PIDs are Passenger Information Displays, the screens you see around the public transport network with live information.
It’s good to see a lot more of these being installed at stops, on stations and on vehicles.
But sometimes I suspect they don’t really think about how passengers will use them. There’s an increasing trend of putting them in positions or orientations making them not as useful as they could be.
Footscray station: This screen is at the busy main entrance. Which platform do you need? It might be platforms 2-6 up the steps/escalator, or platform 1 beyond the sign. But the screen is angled so you have to be right in front of it to read it. It might be quicker for you to go up the stairs, but you probably won’t be able to read the screen until after you’ve passed them.
Lonsdale Street, an old favourite, where the automated Smartbus sign is far enough from the front of the bus stop (where most people wait) that you can’t read it. Even if your eyesight is great, there are other signs blocking it. What’s the point?
The brand new Parkdale station has the screens at an angle where you can’t read them when approaching from the street. To check the screen, you may end up walking past the stairs and Myki readers, then doubling back.
The recently opened Deer Park station: This is one of the silliest I’ve seen. You can approach from the south side or the north side. But the screens on each side only display trains for the closest platform. So if you enter from the south, you can only see outbound train info, and from the north you can only see citybound trains.
It’s a bit like desire lines – some of the station precincts seem to have been designed with little thought around pedestrian flows.
This photo is from outside the new(ish) Clayton station, but as with the screens, there are plenty of examples.
I think they can do better.
4 replies on “Misplaced PIDs”
PIDs in Melbourne are so consistently terrible that I canโt help but think that they do it on purpose! Next Tram displays are often placed so awkwardly close to the tram stop shelters that you have to step out onto the road, or stand directly under them, to be able to see them. Train station platform displays are even worse, theyโre always at odd angles so you have to jump off the train at major interchanges to be able to read them, or placed awkwardly at the bottom of stairs/escalators so people are forced to stop and read them in the worst possible spot.
At least the Deer Park situation could be improved by duplicating the monitor feed to the other side. i.e. Add an extra monitor/display on the north side that has the south side info and vice versa. Two extra monitors and two video feed cables, job done.
I’ve not thought about how the Footscray PID could be better placed but it is in a awkward place to read. It suits those alighting from buses I suppose but most come from the other direction.
Are they in the right place anywhere??? When Ormond station was rebuilt I got irrationally angry that I basically have to walk into the station to read the sign (plus the size of the screen at the south entry does match the resolution and it hurts my eyes). At Bentleigh they have those LED displays so you can see bus and train connections coming up. Ideally, we should be able to see the sign on approach to the station. Another bugbear is Caulfield station from Normanby Rd, you can’t see the signs to know if you should go to Platform 1 or 3 for the next citybound train unless you pass Platform 1, then have to double back if the next train is on Platform 1. Or the many other stations where the you have to stop in the middle of the flow of traffic to read the sign and work out where to go.