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Preventing 12-9's

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Sat Sep 26 04:54:19 2026

I attended a symposium entitled AI Applications in Urban Transportation Management, yesterday.

One of the speakers described a system that's been installed in Chicago. It uses cameras for vision as input data. The AI detects people and other objects on the roadbed. It then alerts command, if they are detected. The speaker claimed a 30% reduction for injuries and deaths.

There was also a presentation by two people from the MTA. It concerned using AI to detect fare evasion and reducing maintenance, procurement and administrative costs. The MTA's presentation different because it did not include slides and did not include any operational applications.

The MTA's presentation occurred one session before the one that included the CTA application. I don't know, if the MTA's presenters stayed for that later presentation.

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Re: Preventing 12-9's

Posted by LuchAAA on Sat Sep 26 08:38:22 2026, in response to Preventing 12-9's, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sat Sep 26 04:54:19 2026.

Sounds like fun. Maybe they'll put it on youtube for everyone to watch.

Sounds like something that could have prevented the horrific high-profile 12-9 of two young people at Spring St.(IRT Lex).

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Re: Preventing 12-9's

Posted by AlM on Sat Sep 26 17:04:43 2026, in response to Preventing 12-9's, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sat Sep 26 04:54:19 2026.

Sounds like an excellent use for AI.

There are so many applications where a 95% accuracy rate (which AI might achieve) is useless, or possibly even harmful. But for people on the tracks, the occasional unneeded train slowdown is worth it if it prevents trains from hitting people who would otherwise be undetected.

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Re: Preventing 12-9's

Posted by TRAIN DUDE on Sun Sep 27 07:18:25 2026, in response to Preventing 12-9's, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sat Sep 26 04:54:19 2026.

I really need to ask. Were you there as a speaker, an invited guest or just sitting in to assuage your ego back here with the peasants.

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Re: Preventing 12-9's

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Sep 27 11:27:20 2026, in response to Re: Preventing 12-9's, posted by TRAIN DUDE on Sun Sep 27 07:18:25 2026.

I was invited, in the sense that I'm on the mailing list of two of the sponsoring organizations. There are many webinars and in person conferences about transportation and related topics that I attend. Some are free and others cost money to attend. The sponsors are mostly academic institutions, government agencies, publications and not for profits. I do get satisfaction from keeping up with technology.

There are also unconferences, where attendees make the presentations. I've made several presentations at unconferences. My subjects have been about CBTC, NYC bus speeds, the IBX and calculating average vehicle speeds in NYC. They've been quite technical, with the emphasis on methodology.

There's a scheduled unconference in a few weeks. I'm working on a presentation that compares NYC bus speeds and stop spacing with buses in other cities. (Hint - NYC bus performance fares a lot better in comparison to other large cities than redesign advocates would have us believe. The presentation emphasis will be on finding data and methodology to reach this conclusion.)

I've attended many yearly conferences on autonomous vehicles (AV's) and connected autonomous vehicles (CAV's). The material has progressed from the theoretical to actual implementations. The presentations have progressed from academics to small companies that are trying to sell their products. The company that mentioned the app to avoid track intrusions on the CTA mentioned many more applications that concerned rubber tire vehicles on public highways.

I mentioned this application because 12-9's are a continuing problem that appears to stump the MTA. Their 100% solutions have been centered on platform doors that are prohibitively expensive for retrofit. Prohibitive cost has been a perennial excuse for the MTA to do nothing.

Their partial solution has avoided using new technology. I thought it important to mention that other organizations have found solutions that embrace new technology.

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