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Re: SMART noise (again) I go with the money for quiet zones...
Author: BOB2
Date: 08-29-2019 - 15:24
I'll go with the theory about pissing the whiny little b#tches off, so they'll pony up the scratch, to pay for the quiet zones....
I've still not figured out why anyone would be in any way enamored with how SMART has been been done, or some of these kind of decisions...
I have followed and been involved with the Gold Line Authority and how it timed its tests, and informs the public, and stages the work. Which is what may be a "gold" (line) "standard".
Of course the GL, now with three segments under their belt, that they've learned lessons from, in how to deal with some of these things, relatively well, without any sign of a compulsive "need" to piss off every possible critic, who they could drive nuts with horn tests, at 1 am... And, they are well under way and funded on the fourth segment, doing live testing of the changes they are making to the Pasadena Sub, in preparation for the line extension from Azusa to Pomona. Go figure....?
SMART management choices, Board expectations as to performance of that management, and some of the goofy things they seem to do, has, though I see the project merits, none the less, been a bit of a mystery to me. Like not running service in critical high demand time slots, and other mysteries of apparent mystical whimsy like that.
Thus, I don't fully understand why they need to do this at night? And, not on weekends, at least in integrating the "noise impacted" area they appear to be working on in Downtown San Rafael. The rest of the line testing is on a non operating segment.... and should be easily doable and will likely be done, during daylight hours...?
Do they have traffic signal integration issues or some other reason, that might cause more impacts? There might be some weird reasoning...
Once again, SMART doesn't appear to have had the foresight, or much of a learning curve (from phase I), to think stuff like this through very well, or to get "ahead of this" with better outreach (to the likely mob that will show up with pitchforks and tar, that was awoken at 1 am, by horn testing...?).
Now I know some of you will tell me that it's just a bunch of whiners, and that may well be so, but that doesn't matter, if you didn't plan for dealing with that eventuality, too.
I've been in meetings with GL folks over the years, where "details" like this were worked out to the nth degree by folks like Lisa and Habib, resulting in way less problems like these. I can't say I'd give the same high marks to Farhad's team on that level of attention to detail, from the public reactions they have encountered.
I once had a boss who once told me "Bob, you worry to much about the details...". He did it as a "put down" because of my obvious ignorance in failing to see the "big picture" he was painting. This was due to my raising some thorny issues on the 710 tunnel, that would threaten the credibility of the project and give "free ammunition" out to project opponents, that he didn't want to acknowledge and/or deal with (and, we all see how well that finally turned out...???).
My immediate supervisor, the deputy CEO was in the room, and visibly winced at my dressing down... On the way out, he said to me that was "kind of brutal". And, I told him it was one of the finest professional compliments I'd ever received from that particular individual.
I believe it may have been Eero Saarinen (or maybe the other one?), who said that "it's only the details that matter..."
It's not lost on me that just maybe, Farhad's team, and maybe the leadership on the SMART Board, could use some more work on how to better anticipate and deal with some of these pesky "details", like maybe "before" the angry mob shows up?
I've still not figured out why anyone would be in any way enamored with how SMART has been been done, or some of these kind of decisions...
I have followed and been involved with the Gold Line Authority and how it timed its tests, and informs the public, and stages the work. Which is what may be a "gold" (line) "standard".
Of course the GL, now with three segments under their belt, that they've learned lessons from, in how to deal with some of these things, relatively well, without any sign of a compulsive "need" to piss off every possible critic, who they could drive nuts with horn tests, at 1 am... And, they are well under way and funded on the fourth segment, doing live testing of the changes they are making to the Pasadena Sub, in preparation for the line extension from Azusa to Pomona. Go figure....?
SMART management choices, Board expectations as to performance of that management, and some of the goofy things they seem to do, has, though I see the project merits, none the less, been a bit of a mystery to me. Like not running service in critical high demand time slots, and other mysteries of apparent mystical whimsy like that.
Thus, I don't fully understand why they need to do this at night? And, not on weekends, at least in integrating the "noise impacted" area they appear to be working on in Downtown San Rafael. The rest of the line testing is on a non operating segment.... and should be easily doable and will likely be done, during daylight hours...?
Do they have traffic signal integration issues or some other reason, that might cause more impacts? There might be some weird reasoning...
Once again, SMART doesn't appear to have had the foresight, or much of a learning curve (from phase I), to think stuff like this through very well, or to get "ahead of this" with better outreach (to the likely mob that will show up with pitchforks and tar, that was awoken at 1 am, by horn testing...?).
Now I know some of you will tell me that it's just a bunch of whiners, and that may well be so, but that doesn't matter, if you didn't plan for dealing with that eventuality, too.
I've been in meetings with GL folks over the years, where "details" like this were worked out to the nth degree by folks like Lisa and Habib, resulting in way less problems like these. I can't say I'd give the same high marks to Farhad's team on that level of attention to detail, from the public reactions they have encountered.
I once had a boss who once told me "Bob, you worry to much about the details...". He did it as a "put down" because of my obvious ignorance in failing to see the "big picture" he was painting. This was due to my raising some thorny issues on the 710 tunnel, that would threaten the credibility of the project and give "free ammunition" out to project opponents, that he didn't want to acknowledge and/or deal with (and, we all see how well that finally turned out...???).
My immediate supervisor, the deputy CEO was in the room, and visibly winced at my dressing down... On the way out, he said to me that was "kind of brutal". And, I told him it was one of the finest professional compliments I'd ever received from that particular individual.
I believe it may have been Eero Saarinen (or maybe the other one?), who said that "it's only the details that matter..."
It's not lost on me that just maybe, Farhad's team, and maybe the leadership on the SMART Board, could use some more work on how to better anticipate and deal with some of these pesky "details", like maybe "before" the angry mob shows up?
