Parking Meter Confusion; New Brake System For Trams; BVB Undertakes Ticket Controls; Mummy Unearthed

News For 30 January 2018

Parking meters on the inner city street of Leonhardsgraben appear to operate normally - and bear no signage indicating they function differently than coin operated parking meters throughout the city.  You throw a coin in and the time allowed to park goes positive.  However, without a special parking license, you are in fact, not allowed to park on the street during the day according to signs also on the street.  It appears that the cost of replacing the meters is prohibitively high at the moment, so the city has elected to leave them in place for now.  

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The BLT, which operates 3 tram lines in Basel, is currently testing a crash warning system. The technology was developed by Bosch Rail Transport and is based on driver assistance systems already being used in the automobile industry. The BLT is the first Swiss transport company testing this type of system. A radar sensor surveys the area in front of the tram for up to 160 meters and measures the distance to other vehicles. If a critical distance is detected, the tram driver is notified, and if he or she doesn’t react, the system will activate the emergency brake.

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In an effort to decrease scofflaws riding the trams and buses without tickets, the BVB undertook a major advertising effort.  It even went as far as holding a social-media based poll soliciting input from the public for where to put the control agents.  Despite this, BVB agents still managed to catch 19 riders without valid tickets for riding the trams.  For all of 2016, the latest year for which statistics were available, almost 20,000 fines were doled out to those trying to ride public transport without accompanying fare tickets.  As part of an effort to reduce these numbers, the BVB has undertaken other creative measures beside sending out more control agents.  Coming soon to a tram or bus screen near you, will be short-form etiquette videos instructing riders on proper behavior, and reminding them to purchase tickets.

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Anthropologist Gerhard Hotz and his team made history last week: they identified the remains of a mummy that was unearthed at the Basel Barfusserkirche, now the Natural History Museum. The mummy in question was a woman named Anna Catharina Bischoff, who died 230 years ago at the age of 67 of mercury poisoning. The mercury, which was being used to treat syphilis, killed all the bacteria that would have led to her body decaying, and so contributed to her mummification. Researchers were able to trace her bloodline as far back as the 16th century, finding not only her living descendants in Basel, but also detecting ties to Britain: Boris Johnson is her great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, and the Queen of England is her great-great-great-great-grandniece.