How many times have you left your friends at the bar to go wait for your train, applauding yourself silently for pulling away so you can be on time to wherever you’re off to next, only to end up waiting for 30 minutes on the platform because there were signal problems at DeKalb, or maybe someone got sick at Jay St., who knows, but now you’re sweaty and frustrated and, most importantly, you totally had time for another full round at the bar? If you’ve lived here for more than a full lease and don’t have a private driver, the answer is most definitely countless times.
Bushwick-based tech startup NYC Train Sign is changing the game: they’ve invented LED signs which connects to MTA data to provide delays and local train time, “without having to be in the subway.”
Train signs are sold on their site for $599.00, and can also be leased for $29 a month to NYC businesses. All signs are handmade and assembled in house, their bases 3D printed at 3D Brooklyn. Currently, the signs can be programmed to show times for the B, D, L, N, Q, R and W and all number lines but the 7.
Bushwick businesses Elisa’s Love Bites Dessert Atlier, Pizza Party, Kings County Brewers Collective, Father Knows Best, and Houdini Kitchen Laboratory have all bought signs, ensuring their patrons can drink and eat during the time they would’ve wasted overheating on the L train platform.
The signs show ETAs for both Brooklyn and Manhattan bound trains, and can also be programmed to give the weather, or show the Rick and Morty logo.
Also, they’re hiring. Email dara@nycstrainsign.com.
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View Comments (4)
Any hobbyist can do this for about a third the price.
These are handy but they're not worth $400 handy.
Make them and sell them for less then
Transit Screen (http://transitscreen.com/) and Roadify (http://www.roadify.com/) have been doing this for years and can also integrate bus times, nearby CitiBike availability, and approximate wait for an Uber car (if you're terrible like that).
But they do it on a useful interface and not some obsolete-looking dot matrix screen, so I guess it's not cool enough for Bushwick.
Agree with the other commenters here -- other companies already do this, usually better/cheaper; anybody can DIY for cheaper/better. I'll add that this is obviously NOT a business and almost certainly NOT even a product. Sure, you may sell a handful to a few people who don't know they're getting ripped off. Worst of all, this is the epitome of lame hipster Brooklyn start-up culture in that it is NOT even creative or cool or interesting, but the people making these things think it is. Get day jobs!