Posted by Seth on September 12, 2008 under Uncategorized | 
The traffic in Istanbul sucks. There is no two ways about it. The city is on the water, with the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus major impediments to travel there, funneling all traffic through a couple of bridges that are woefully undersized to handle the loads. They are apparently planning on adding an additional bridge on the Bosphorus, but that is still a ways out, as it has only just been approved by the government and the final site hasn’t yet been selected yet. A taksi from the airport to downtown is easily a 45 minute endeavor, at a rate of something around YTL30, which isn’t horrible, but also certainly isn’t cheap by any stretch. The roads are just ridiculously crowded. Not quite as bad as Delhi or Saigon, but close.
Fortunately, they have a pretty solid mass transit system in place. And we rode a lot of it. We didn’t take a bus in Istanbul, but there are plenty of them and it seems there is pretty reliable route coverage and frequencies. Similarly, the ferries cover the water crossings way better than a car possibly could; as busy as the waterways are they are still way better than the bridges. There is even an aerial cable car that operates just below the Hilton Hotel near Taksim Square, crossing over a park for those who don’t want to walk or drive around to the other side. Those are the pieces we didn’t get to try, but there are plenty that we did.
There is a Metro system – actually a few light rail systems that connect at transfer points – that cover the city, from the airport in the West to the Sultanhamet to the Beygolu area across the Golden Horn. There’s another tram system that runs on the Asian side as well, with easy ferry connections. With trains running about every 10 minutes and air conditioned, modern cars the light rail was truly phenomenal. From the airport to the Sultanhamet area was about a 45 minute trip, the same as a taksi, and the cost was two tokens – YTL 2.80 – per person. The one thing that is a bit annoying is that transfer between the various lines requires a new token and fare to be paid, but that’s a minor inconvenience considering how convenient the trams are to the vast majority of the areas that most folks want to visit.
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| The engine that drives the funicular. |
There are also a couple funiculars (inclined trains) that run in the Beygolu area. One of them is almost brand new (~10 years old) and the other is actually the third oldest mass transit system in the world (behind London and a now defunct Brooklyn route), over 130 years old. We tried to ride on both one day and managed to find the new one pretty easily, but the older one was elusive. As we departed Istanbul for Cappadocia we actually still hadn’t found it. As we had a 7 hour connection on our return through Istanbul, however, we had a second chance to find the old one and ride a piece of history.
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| The tunnel for the older funicular route. |
The older funicular was more fun, with the tunnel looking its age and the tram car somewhat newer, but not a ton. And we managed to take the Metro in from the airport, ride the funicular up to the Tunel Square area, have a very long and relaxing brunch and repeat the trip in reverse in about 5 hours. Plus the old funicular has a different fare, YTL 0.90, so we had to buy a different token and that meant another fun souvenir for me. I’ve now ridden on at least the three oldest, so I need to find out what the rest of the old ones are and start planning some new trips.
They also seem to have a “tap-and-go” system where you can put money on a card/pass of some sort rather than buying individual tokens. I certainly don’t speak enough Turkish to try to figure out how that works, but it seems like an easier option if you don’t want to mess with tokens during a visit, though I have no idea if there is a charge for the card and/or a discount for using it.
I’m a big fan of mass transit in general, and even more so when it goes to/from the airport. This wasn’t as easy as the Metro in Washington, DC or BART in San Francisco, but it was pretty darn close, and it was way cheaper and mostly easier than a taksi in from the airport. It will definitely be my transit choice next time I’m in Istanbul.
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| The view inside the car of the newer funicular. |
The platform for the newer run. |
Posted by Seth on August 10, 2008 under Uncategorized |
If you’re willing to hack your CharlieCard then it would seem that it actually isn’t all that hard to give yourself some additional fare value on the Boston mass transit system. A group of MIT students were prevented from presenting their report on the flaws in the system thanks to a last minute injunction handed down by a judge in Massachusetts. The trio was poised to present the findings at Defcon, an annual security/hacker conference. The MBTA effectively petitioned the courts that they’d lose too much money if the report was presented before they could fix the problems and managed to get a judgement in their favor.
