February 19, 2003
MT embargo
MovableType [MT] needs better workflow control for articles.
Currently, articles are one of
1. non-existant
2. draft
3. published
4. deleted.
I suggest another publication mode, embargo, which is post-draft, but pre-published.
How to use:
Draft: Compose and revise.
Embargo: save and wait
Publish. make public if date greater than now.
February 18, 2003
FasTrak Bridge Tolls
Submitted to info@mtc.ca.gov
care of the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA).
It's rare that I agree with more than half of an MTC report, but the
Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) System Strategic Plan [.PDF]
is right on the money.
More lanes available and dedicated to FasTrak, and discounts to
promote FasTrak use are all good.
I'd like BATA to go further and adopt value pricing.
FasTrak should be used to advance the policy of value pricing for
bridges, with lower prices for non-peak times, and competitive prices
for peak travel hours.
I'd like to see car pools charged regular tolls and using the FasTrak
lanes as they do in NYC.
I'd like to see a focus groups and ongoing dialog with motorcyclists.
The challenge of stopping on an oily slick, removing gloves, and
getting out a wallet out of a zippered pocket to pay a cash toll is
a much greater nuissance for motorcyclists than for auto drivers.
Additionaly, motorcyclists also face unique security issues as they
park their bikes with prepaid FasTrak responders velcroed to their
bikes.
As tolls are adjusted to improve revenue, I'd like a better accounting
of how the revenue is used or held in trust to benefit bridge users.
For example, I'd like to see revenue from the San Mateo and Dumon
bridges used to bring early completion of the Dumon Rail project.
February 17, 2003
Caltrain Fares 2
Caltrain is considering a fare change, as just noted.
See also San Mateo Independent.
Caltrain has the pricing all wrong.
Fare should be something like
Fare = terminal_fee + A*sqrt (distance_travelled)
where the terminal_fee covers use of boarding station, transfer station,
and alighting station, dispatching, rail yards, ticket vending or other ticket service fees.
The terminal_fee could be approximately $2.00.
Distance factor A should be on the order of 0.3, so a
9 mile trip would cost $2.90 (= $2.00 + 0.3 * 3)
16 mile trip would cost $3.20 (= $2.00 + 0.3 * 4)
49 mile trip would cost $4.10 (= $2.00 + 0.3 * 7)
The cost to provide Caltrain service is not proportional to the distance
travelled. Costs to build and operate stations and handle tickets are
just as great for a three mile trip as for a fifty mile trip.
This $2.00 fixed fare is the same amount as is charged by a typical taxi service:
Short trips are well served by local buses. Caltrain is unique in that
it offers regional service through three counties. The fare system
should not penalize riders who use it as a regional system, and
already wait through many stops before getting to their destination.
Short distance riders have alternatives: county busses from VTA, SamTrans
and Muni, or local busses. What's more, if a commuter is dissatisfied with
their local bus service, they can appeal to their local agency for improvements.
If I want to go from central Sunnyvale to north Sunnyvale, I can choose
between Caltrain, VTA light rail, and local busses. Many local cities
fill in gaps in County bus systems with their own busses, such as
Santa Clara city's BEE bus.
But for a commuter going from Milbrae to Santa Clara, there is no choice
but Caltrain. Caltrain must not penalize or discourage this captive market.
The proposed zone consolidation pricing plan is wrong by penalizing
loyal long distance riders.
Moreover, the fares need to offer discounts for off peak time usage
and reverse commute usage. There should be discounts for using
less crowded trains. Caltrain's proposed fares fail on all accounts.
Other proposed ticket changes have some merit.
One-way tickets valid for three hours is fine, but the expiry clock should
start ticking when the tickets are validated, not when they're bought.
I'd love to be able to mail out Caltrain tickets with invitations
for next month's s, or carry a few spare tickets for when
I'm running late or the ticket queue is long. ACERail and
have managed successful advance ticket sales for years.
