by Rustin Wright.
Getting more from less.
As the system started to get built, the DTC found that once it was going all around the city doing so much research and building all of this infrastructure, perhaps there were other things that these same tasks could assist in as well. After all, a modern bus stop, with a little solar panel on top and some modest lighting, as is increasingly common, is entirely capable of serving as an emergency shelter after an earthquake, fire, or other emergency. So why not make that solar panel and associated battery and electronics a bit more capable? Then put a couple of covered outlets built into one of the pylons. And should an emergency come, with the opening of a small door now people will be able to charge their phones, there is room to store a first aid kit, and people can be sure of a bit of space out of the weather with some modest light to provide medical aid, review documents, and so on. And, of course, once you’ve done that building out, the bus stops can qualify as emergency preparedness for state and federal funding, as well as technical assistance set aside for those needs.
And as the DTC studied its city’s rights of way and traffic patterns, it discovered it just made sense to place that data on a shared web server where it could not only be used by the city’s road repair crews but also by delivery services, citizens planning construction, and so on.
And when something like an overpass needs to be rebuilt or services rerouted why not use that chance while the roads are torn up and the pipes and wires exposed to build a public bathroom or two? After all, the managers of projects like getting more toilets into New York City’s and London’s public parks, and the Portland Loo have long said that the most expensive part of a public bathroom is the cost of getting the plumbing and wiring in place.
So, over time, aspects of the DTC get subsumed into something broader, a public shared research and data service for everything connected to rights of way. Which on top of everything else, considerably breaks up the willful obfuscations which have long been used by for profit electric companies, cable providers, and their ilk to preserve their monopolies on cost effective “last mile” implementation.
One problem with this is that with so much information in the public’s hands there would always be a desire for the public to micromanage. After all, possession of a large amount of data can all too easily seduce somebody into a sense of superior competence and understanding. So while by and large this mandate for transparency is held to, there is, over time, an occasional uncomfortable awareness that by doing so it makes it harder to stick to the DTC’s other commitment of absolutely minimizing unneeded changes to routing, schedules, or other aspects of service.
And as all of this vast complex web has come together, another inevitable conflict has developed.
If a pedestrian bridge is built over a highway to allow better access to a transit station, is that bridge the “legitimate turf” of the state highway department, the city department of transportation, the DTC, or agencies responsible for access issues for the less able-bodied? There is almost never a simple answer to this. But a mandate is established to do all that can be done to determint these things clearly consistently and on the record as the system is developed.