connections in my messy brain.

[katster]

Hehe, in one of my library books, I found the short story "A Subway Named Moebius" by A.J. Deutsch. It's a neat story on how the Boston subway system accidentally reaches topological complexity and subway trains start disappearing. (Sadly, I couldn't find the text on the Internet, but it's worth digging for in whatever library system happens to be near you.)

Of course, the whole way through reading the story, my head was happily adding the background music:

Did he ever return
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned...

Because, dammit, no story about the Boston subway system is ever complete without Charlie.

Comments

[buran.livejournal.com]

These are the times that try men's souls…

dammit, now that's in my head too.

[lirazel.livejournal.com]

Anyone who think's Boston's about to reach breakthrough complexity has not ridden the subways of New York lately. Or Toronto. Now, there's a system!

[kowh.livejournal.com]

Toronto? Our system is pretty simple, largely because we stupidly skipped building more of it for most of the last 30 years.

[lirazel.livejournal.com]

Well, Boston built a lot of spokes but forgot the wheel rim. So you can, if you live in certain places, get into and out of the city quite easily, but not across the city. And if you live in something other than those certain places, your life is made much more laborious than necessary through multiple bus transfers.

Whereas, in your fair city, the spouse and I found that every street had a bus line, every street with four lanes had a trolley, and the head times on the subways were about as close as they could safely be. It remains our favorite mass transit experience--beats the London Tube hollow.

[kowh.livejournal.com]

Ah, you meant Toronto as a good example, as opposed to Boston or New York? In the core I quite agree. The further outside you go though, the worse it gets. The streetcar network needs to be expanded, as does the subway. Buses are better than nothing, but most people hate them for good reason.

It finally sounds like there might be some movement on those fronts though, as the provincial government announced a huge province-wide transit plan. We might even get a rapid rail route to the airport, finally. Of course, the end date for that plan is 2020, so it remains to be seen how much will actually happen in a reasonable time. Let alone what'll happen if some other party gets elected meanwhile.

[rbos.livejournal.com]

Someone give that man a nickel. :(

[true-crime.livejournal.com]

Funny, I worked at a children's museum called Mobius... after the same concept of course. People always argued about how to spell it and say it. We staffers eventually started referring to it as "Moy-bus" and always in a stooge voice. lol

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Good heavens, I think I read the same story, many many years ago!

Although, I rather think the London underground went hyper-dimensional sometimes during the 1930's and has only gotten worse since...

Mind you, the topological complexity of underground systems is nothing in comparison to the net...hmm... there's a thought. A hyper-dimensional twist in the pathways connecting alternate universes, would explain much of the weirdness out there.