Also, parking coupons (tickets for valid use of parking, not citations
for wrong parking) should also be sold by Caltrain ticket machines.
Adding (and paying for) parking to my train ticket should be as easy
as adding fries to my hamburger.
Existing parking vending machines are a failure: they are hard to find,
don't make change, and don't accept credit cards. Take this opportunity
to remedy this situation.
Phasing out on-board ticket sales might work, but I'd like to see a
full year of successfully functioning ticket vending machines before
on-board ticket sales are abandoned. Perhaps raise the on-board
service charge to $5 from $3 and reconsider abandoning on-board
ticket sales in January 2005.
Replacing the round-trip ticket with a Day Pass is excellent.
Submitted to:
fares@caltrain.com
and by sending postal mail to
Caltrain Board Secretary,
1250 San Carlos Ave.,
San Carlos, CA, 94070
February 16, 2003
Caltrain Fares
New Caltrain Fares: Caltrain has proposed a fair adjustment. See also comments on fare proposal.
Caltrain's presentation of the new fares:
The zones and fares are changed. Does this table show which fares
go up and which go down ? No.
A better presentation would also show which fares go up
and which go down. For example, the below ficticious
matrix shows some fares going up and others going down.
| Changes | San Francisco | Palo Alto | San Jose |
| San Francisco | - | -0.25 | +1.00 |
| Palo Alto | +0.25 | - | +0.50 |
| San Jose | +0.50 | 0.00 | - |
It would also be better for Caltrain to link together their
various pages about the fares.
Also, the top table was presented by Caltrain as only a .PDF file.
It would help if Caltrain would learn to publish web materials as
simple as a one page tables in HTML, instead of only in .PDF format.
February 15, 2003
stairwell canopy
Canopies over stairwell entrances would protect stairs and
escalators from snow, rain, sand, mud and debris. Storefront
entries as used by the London Underground are even better.
Subway stairs covered in snow.
Subway platform covered in snow.
Pics from NY Times and Newsday.
Compare to Russell Square Underground Station, with its Edwardian red tiled facade, is on the Piccadilly Line.
February 14, 2003
CO ol: blank search
Continental Online gives me a golden search box on the right side of my screen,
and takes my info.
Next, I the click on search; then CO gives me a new different blank search template.
Where is the info I already typed ?
Why not give me results for the search I requested ?
February 13, 2003
co ol: flew in the future
I looked at a listing of all my reservations, and clicked on the link
for one which had not been purchased, and was older than 48 hours,
so option to purchase had likely expired.
Continental Online tells me this reservation,
which is for a flight on a future date, has aready be flown.
February 12, 2003
co ol lost data
Continental Airlines Online strikes again, and loses my
data of when and where I've been.
Seen in context:
February 11, 2003
pdf mixes landscape, portrait: good
Adobe Acrobat/PDF has a great feature:
it shows both portrait and landscape oriented pages right side
up. Other programs will show text sideways, or scroll off
the screen when you mix landscape and portrait, if they
let you mix them at all, but PDF gets it right.
February 10, 2003
February 09, 2003
How to argue: it's healthy issue to debate
Beside being able to keep their homes, many of the mobile home park
residents wanted one more thing: a traffic signal at their driveway.
But Bill Burton of Korve Engineering, the company that performed the
traffic study, said the need for a signal hasn't been proven.
"The traffic study shows there aren't enough cars going in and out
of the parks to satisfy the 100-car-per-hour warrant for a signal,"
Burton said.
City Manager Mark Joseph pointed out that traffic warrants are not
the only determining factors for a signal. He said the city council
could simply decide it wants one.
"Even though signals aren't warranted, you have a healthy
issue for debate," he said.
[2003 Feb 15, Napa Register:
American Cyn road widening plan aims to save frogs]
February 08, 2003
contextual maps
Maps should show context.
For a transit station, context means what paths and streets would
be used to approach or depart from the station. Showing the
location of other, related facilities in the vicinity is important, too.
For example bus stops. And showing not just the bus stop, but
showing which busses stop is even better.
