Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Minitask: Transportation

  The first mode of transportation used was the U-Bahn rail network, which is characterized by its underground rail system.  U-Bahn stations incorporated aspects of Berlin’s history into its décor. For example tile Babylon columns which represent archaeological expeditions to Iran commissioned by Berlin, or previous iterations of train cars shown on posters in Klosterstrasse station.

  The S-Bahn was subsequently used, with Alexanderplatz as the starting off point. The station is impressive with its arched ribbed ceiling, making it a defining feature of the Alexanderplatz area.

  Compared to other urban rail transportation, U-Bahn/S-Bahn markedly differs in the necessity to push a button to open the car doors. Possibly it is more efficient to require user input to open the doors, or it was an aspect of older train cars and Berlin has not been able to replace them.
The third method of travel was the tram. The tram’s station we used was very simple, little more than a platform. The ability to buy transit tickets in the tram itself is an interesting use of space. Curious to know the amount of usage those ticket vending machines generate compared to more usual places like a U-Bahn station.

  The lack of turnstiles to check for transit tickets prevents groups of people from bunching up or bottlenecking, making transportation easier.  However the tickets themselves are not of the highest quality since they are not used unless called upon by a ticket inspector, or boarding a bus. 

Journey
Step
Transport
Type
Line# Photo
1 U-Bahn U2
2 U-Bahn U2
3 S-Bahn S7
4 S-Bahn S7
5 Tram M8
6 Bus 248

3 comments:

Emily Pletz said...

I really like your idea of creating the chart to distribute your information. I thought it was really useful and helped get your information across!

Unknown said...

I like your incorporation of the architecture of the stations, I wish I would have considered that.

Anonymous said...

Ya I really like the architecture part. I think its very interesting that they used different terminal/station styles in an attempt to help people differentiate between stations! I'm not sure it has helped me too much but I think if you were a more frequent user it might be helpful