Does SEPTA have safety violations?
Nov. 28th, 2006 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gizaSo, I found myself waiting at Market East Station earlier tonight, because my train was running late. I didn't feel like sitting down so I figured I would walk down to the end of the platform and back, just to have something to do. I walked down to Track #4, Section C, and what should I see but this:
Perhaps some readers with a background in safety issues could go into more details, but isn't blocking an exit both a general safety hazard and a fire code violation? (Looking at the picture, I stupidly cut off the "EXIT" sign in big letters above the door. But hey, feel free to go check out the door at Market East and see for yourself.)
That section of the platform has what amounts to at least a 10' x 10' area between where riders would be waiting for the train (to the left and behind me in that picture), I have no idea why this trash bin couldn't have been placed there instead.
The irony here is that I took my good old time taking this picture, and tried to make it very obvious that I was taking a picture. Yet nobody questioned me about it this time. Odd.
From a safety issue, I am now starting to wonder that if something as blatant as this happened, what other safety issues might us riders not know about? I'm sure there's nothing overtly life threatening, but some problems such as this one will only manifest themselves if there is some sort of an emergency. Lately I've been walking for exercise. I'm tempted to get some of that exercise by walking around public areas of SEPTA stations and seeing what else I can find that's wrong.
While I'm talking about SEPTA trains being late, I might as well mention what else I've been up to. In an effort to document that yes, a significant number of SEPTA trains do not depart their stations on time, I decided to start keeping a notebook in which I wrote down the time every train I rode departed the station I got on and stepped off at. I currently have data going back to August, consisting of about 180 data points in total. What I have so far is not very flattering of SEPTA's timeliness.
The interesting thing about my time gathering is that I haven't tried to hide it. Every morning when my train arrives at Market East, I wait around until the train leaves, which doesn't happen until the platform is mostly empty. So it's just the conductors, a few passengers waiting for other trains, and me: staring at the clock, the train, and writing down the time when the train leaves. Same thing for when I arrive home at night.
I can't help but wonder if they've had their eye on me for some time now. Who knows?
Perhaps some readers with a background in safety issues could go into more details, but isn't blocking an exit both a general safety hazard and a fire code violation? (Looking at the picture, I stupidly cut off the "EXIT" sign in big letters above the door. But hey, feel free to go check out the door at Market East and see for yourself.)
That section of the platform has what amounts to at least a 10' x 10' area between where riders would be waiting for the train (to the left and behind me in that picture), I have no idea why this trash bin couldn't have been placed there instead.
The irony here is that I took my good old time taking this picture, and tried to make it very obvious that I was taking a picture. Yet nobody questioned me about it this time. Odd.
From a safety issue, I am now starting to wonder that if something as blatant as this happened, what other safety issues might us riders not know about? I'm sure there's nothing overtly life threatening, but some problems such as this one will only manifest themselves if there is some sort of an emergency. Lately I've been walking for exercise. I'm tempted to get some of that exercise by walking around public areas of SEPTA stations and seeing what else I can find that's wrong.
While I'm talking about SEPTA trains being late, I might as well mention what else I've been up to. In an effort to document that yes, a significant number of SEPTA trains do not depart their stations on time, I decided to start keeping a notebook in which I wrote down the time every train I rode departed the station I got on and stepped off at. I currently have data going back to August, consisting of about 180 data points in total. What I have so far is not very flattering of SEPTA's timeliness.
The interesting thing about my time gathering is that I haven't tried to hide it. Every morning when my train arrives at Market East, I wait around until the train leaves, which doesn't happen until the platform is mostly empty. So it's just the conductors, a few passengers waiting for other trains, and me: staring at the clock, the train, and writing down the time when the train leaves. Same thing for when I arrive home at night.
I can't help but wonder if they've had their eye on me for some time now. Who knows?