Here's a preview of the project introduced earlier: APTA 2003- IA plus wayfinding.
An example of a job well done from Vancouver, B.C.'s Skytrain
system.
[from translink.bc.ca]
Compare to this example of a terrible, useless map is from the under
construction Cross-County Metro line in Saint Louis County, MO.
Click for full size map.
[From Cross County Metro, Saint Louis, MO.]
February 07, 2003
OMOR Air
Continental asked me (I'm Gold Elite[*]) how they could be a better airline
for me. Here's what I told them:
Most complaints I have with CO are due to management,
not poor staff. I'm quite happy with 95 % of the CO people
I meet face to face.
Reservation System
Elites are always (justifiably) complaining that CO.online is down,
broken, or would not let us book an itinerary it found.
See previous posts for details.
Commuter Jets
Remove seat 1A from the ERJ-135/145 enhanced regional
jets. These aircraft have 1+2 seating; increase the legroom for
elites on the A seats, 2A through 8A. (does anybody pay for first
class on an ERJ flight with no first class seats ?)
Boarding
When boarding, organize the scrum of pax so as to let elites preboard
without having to push our way to the front and query other pax,
are you elite/first class or are you just waiting in my way ?.
Seat Selection System
I hate seats which don't recline fully. The last row of BizFirst on
some 737, and the coach row immediately before exit rows on
some planes do not recline.
Upgrade your seat inventory tracking so we may avoid these non-reclining
seats.
1. Record my pref, and don't seat me there.
2. Warn me if I've been assigned such a seat and offer to move me.
Extreme Frequent Flyers
Other airlines have programs to reward flying 1,000,000
or 2,000,000 in a lifetime, or for reaching top tier elite status
for several years in a row. CO lacks any uber-platinum status level.
Partnerships
So-called reciprocal partnerships should include reciprocal
rights for customers. CO should also not erode rights after selling
lifetime access to enjoy rights.
CO's biggest partnership is with Northwest Air.
1) The Northwest elite customer has real, dedicated telephone agents, CO does
not.
2) Northwest Elite telephone agents will process complimentary upgrades for
their elite customers when their automated system fails them and CO operators
are forbidden to and/or powerless to help?
3) Northwest World Club members can access every airport club that a
President's Club member can AND still access America West Clubs in LAS, PHX
and CMH, whereas Presidents Club members no longer have an airport club to
use in these locations?
What process has been put in place to issue Presidents Club members transfers
to World Club membership and/or pro-rated refunds of multi-year memberships
in light of the dramatically reduced access to clubs in the US and the dramatically
reduced choices in food and drink now available?
(On Flyertalk, people blame CO Chairman and CEO Gordon M. Bethune
aka Gordo the Liar's spiteful arrogance for these shortcomings.)
Milage Rewards
Quote a price in for every seat in your inventory.
My search starts when I choose dates and an origin-destination
pair. It does now start with me choosing to spend either
or dollars.
Instead, or in addition to flat prices of eg '20,000 for a
domestic off season weekend stay flight', every time I search
for flights on CO.O.L offer me a cash price and offer me a
price.
eg
search for flight on CO.O.L, find a listing,
sort by or price, look at each result,
see details, price in $, price in .
I'm not saying you have to offer good deals in setting prices,
but just an opportunity to use up . But for 10,000,000 ,
I should be able to bump somebody who paid $98 for a coach seat.
Airport Access
Speed up airport access for elites and first class passengers.
The process of declaring who I am and presenting id and printing boarding
cards takes about three minutes.
Since I know the drill at the security inspection, I can pass though
the gate and wand check, and bag searched in less than three minutes.
But I spend a lot of time waiting for other people who wear boots
with lots of metal, who leave their cel phone in their pocket,
who can't find their boarding pass, ...
Offer elite security screenings.
At least offer a few dedicated eTicket machines for elites to use
without waiting for people who fly once per year to figure them out.
