@topaz i wonder if you could email this to the department of whatever whatever it says on that
prob doesn't have to be fancy
just like. "This bart elevator is expired. Here's precisely where it is."
@certifiedperson Trip Throughout The System to Find the Expired Elevators
@certifiedperson (shouldn't cost any money... for the elevators that are inside the fare gates. Some are outside, IIRC; they have fare gates at platform level.)
@certifiedperson Bay Fair is like that
whereas Coliseum also has a separated elevator, but its special own fare gate is on street level.
It's fucking annoying that you can't get to the elevators from the concourse without tagging out.
@certifiedperson Whereas some other stations have the elevators go to the concourse
several actually have this little hallway that goes to the elevator; it doesn't just pop out in the middle of things.
@certifiedperson Stations with split platforms have TWO elevators.
12th and 19th St. stations have two levels of platforms, so their internal elevators have three levels! [concourse, two northbound platforms, single southbound platform]
And additionally SEPARATE elevators to surface level, on top of that!
@certifiedperson MacArthur (where we went today!) has FOUR TRACKS, but only two elevators, because both tracks share one platform-standing-area.
@topaz adventure time! Or is that quest time?
@certifiedperson either! but quest is more Literary and used in fantasy stuff.
@topaz i recall an old tumblr post that described the difference between an adventure, a quest, and a journey.
i think it said quest was travel with an important and clear end goal, journey is where the travel is more important than the goal, and an adventure is travel without a clear goal?
i think of that every time i say adventure
@topaz or hell you wouldn't need to bother writing where it is, it has a road name and complex number on it.
@certifiedperson just tell 'em the station and platform!
@topaz oh it's that easy? I don't use trains i don't know how many elevators big city train stations have
i come from an island nation that has the total population of Sydney.
@certifiedperson yeah! just "BART station X, platform Y"
@certifiedperson The PA announcements will say something like "The following elevators are out of service: At Millbrae, the street elevator; at North Berkeley, the station elevator; at El Cerrito Plaza the Richmond elevator..."
@certifiedperson and yes there's generally AT LEAST one elevator out of service at any given time
right now I think it's just North Berkeley.
@certifiedperson and elevator count wise, there's generally one or two! Stations with one platform-walking-area (this is two "platforms" i.e. tracks) will have one elevator; stations with split platforms with the tracks in the middle will have at least two. Underground stations will generally have two elevators even in a center-island configuration with tracks on the side, because there's an elevator to street, then you tag into the normal fare gates, and then there's a SEPARATE elevator to the platform level.
@topaz so underground has two levels? If there's an elevator that gets to the platform but not the street?
@certifiedperson and then SF's stations that link with Muni light rail go like
street
|
concourse
|
Muni platform
|
BART platform
yes you have TWO LEVELS OF TRAINS it's great :3
@certifiedperson to transfer between BART and Muni, you have to go up to concourse level; there's no way to get between the two different-system platforms directly.
@certifiedperson They even have different sets of stairs! The stairs that go to the BART platform cuts through the Muni platform and is walled off!
@topaz wtf is the concourse for? Or do?
i always thought subways were one level
walk down stairs/elevator, go through gatey things, then have waiting & tracks right there
@certifiedperson oh the concourse is where the gatey things are!
@certifiedperson the gatey things aren't at platform level, probably for architectural flexibility I guess
the tracks aren't always aligned with the streets, and you need street-aligned exits.
@certifiedperson and like, if the tracks ARE directly under the street, you need the exits to go to the sidewalk and not just pop up in the middle of the road :3
@certifiedperson the concourse also has a station agent person in an information booth. If you need help you go talk to them.
They aren't at platform level either.
@certifiedperson now, /aboveground/ stations have the concourse at street level, with the track above.
@certifiedperson (...why am I talking train stuff and not @IceWolf?? hey Frost you're the resident Train Nerd)
@topaz @certifiedperson You can be train nerd too!
@topaz like to imagine them at platform level anyway :3
(that's just 'cause i always assumed that's how it was)
@topaz @certifiedperson we should get some station pictures sometime!!
@topaz ohh i guess that makes sense. And the space can probably only be so wide before it gets difficult with building weights or something, right?
@certifiedperson hmm! honestly I think it's more that having it at platform level would restrict it to be too /narrow/.
@certifiedperson And then you have a few stations with more exotic track configurations like 12th/19th and MacArthur.
There was one station up Antioch way – was it Rockridge? where we got our AV receiver – that has an elevator that goes street-concourse-platform, all one elevator, with fare gates at platform level.
EXCEPT THE FARE GATE WAS GONE.
so we could have just walked out of the station without paying???
we were meeting the guy at the BART, though, so no raisin to.
@topaz that's. Poor if it's often many like that.
@certifiedperson yeah...
though I included three mostly to have the variety of different types
two seems to be the average.
@topaz WAIT it's in American
@certifiedperson it's backwards, Because America™
March
@certifiedperson at least, I THINK it's March
if it's actually October then it isn't expired
but considering "All elevators in the system are in service." is a rare occurrence... yeah I bet it's March.
@topaz Yeah and also if it's in America, it's probably written in American? So March & expired makes sense.
@topaz seriously wth is up with mm/dd/yy?? Is2g it needs to be explicitly declared as being in use.
@certifiedperson yeah!! so confusing!
like
I get that it's a lengthening of MM/DD
but just do YYYY/MM/DD then!
@certifiedperson I mean, it wouldn't be bad if DD/MM/YYYY didn't ALSO exist.
@topaz ??? Why the fuck would someone write mm/dd??? That's not any better
like i do agree that yyyy/mm/dd is best, but dd/mm/yyyy does also make sense! It's in order!
@certifiedperson maybe it's
YYYY/MM/DD
drop YYYY
re-add YYYY but nobody bothered making sure it's in order so they put it in back Just Because
@topaz possibly! No idea.
No wonder BART's elevators are always failing...