Of course, the slides for the presentation were published before the injunction came down, so plenty of folks have some of the details. Something about the horses already being out of the barn comes to mind. They apparently offered to tell the MBTA about the problem a while ago and were rebuffed. Better to sue later than solve the problem now. When will people learn that you cannot actually silence people who discover security holes. Just fix them and move on.
Oh, and they got an A on their research from their professor.
Posted by Seth on August 2, 2008 under Uncategorized |
The number of folks riding on the subway continues to rise and the MTA can’t actually put any more trains on the tracks because the signaling systems can’t handle it. And getting left behind on the platform at rush hour is hardly an uncommon experience. One possible solution: cars without seats.
The MTA is putting a pilot program together that will involve new cars that have flip-up seats. The seats will normally be down and available for use, but at rush hour the seats will be locked in the up position, making four of the ten cars on the train standing room only. The MTA expects that the new cars will increase capacity on those cars by 18%, which is a pretty significant jump.
This has a very high potential up-side for folks whose commute are mostly within Manhattan or just across the East River, as the time spent on the trains is relatively low. For folks trying to get to or from stops at the end of the lines, however, the prospect of standing for 60+ minutes on the ride can’t be particularly appealing. Still, with the new plan only going after four of the cars most folks will still be able to sit for the long rides. Overall, I think it is a good plan and I’m looking forward to giving the new cars a ride when they show up.
Posted by Seth on May 28, 2008 under Uncategorized |
One of my favorite bits of travel is the different dining habits/customs of our destination. When in Spain, dinner is nice and late, following an early round of tapas. Italy has a similar evening/night split for snacks and dining. In Asia, dining on the roadside was very common, either a grab-and-go snack from a vendor or sitting at tiny plastic tables in tiny plastic chairs on the sidewalk in Saigon, slurping up pho while trying not to break anything. I love these experiences, partly for the food and partly because we get to see the culture of those places not just from the displays in a museum.
So I was particularly saddened yesterday walking to the subway on my way home from work. It was about 7:30pm and I passed a family walking cross-town. They were headed east from the Times Square area, seemingly back towards their hotel. Laden with the requisite shopping bags I noticed one in the mix that was rather disappointing – leftovers from The Olive Garden. So at 7:30 they were done with dinner, and it was an Olive Garden dinner.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t hate the Olive Garden. I like the salad and bread sticks (or I did last time I had them, which was probably 8 years ago), and I’m sure that there are places where it is the best option for “Italian” food that is available. But it pains me to see folks choosing that over one of the dozens of local places that are available in NYC that provide a better meal and a much more realistic view of dining in the city.
While in Paris we had a fabulous dinner at a great little restaurant. My wife claims that it is the best meal she’s ever had, and she’s probably right. But our 8:30pm seating had us in with all the other Americans, though we were at least on the later side of that group. Only as we finished up dining did we see some locals start to trickle in around 10pm. The meal was delicious, but I cannot help but think we got shorted a bit on the experience because of the timing. And I think that this family drew the same short straw with their dinner last night, too.
Maybe it is just because I’m obsessed with food, but I think that making the leap to the local dining culture is as important as anything else you do on a trip. And in New York that means no Olive Garden. Oh, and no licking your fingers in India. That’s a good way to end up on the couch/in the bathroom for two days until the Cipro kicks in, but that’s a whole different story…
Posted by Seth on May 19, 2008 under Uncategorized |
The NYC MTA has released another batch of retired subway cars to be recycled as artificial reefs along the East coast of the United States. As the city’s subway system modernizes the old cars are being stripped down and then sunk off the coast, producing reefs that are expected to draw fish and tourists. This isn’t the first time they’ve done it, but it is a reminder to me that I need to plan a scuba trip to go experience riding the MTA underwater.
