Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Workload; Time Pressure; Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Taxiway
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Chart Or Publication; Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure
After being cleared out of the parking alley we were instructed to taxi RB to the RB bridge. As the Pilot Monitoring I read back the clearance correctly to company ramp and the   Captain correctly repeated it to me; but due to our focus on an aircraft that had just pushed back from the adjacent pier between us and the RB bridge; the  Captain taxied over to RA instead. Shortly afterward we were asked to call a phone number; at which point were informed of the taxi error. I did not catch this error due to my relative inexperience at the airport (when I look at the respective bridges I don't immediately identify which is which) and the fact that I was obsessed with being on the correct frequency and listening for radio calls due to prior communications and taxi difficulties at this airport. This increased my workload inside of the cockpit and served as a distraction from my monitoring duties outside the cockpit.At the time of this incident I had obtained what I consider sufficient experience with this airport's operational complexities; yet I continue to personally experience and witness countless communications and taxi difficulties among our crews. This has led to near paranoia with my handling of communications and taxi operations at this airport. I now clearly brief the  Captain on each frequency in each radio (active / standby) and obsessively announce the communications radio number I'm using at that time; i.e. 'now monitoring metering on 119.95; com 2'. The unfortunate consequence of this is increased workload and chatter in what should be a quiet cockpit with both sets of eyes up and outside. I am now convinced there are too many frequency changes between the gate and the runway at this airport. Metering needs to be done at the gate; much as it is at other airports so we exit the ramp and contact ground and then tower as we approach the runway -- just as we do at literally every other airport in the nation. All double-character taxiways need to be changed to single character names so they don't sound the same (or similar). This would also reduce the frequency time required to issue and read-back clearances.  'RA' should be 'A'. RB should be 'B'. 'WB' should be 'W'.  The taxi to 15L is (and I did you not) 'Whiskey Golf; Whiskey Bravo; Whiskey Victor' which pilots (incorrectly) abbreviate as 'Whiskey Golf; Bravo; Victor' because they too realize the needless verbosity in the taxiway names. This is ridiculous. There are 26 letters in the English language and no where near 26 parallel taxiways at IAH airport. Therefore; all parallel taxiways should be given single letter names ('A'; 'B'; 'C'; etc.) and crossing taxiways given an associated single letter/number name such as 'A1; A5; A10'; etc. as is the case at many if not most of the airports in the US. I have also noticed that the taxi diagrams for the IAH airport is extremely poorly documented; with taxiway names adjacent to the physical representation of the associated taxiway; which leads to confusion in identifying the taxiways on the chart. Perhaps if the taxiway names were single character in most cases the diagram would be able to fit the single character name directly over the taxiway. Incidentally; just for reference; the vector charts built into the competitions product allow near infinite zooming and very clearly identify each taxiway because the text fits directly over the taxiway representation. Perhaps it's time to spend some money on the competitions product for our crews and dump our current supplier which is always crashing at inopportune times (yes; including during taxi). Additionally; ATC and ramp must be more consistent and explicit when they tell us to change to a new frequency as to whether they want us to 'monitor' or 'contact' the controller on that new frequency.  I receive 'Aircraft X; taxi spot 1; metering on 119.95' all too often; and I am then forced to waste more frequency time asking whether I should monitor or contact them. I am at my witsend with the IAH airport and its operations. Someone needs to do something about this airport before more of our pilots are unfairly targeted for enforcement.
While taxiing on RC after departing alleyway; crew given instruction to taxi around an aircraft in front then taxi via RB bridge. Crew taxied around the aircraft as instructed but since the other aircraft was abeam Gate X and very close to the RB bridge; both thought we heard to taxi to via the RA bridge. We also changed frequencies to East Ramp and missed any calls from Company Ramp. We never heard any more calls from either ramp controllers until East Ramp called and continued our taxi. Unbeknownst to us; the ramp controllers had to stop a Aircraft X to prevent a nose-to-nose situation. We were asked to contact ramp via telephone and that's when we were informed of our error.This was a case of confirmation bias as we both thought we heard to taxi via RA bridge since the other aircraft was so near RB. I am familiar with the normal flow of ramp traffic and that RA is usually for westbound aircraft; though this is not always the case.
Air Carrier Pilot crew reported too many frequency changes; EFB taxi chart confusion and taxiway sign confusion during taxi to runway.