When you arrive at your destination underground station you want to be right by the exit, right? That way you get out of the sweatbox that is London Underground (or similar) more quickly. If you have a regular commute this is pretty easy. You learn where to get on the train so you're next to the exit from the platform when you arrive where you're going. That way you use the time you'd have spent just waiting for the train shortening the amount of time it's going to take you to get out at the other end. But if you don't have a regular commute, or if you use the tube for different journeys now and again, you have no idea where to stand. So the idea is... on every platform there will be lines printed that show where you should get onto the train to be just by the exit when you arrive at your destination station. Granted, the time saving would be pretty small. Not more than an hour each year for most people. But it'd be really cheap to do and when you multiply that hour by everybody who uses the tube... definitely worthwhile.-- jamieb, Sep 07 2003 Tube Hopper http://www.globalid....org/BI/BI-205.HTMLApparently, baked in book form. [friendlyfire, Oct 17 2004] How about some guides to the london underground for people who have consumed far too many compliamentry drinks and have arrived at heathrow for the first time without ever having been on any sort of underground, uuugghhhh scariest day of my life.-- Gulherme, Sep 07 2003 I'm afraid I must fishbone this one:
1) There are over 300 stations (including the Docklands Light Railway) on the London Underground network. By the time you had moved everyone out of the way and found your destination listed on the floor, you may as well have just got on the train in the first place. However, lists on the wall next to the tube map, rather than lines on the ground, would solve this problem.
2) The platforms (and trains) are crowded enough on the tube at peak times already, without everyone trying to get into the "least walking when I get to Victoria" carriage.
3) To have even more people shuffling around, not looking where they're going, would be exceedingly hazardous on the aforementioned crowded platforms. At the moment, the vast majority of Tube deaths are suicides; I wouldn't want accidental shovings to play stastistical catch-up. (Again, wall-mounted guides would reduce this hazard.)-- friendlyfire, Sep 07 2003 I'll definitely be getting the book - thanks for pointing it out. I still think it should be available to all though... and on your points... 1) You wouldn't have every station marked. It wouldn't work because to get to the majority of them you have to change. i.e. the mark at Bank for Covent Garden and for Leicester Square would be in the same place. And underneath the one for Holborn. You'd only have marks for stations on that line. 2) The point with this is that it give everybody the information with which to make a choice. Which is likely to be more efficient. Those who want a quicker journey can sit in the carriages near the exit while those with a higher propensity for comfort can sit in those further away. 3) This would obviously need a bit of trialling but I wouln't bet against the marks (whether on the platform or wall) encouraging people to spread out along the platform more evenly so as to reach their destination more quickly rather than crowding near the entrance to the platform as they do at the moment. So it might even reduce accidents.-- jamieb, Sep 08 2003 this is genius, imagine the minutes I'd save.-- neilp, Sep 17 2003 I like it in principle. Oodles of destinations are no problem if one assumes that the optimal boarding sites are few in number due to the small number of doors on any given train. Color coding (i.e. Goodge Street, Tooting Bec, East Clapham, &c. might all be served by the same quasi-optimal boarding door) would be good, except that it would confound the color-coding of the various lines. Perhaps, then, platform sites could be numbered in roman numerals from leftmost to rightmost -- uniformly among all stations -- and each station could, on printed signs and literature, have a small Roman numeral superscripted on to indicate which site is nearest its exit.-- n-pearson, Sep 17 2003 East Clapham? what line is that on?-- po, Sep 17 2003 <East Clapham? what line is that on?>
[blinks] Um. Er. The Shining Time Line?-- n-pearson, Sep 18 2003 [jamieb] I think you'd spend more time working out where to stand/sit to save time, than the time you'd actually save.-- jonthegeologist, Oct 07 2003 yeah, [jtg], but the time spent working out where to stand would otherwise be wasted, whereas the time 'saved' could (and I stress that) be used for something more useful at your destination.-- neilp, Oct 07 2003 [neilp] like singing near the photocopier at the office, presumably?-- jonthegeologist, Oct 08 2003 random, halfbakery