The Post tries the MTAs bus simulator — it goes…
I’m driving an MTA bus down a busy New York City road, doing my best to keep in my lane — though I’ve to say I’m a little rattled, after my struggles with slowing the bus down in time to keep away from working any pink lights.
“If you keep turning the way you are, we’re going to hit the pole,” sighed my wingman, assigned by the company to make sure a mild-mannered reporter like myself doesn’t trigger any site visitors accidents.
I handle to right just in time — avoiding any tangles with metropolis infrastructure, or for that matter, hapless pedestrians.
Fortunately for New Yorkers, my joyride in a almost 17-ton piece of machinery isn’t real — I’m aboard the company’s new bus simulator, a high-tech, digital training instrument that permits to navigate NYC’s 300 bus routes without the hazard.
The Post’s Ben Cost will get behind the wheel of the MTA’s new bus simulator. J.C. Rice for NY Post
The man making sure I arrive back at the digital depot in one piece is Alvaro Brandon, the MTA’s assistant chief training officer of security operations — my shadow during a latest go to to the Zerega Avenue facility in The Bronx, where drivers come to prepare.
Costing the MTA roughly $1.4 million and taking 4 years to develop, the 4 hyperrealistic devices are being built-in into the MTA’s necessary training curriculum as the company seems to rent around 2,000 staff by yr’s end.
The objective: to make training safer and speedier before the rubber hits the highway.
To accomplish this, the immersive arcade sport recreates real-world road situations on a 4K, partially-panoramic screen — a major improve from the almost 20-year-old system it’s changing.
Cost makes an attempt a flip in the simulator. J.C. Rice for NY Post
The simulation, which affords normal training or particular routes, permits the consumer to navigate obstacles including e-scooters, oblivious pedestrians, and even slick roads, all from the security of a stationary imitation bus.
“We can adjust anything on the fly,” boasted Brandon. “We could blow out your tires …. make your brakes fail.”
He continued, “We could have the traffic lights changing quickly, or we could make it at a regular timing.”
Instructors can customise every thing from the quantity of automobiles on the highway to pedestrian temperament, which ranges from gentle to Gotham-level aggressive.
The fake bus boasts an operational console full with flip alerts, a horn and more. J.C. Rice for NY Post
All the while, customers control a full bodily setup, full with a steering wheel, gasoline and brake pedals, and other controls, while an aerial digicam lets them monitor their blind spots from above so that they will gauge their distance from the curb and other important data.
An built-in efficiency dashboard permits trainers to observe operator efficiency and present focused suggestions.
One can assume of it like an instructional model of the Grand Theft Auto video games.
“We can adjust anything on the fly,” boasted Brandon while describing the immersive pursuit (above). “We could blow out your tires … make your brakes fail.” J.C. Rice for NY Post
Gamifying bus training isn’t about interesting to youth, though; it’s about equipping drivers for an surroundings where one can get blindsided in a New York minute.
“New York City is one of the more challenging places to operate a bus, and so we want to use the technology to get our operators prepared,” explained Brandon. “We have operators that start working with us in the summertime, so they’ve never skilled driving a bus in the snow.
“This will allow us to train them as a new bus operator in the snow, so they have some feel for what the bus is going to handle like.”
More than 4,300 bus operators will prepare yearly on the simulators, that are designed with the flexibility to incorporate potential future upgrades, including developments in bus technology such as electric vehicle (EV) charging systems and e-mirrors.
Chester Francis, who’s been a bus operator for over 20 years, called the digital training wheels a major improve from their predecessors.
Cost drives the digital bus while the MTA’s Alvaro Brandon seems on. J.C. Rice for NY Post
“From when I started, [it’s] totally different,” he told The Post. “Everything was so mechanical. Now, you actually can see tears if you want. You can actually feel a bump, hear a horn, and the way they can zoom in from the top, the side, so you can actually see your mistakes.”
As he identified, it helps nip any “oh, s–t” moments in the bud.
Curious to see how a regular citizen would fare, I took the fake proletariat chariot for a digital spin around the pretend Big Apple.
For somebody who’s never pushed a bus, the studying expertise was slow-going. Compared to my Subaru Forester, which I commonly drive on the real streets of Gotham, the console appeared more riddled with buttons than the Batmobile.
One major adjustment is the transport’s response time — it responds with a delay due to its measurement.
That means braking and turning effectively in advance from the correct place — no “Fast & Furious”-style hairpin turns right here. Before making a left flip, drivers must stop and align their left shoulder with the goal road’s middle line; for a proper flip, they line up their shoulder with the curbside pole.
Turn signaling, for the uninitiated, is facilitated by stepping on designated left and proper buttons with one’s left foot.
For a seasoned operator like Francis, these maneuvers are baby’s play; to a civilian like me, the exercise appeared akin to driving a German Tiger tank on tub salts.
Despite my best efforts, I ran the course like the transit model of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, hopping a curb, almost sideswiping a motorbike, and working a pink mild.
At any second, I anticipated to be pulled over by a digital NYPD cruiser.
Thankfully, my guardian angel Brandon helped us avert catastrophe, pumping the grasp brake before any digital collisions may happen and lowering the quantity of site visitors like the architect from the “Matrix.”
It’s protected to say I gained’t be ferrying riders about anytime soon — but this expertise gave me a newfound appreciation for what MTA operators do every day.
I’ll assume twice before wishing the M4 would go a little quicker.
Stay in the loop with the latest trending topics! Visit our web site daily for the freshest lifestyle news and content, thoughtfully curated to inspire and inform you.