I look forward to printing boarding passes over the web.
[*] When I crash the First Class queue, I say I'm elite and flash
my gold badge. Hard to say I with a straight face, though.
February 06, 2003
Recession, downsizing
How to note a recession in California:
Among cars, California[n] preferences reflect those in the other 49
states, as the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota
Corolla, Ford Focus and Ford Taurus were the bestsellers. But the
relative wealth of California is apparent as the Mercedes-Benz
C-Class, BMW 325 and Lexus ES300 were all among the 20
top-selling passenger cars. [SJ Mercury]
If there was no recession, the Southlands (LA / Orange County / San Diego
/inland) would be full of E-series Benz, and Bay Areans (SF / Marin /
Peninsula / Silicon Valley/) would be driving BMW 330 s.
February 05, 2003
Talk like a Canadian
The biggest challenge is hiding the Canadian accent. Nancy Helms, one of the
dialect coaches at TheaterWorks, spent her first 30 years in South Carolina, so
she has an ear for the subtle differences between American and Canadian
speech patterns. Like Mr. Schaap, she does a lot of private coaching, often faxing
drills to clients who have moved to Los Angeles.
"Tawking is one thing, but speakin' is another," Ms. Helms said. She uses the
International Phonetic Alphabet and recommends the David Stern voice manuals.
"But the ear is fallible, and manuals have limitations," she said. "Canadians have
upward inflections at the end of sentences and stress different syllables. You can
really hear the difference in words like mobile, resource, adult and contributed.
Canadians stress the first syllable, making the word sound longer."
Many New Yorkers speak out of the front of their mouths, so the gum-chewing
trick helps, Mr. MacCabe said, adding: "They also tend to emphasize verbs, while
we emphasize pronouns. The tongue is more concave for Americans. It's not the
queen's English that we're used to. The tip of the `t' that you hear in Canada is
from our British influence."
[The Guy in That Canadian Film Sounds Like a Noo Yawka, Eh?
-- JOANNE LATIMER, NYT.]
February 04, 2003
Taxing California
ABX1 4 is a four billion dollar tax increase per year,
which increases car registration/licence taxes by approx 200 %
e.g., from $400 per year to $1200 per year.
If the California state government really needs to increase
the car tax, it should make do with a $100 per car increase,
or add a 10 cents per pound levy.
[State Assemblyman Don] Perata and other Democrats said
they can approve the hike on a simple majority vote because they
would be clarifying current law. Tax-related bills normally need
two-thirds support in both houses, requiring that a handful of
Republicans join Democrats for them to pass.
[Oakland Tribune, 2003 Jan 28]
Legislators who voted for this bill may claim that
they did not vote for a tax increase, but merely voted for a
"clarification of existing law to allow your Director of the
Department of Finance to triple the car tax." Ordinary Californians
will not believe such nonsense. They will know that Legislators who
voted for this bill voted for a tax increase. Likewise, if you sign
this bill, we will know that you are equally culpable.
Thanks Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association for putting
up the good fight.
February 03, 2003
Banking on NSF fees
Web site for Old National Bancorp, a $9 billion bank based in Evansville, Ind.,
promoted its overdraft program by asking: "Ever run short between paychecks?
Ever been faced with unplanned expenses? If you answered `yes' to any of these
questions, you'll have peace of mind knowing you have the protection of Overdraft
Courtesy with your Old National checking account. If you ever need more money
than you have in your account, simply write a check."
February 02, 2003
Goats, Sheep, Rams
I've seen this Chinese New Year described as,
Year of the Ram, as Year of the Goat, and as
Year of the Sheep.
In STL, it will be known as Year of the Ram.
February 01, 2003
Want a hyphen
Short shameful confession:
Staphangers: I thought this was some obscure word for
rider on public conveyance. Pronounced Staffangers.
Actually it's just strap-hangers, meaning people hanging
on to straps as they ride the streetcar, subway, or bus.
Sequel: Etymology of DO, just for Vince's entertainment.