Nearly a year to the day after we heard that
WiFi trials were beginning on some of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit trains, WiFi Rail has announced a deal that'll last a score and provide high-speed WiFi "throughout the BART transit system and on all BART commuter trains." Reportedly, the network has successfully been tested to handle loads and provide speeds in excess of 15Mbps on trains moving 81 miles-per-hour. As it stands, four downtown San Francisco stations and some segments of the tunnels are already fully functional, but it'll take until the end of 2010 before the entire network is complete. There's no mention of what the price table will end up looking like, though we are told that subscriptions will be available by day, month or year. Now, if only this would filter out to every other mass transit entity in America, we'd be just jolly.
posted Jan 31st 2009 10:31AM
Yes! Now you can upload that video of a cop murdering someone before his buddies confiscate your phone!
- "You stole my WiFi! Hey officer, he stole my internets!!!"
- "Sir, did you steal this man's intern--*BANG*"
Then it's time to claim that after two years on the job and the obvious weight difference between them in your hand, you mistook a gun for a taser.
Murder is a harsh word. I don't think the officer woke up that morning planning on murdering someone. You wanna know why, I'll explain it to you, although you will not like it and I doubt you will understand it. There is a small group of our society who have chosen and been empowered to protect us. Those people are the ones who run after the man with a gun, domestic violence incidents, gang fights, and all other crimes of violence calls while you run away and look for safety. These are the same men and women who chase after people who you would cross the street to avoid even walking by. So, I offer this to you... when that small group of people who are charged with protecting you, are involved in an incident such as this, they deserve a little benefit of the doubt. They may also make mistakes...very seldom of this nature, but they may still make mistakes...if we crucify every officer who, while responding to one of these dangerous, stressful, and potentially life threatening incidents....one's that you wouldn't even dream of being involved in...Then who..will do it. You...? I doubt it.... Then what happens...I'll tell you..there will be no one willing to respond to your son being robbed at gunpoint, your daughter being raped, or you being attacked by a mugger....Your views will certainly change then.
Let me end by saying, I doubt you have any concept of police procedure, use of force, or the law...and a video doesn't tell it all...so I say, offer this officer the benefit of the doubt before you judge him. He is entitled to it in my mind.
Yeah finally more people will get mugged and robbed for something those ignorant muggers can't afford. that's why we need cops in this world. So IMO I wouldn't hate on cops. imagine one of your family members getting jumped for an ipod shuffle(priceless)
@ferrari
Nice attempt to play on my emotions by involving fictitious offspring.
Two can play at that game. How would you feel if your daughter was shot by a police officer while laying flat on the ground with no weapon?
Police do not deserve any more benefit of the doubt than an average citizen. There are plenty of other people who put their lives in danger on a daily basis. Police officers do not have a monopoly on risking their lives for other people.
If I shot someone and then claimed that I thought my fully-loaded (policy in most PD's is to carry your weapon fully-loaded) pistol was a taser... I would be laughed out of the courtroom. This man deserves no better.
The cop that MURDERED that kid was so fortunate to be caught on multiple video cameras.
I have never, EVER, seen more irrefutable proof of police brutality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKy-WSZMklc
Thank God KTVU aired the ENTIRE thing.
either this PIG COP MUTHERF> was too stupid to realize he pulled his gun and not that lighter, yellower taser...or he was trying to impress his PORK buddies by killing someone.
He is a MURDERER and I hope he never has any peace until his dying breath. In fact, I hope he KILLS HIMSELF cleaning his gun in an act of suicide.
Lol train systems are called BART? Are the bus systems called LISA?
BART= Bay Area Rapid Transport, I don't know what LISA means.
It's for Bay Area Rapid Transit or something like that. And there was a Lisa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa
BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit
They also use the slogan: Bay Area Rides Together.
Nice attempt at humor with the simpsons reference, but I just wanted to clarify the acronym in case you've never been to SF.
The trolley system is called HOMER. And the taxi services are collectively called MARGE.
no....... wtf?
It's a simpsons joke, moron. I found it rather humorous.
Geez, no need to get all Comic Book Guy about it.
Everybody Do the Bart Man....... Doh
LISA = Leprechaun In Someone's Anus
it's a game children play on st. patrick's day.
is it a monorail?
what'd i say? monorail!
Step in the right direction.
how about step in the wrong direction, most people will want this to update myspace or some other rubbish, we are anti-social enough as it is without more places to go on the internet.
