million per station for glass platform-edge doors. The high-tech gates rely on a computerized signalling system, already being installed on the TTC, to line up precisely with the train doors.
TTC officials believe Yetman has grasped the problem and the principle of a solution they are already investigating.
"Ms. Yetman is on the right track with respect to crowd control but the solution she brings doesn't quite meet our needs and standards with respect to engineering," said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.
As she demonstrates her design for a reporter, a piece of wire falls off the model. Turns out it's a piece of hamster cage that the determined inventor has pressed into service to simulate a gate that swings open to let riders board a train once everyone has exited in the station.
A companion binder carries dozens of letters from people who have heard Yetman's pitch. There's also a photograph of her in the life-sized simulation she made in her Sundridge basement recreation room.
Inevitably there have been some brush-offs. But, she said, "If I can save hundreds of millions of dollars for a city it's worth being hurt."
When she contacted an official at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Yetman said, "I blew him away. All he could say is, 'Wow, wow, wow.' "
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/article/720810--better-barrier-for-subways-an-obsession
Inspired by news report, small-town inventor pitches her idea to any civic official who'll listen
Published On Wed Nov 04 2009
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/article/720810--better-barrier-for-subways-an-obsession
Sharon Yetman totes a reusable grocery bag of props through a day of meetings that would wear on a seasoned executive.
The Sundridge, Ont., hockey mom, who works the phones and Internet constantly, spent three days last month in Toronto calling on any civic official willing to hear the pitch she makes Wednesday night on CBC's Dragon's Den.
Based on a brief news report about 18 months ago, Yetman set to work designing and patenting a subway barrier system she claims would perform the double function of crowd control and blocking access to the tracks.
The TTC has taken a pass on her idea, but she is not discouraged.
"This has become an obsession, because when you know you are onto something important you can't stay silent," she said of her mission.
Rather than the de rigueur PowerPoint, Yetman uses her interactive, homemade model to demonstrate how a series of gates and designated platform waiting areas would prevent the chaotic rush-hour collision of TTC riders entering and exiting trains.
To simulate the crowds of commuters in her model, she has borrowed the figurines from a decorative Victorian Christmas village.
More importantly, she says her system would save lives by barring access to the tracks.
"There are several designs," she said. "You can use basic railings, you can use a lift-arm gate, you can use automatic glass doors – your traditional grocery store. It can be as simple as a dog fence. Anything's better than nothing."
Yetman suggests motorized screens could run all along the yellow line of the platform, ascending only when the train is in the station. The cost she estimates at about $500,000 per station is a far cry from the TTC's rough estimate of $5 million per station for glass platform-edge doors. The high-tech gates rely on a computerized signalling system, already being installed on the TTC, to line up precisely with the train doors.
TTC officials believe Yetman has grasped the problem and the principle of a solution they are already investigating.
"Ms. Yetman is on the right track with respect to crowd control but the solution she brings doesn't quite meet our needs and standards with respect to engineering," said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.
As she demonstrates her design for a reporter, a piece of wire falls off the model. Turns out it's a piece of hamster cage that the determined inventor has pressed into service to simulate a gate that swings open to let riders board a train once everyone has exited in the station.
A companion binder carries dozens of letters from people who have heard Yetman's pitch. There's also a photograph of her in the life-sized simulation she made in her Sundridge basement recreation room.
Inevitably there have been some brush-offs. But, she said, "If I can save hundreds of millions of dollars for a city it's worth being hurt."
When she contacted an official at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Yetman said, "I blew him away. All he could say is, 'Wow, wow, wow.' "
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/article/720810--better-barrier-for-subways-an-obsession
