Mini-Ethnography of Infrastructure

I choose the automated stop announcement system installed on all TTC vehicles as the subject of ethnography. The visible part of the system is a LED screen showing the name of the stop as announced by a calming/emotionless female voice. The automation is operated by GPS on surface transit, and transponder on subways. The system has been taken for granted by frequent TTC users. And it is also very helpful to newcomers to the city. Star’s (1999) framework will be used to analysis the infrastructure of the automated announcement system.

Embeddedness: the announcement system is often seen as a part of a vehicle. TTC users do not distinguish it as a component from the larger structure, nor do they wonder how it coordinates with other systems.

Transparency: the system is transparent to users as it is a routine to have the voice announce the arriving stop. For frequent users who are familiar with a certain route, they may expect to hear the station names to know roughly where they are while doing other tasks.

Reach or scope: it reaches to all TTC users while they are using TTC services. No matter occasional or frequent users, as long as one knows his/her destination and understands English, the system can help navigating around the city. Visually or hearing impaired users can utilize the system by either listening to the announcement or reading from the screen.

Learned as part of membership: New users to TTC needs to learn about (and soon familiarize with) where the LED screen is on bus/street car/subway and when to expect to hear the announcement as part of their transit experience in Toronto.

Links with conventions of practice: the implementation of this system is linked with a series of conventions of making public announcements. For example, the convention of forecasting the next stop and announcing when it arrives; the convention of using a female voice; and whether it’s necessary for the voice sounds calming and lacks emotion.

Embodiment of standards: The transmission of radio frequencies and satellite signals involves certain protocols and standards. Moreover, TTC did not employ the system until 2007 when the Human Rights Tribunal’s ruling forced TTC to install such system for visually impaired passengers. Before the automated system, the announcements were driver-initiated, which was argued to be too dangerous. Such change in the infrastructure of stop announcement system reflects that the society/culture and the city administration values equality, safety and human rights in public services.

Build on an installed base: the system is built upon the TTC vehicles, predetermined routes, and information technologies that enable radio and GPS signals transmission. Because of these existing structures, this system takes advantage of their strengths and yet inherits its constraints. A hick-up in these structures will affect the announcement system by, for example, retrieving wrong location and station names.

Becomes visible upon breakdown: A breakdown in the announcement system may confuse frequent users. For a novel TTC user, it can be useless for them, or worse, giving wrong station names and misdirect them.

Is fixed in modular increments, not all once or globally: System hick-ups often happen in very small scales, which can be fixed independently. Technological imperfections of the system are treated as independent case and are compensated by human efforts. For instance, the name of some stops recognized by the system is different from the popular name known by most people. To eliminate confusion, every time after the automated announcement, the driver would manually announce it again by its popular name so that passengers would know it is the stop they actually want to go to.