A week or so back I posted a short rant about how the MBTA had adopted all of these TV screens and were using them as ad space rather than to communicate useful information. Well, as if god himself were listening, my very next trip to Malden Center proved me wrong.
Of course, this critical message was only one of many images in the rotation. It shows for a brief segment of time before switching back to ads. If you’ve grown to realize, like me, that the TVs have nothing more interesting than military recruitment posters, then why would you ever watch them for alerts in the first place? The fact that you have to endure advertisements to see if crucial ride information might pop up in the rotation is ridiculous.
One of these panels should be permanently set to rider information and alerts! It can be a permanent billboard, well labeled and specifically dedicated to announcements of this kind.
I am going to chalk this one up to ignorant design. I’m sure the MBTA can’t really afford the brainpower required to integrate a straightforward system on top of their existing information spaghetti of websites and apps. It is a miracle we get to ride the orange line in the first place. That said, if somebody consciously decided to mix alerts with the ads in order to force train goers to watch them all just in case an alert shows up… that’s evil man.