Posted by Seth on February 12, 2008 under Trip Reports |
One nice thing about visiting cities is that they generally have at least some mass transit options available. In the case of Hong Kong, the question was really what mass transit options weren’t available, not which ones were. There is the Airport Express train in from the airport, the MTR (subway/metro), trams, busses, green mini-busses (green = go) and red ones (red=stop; don’t use them) and the Star ferry back and forth across Victoria Harbor. In the five days I was in Hong Kong I actually managed to use all of them (and a taxi or two, for good measure), except the red mini-busses. The best part about the options in Hong Kong was the frequency of service. I never waited more than 3-4 minutes for the MTR or more than 10 for a bus or mini-bus. I never experienced the crazy crowds on the MTR, though I was there during a holiday period. Things did start to fill up more towards the end of the trip, and I can see how it would be very crowded, but with the frequency of service I’m not sure it’d be too big an issue.
Another nice thing about the HK transit options is that they all run on the same smart card system, called an Octopus card. It is similar to the system in place in Atlanta, Washington, DC and Chicago with a card that you can add value to as necessary and then just tap it on the sensor every time you get on or off one of the rides and the fare is deducted automatically. The card also can be used at all the 7-11 shops around town and a number of other retail establishments. You can get a card at the airport and use it for the duration of your stay. There is a HK$50 deposit that you get back at the Airport Express station when you get back to the airport. When you’re adding value to the card it is done in HK$50 or 100 increments, which I thought was going to leave me with some unused value on the card that would be part of my donation to the Hong Kong Mass Transit system. I was pleasantly surprised when I was actually given the cash back for the remaining balance, in addition to the HK$50 deposit, when I returned the card. When getting the card there are a few options, including a “tourist” pass that allows for three days unlimited use of the MTR in addition to a one way or round trip Airport Express fare. Thanks to a combination of jet lag, confusion and not paying attention, I didn’t realize that the unlimited was actually only for the MTR and not all the Octopus-enabled transit options, which left me in a very confused state trying to get off the tram at one point, though fortunately I did have the fare available in cash to avoid a real problem. I also managed to get an extra day of MTR rides somehow, I think, though maybe they don’t charge for the first day you ride the Airport Express, or maybe I got some special deal because I came in after 9pm or something. Still, at HK$70 for the unlimited MTR for 3 days, and the fact that you’ll get back whatever money you don’t spend, the tourist card is actually a pretty bad deal unless you’re taking a lot of rides (they’re ~HK$4-6 per ride in the main areas of town) or taking some longer rides each day. Others had told me that this was the case, and I should’ve listened to them. Lesson learned.
One thing I wasn’t prepared for is the size of the MTR stations – they’re huge. I think that the largest station in the NYC subway system is Times Square, with three different sets of tracks spanning a pretty large area underground; Hong Kong’s stations dwarf it by comparison. Each station has a number of exits all over the area where the stop is, which is great as you can pretty much stay inside to get to where you are going. On the down side, there are a ton of steps between the various levels and entrances and exits, making it rather difficult to navigate with luggage. Getting from the street on to a train platform could take up to 10-15 minutes it seemed, depending on which entrance you use and how many different levels of escalators you have to use to get there. There were a number of trips on the MTR where I think I walked farther to find my way to/from the trains than I would have if I’d just walked where I was going, though I’m sure that wasn’t really the case.
Posted by Seth on July 9, 2007 under Trip Reports |
I love the subway here in NYC. I can easily get just about anywhere I want to go (I don’t go to the Upper East Side all that much anyways), and it is a pretty easy system to navigate – assuming you’ve been here a few years and become learned as to which lines go where, which are likely to be under construction, and which to avoid due to crowding and/or scheduling. The NYTimes travel section has a pretty entertaining article about this topic in this week’s edition.
The easy solution for folks who are unfamiliar:
Get a map from the booth, open it up and look lost. Someone will help you out – maybe me.
