Comments on: Musings on holding the doors

By: samwell

samwell — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:01:09 +0000

In Moscow, every station has a clock in it noting how much time has passed since the last train departed. During the year I lived there, I took subways at all hours of the day and night. That clock never, EVER, reached 6 minutes and more often than not the next train came in less than two. So in NYC we’re back to what Adam states above–”if you don’t get on this train, more than likely you’ll be waiting a long time for the next train.”

By: Telling the M.T.A. Not to Hold … Its Breath - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Telling the M.T.A. Not to Hold … Its Breath - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:56:25 +0000

[...] on why the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s “Don’t Hold the Doors” campaign probably won’t work. [Second Avenue [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:34:56 +0000

The problem is that the doors re-open. If they were not designed to re-open, people wouldn’t risk jamming a body part or bag into the door as it’s closing. The doors can be slow, so that people have a chance to get out of the way, but just don’t let them pop back open. This is how London works, and (surprise!) they don’t have the same issue.

By: herenthere

herenthere — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:37:11 +0000

Maybe the MTA should place these ads on the doors themselves, or to their sides so that people will actually see them when they board (just saw a few today-they’re inside the car.)

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:43:33 +0000

Tony, the issue is not people holding the door; it’s people trying to enter the subway. It takes a certain amount of time to load people on a train, which rises when the train is already crowded. There’s no obvious mitigation strategy other than getting more infrastructure. The MTA can get trains with more doors, which it is already doing on the lettered lines, buying 60′ cars instead of 75′ cars. Or it can upgrade the signaling to allow trains to run closer together, which it is doing as well with its plans for CBTC on the QB line and on the whole IRT.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:05:28 +0000

I went out of town this past holiday weekend, leaving via 7am flight out of JFK. It’s positively astonishing how quickly an A train can get all the way out to Howard Beach, even when running on the local tracks, when the doors are being neither blocked nor held.

By: noah

noah — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:53:42 +0000

Love this post. it is going deeper than the psa goes. there are always more complexities to a matter. when I see posters like this, it just reminds me, the mta has no respect for my intelligence.

kind of like the old “just say no” psa

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Think about the math. If a train makes 30 stops one way and the doors get held delaying the train an extra 30 seconds to 2 minutes at 15 of those stops you have a very late train which affects all of the trains on the line going in that direction and other trains that share track with it.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:14:56 +0000

I don’t care if it’s the occasional “good samaritan” or the far more common self-important “I can’t wait four minutes for another train” person–it’s bad manners and it needs to stop. Assuming the phenomenon is actually a major cause of rush-hour delays. I wouldn’t mind seeing some independent study of this behavior. Although it escapes me why the MTA would post what amounts to a risky anti-customer screed if it weren’t actually true.

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:05:11 +0000

Make announcements or put up signs as to when the next train is coming, and most of this problem will go away. People do this because the next train could be three minutes later, or thirty.