How often do we socialize with strangers on public transportation anyway? I'm usually reading a book or magazine, so what's the difference if I'm reading a computer screen instead of paper? I'm in favor of more places for internetz... Now if some company was real bright, they'd make the whole tablet experience work while commuting--I never see anyone standing and using a laptop, and a lot of people (or just me) don't like reading the postage stamp size screen on cell phones.
Man... This is almost worth moving back there for.
Incidentally, there are less jobs, less income, and higher costing housing. There are certain things that don't make sense here, like the difference between a taser and a gun. Somehow they are so similar and located at the same place!
I wish the New York MTA would implement something like this. Would be nice for the train ride into NYC.
Ill be saying the same thing while im on the R headed downtown...
...right before my Wind gets jacked!
(:^0
hehe, your emoticon has a unibrow.
Hell, i just wish the TTC would stop suffering track-level fires. WiFi seems like a total pipe (or tube?) dream.
Here's an even better idea:
Just get a 3G USB modem and you're connected. I pull out my modem and plug it into my EEE PC 900 and I am online in about a minute. That's underground and in motion and a secure system.
.. and costs $60+/month
Yeah that would work fine for most areas, but there are a couple spots where 3G isn't available; ie; Oakland to SF: under the bay.
Travelling between Berkeley/Oakland and SF means you'll be riding through tunnels a majority of the time. And everyone here knows that that means zip zero nada reception.
Perhaps I'm a bit slow this morning, where do they get the 20 year deal from? If they'll finish at the end of 2010, isn't that 2 years? Typo?
...They provide and maintain the internet and the hardware for the next 20 years, and will be paid.
Yawn.
Boston has been rolling this out across its commuter rail system for about a year. Not in every car, but not everyone needs wireless internet.
http://www.mbta.com/riding_the_t/wifi/
and it's free!
The MBTA in Boston needs to concentrate on making the trains run, keeping them above freezing in winter and below 100F in summer. Free WiFi is just used as a distractor. I've seen the stickers but I've never found working WiFi on an MBTA train.
Well the Boston and Bay Area are relatively easier systems to implement WiFi... NYC, on the other hand.
Boston's pretty damn big. NYC is, geographically, pretty small.. and the density means that the investment is very worthwhile. So if anything, NYC is the best/easiest place to do something like this, at least in terms of cost/benefit.
Twenty years, hm? Just think... if some provider had scored a contract to provide connectivity services twenty years ago, we'd be using 300 baud acoustic couplers. I don't see the point of a contract lasting more than maybe four or five years.
Because the costs of implementing the infrastructure would make such a short term contract exorbitantly high?
I hope they will update that WiFi at least once during the 20 year deal... It will be severely outdated when WiMAX becomes ubiquitous.
Wish someday in El Salvador we have trains with wifi too ... or trains at least :D
Screw local mass transit systems. Why do you need wifi for a half hour trip? Put this thing on Amtrak!
The Capitol Corridor from Sacramento to San Jose already has WiFi on their trains, and that system is also managed by the BART board of Directors....
That was a test period on Capitol Corridor. I rode the train last week and Amtrak said the internet was no longer being offered.
"Now, if only this would filter out to every other mass transit entity in America, we'd be just jolly."
How about, now if only we had more mass transits entities in America, we'd just be jolly.
Sounds great until you look at the pricing details, at which point you wonder what the hell they are thinking.
From the SF Chronicle -
"Once fully complete, subscribers will be charged about $30 a month, $9 a day, $6 for two hours and $300 for a year's subscription" -
And that my friends is insane in a world where WIFI can be had for free in a lot of places, and while cities are trying to get more people out of cars and on to public transportation.
You know, at $30 a month it doesn't sound so bad to me. I think I actually have more time commuting than I have spare time at home on my workdays. I'm paying $30/month for DSL.
I have some friends who commute 3 or 4 hours a day. Probably be a pretty good investment for them.
Also be REALLY nice if you happen to live near a line and could get access in your house.
I agree. The WiFi should be used as an incentive to get people from the cars to the trains.
3rd that comment. Raise the price across the board to cover the WiFi and use it as an incentive. City planners are idiots when it comes to commuting.
DFW doesn't have a great transportation system, but at least the TRE does have wifi! And it's free! And the newer cars have power outlets too.