Archive for January, 2010
Jan
31
Mapping the Dharma Initiative express
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For those of us who are obsessed with LOST, Tuesday night’s Season 6 premiere has been a long time coming. And so in a week dominated here by discussions of subway maps, I present to you the LOST subway map. Called the Dharma Rapid Transit system by creator John Cabrera, the map is a great representation of that all has happened on the island over the previous five seasons. John explains the origins of the map here on his site. Click the image above to enlarge; you’ll have to see the full-sized image for all of the detail. For the Losties among us, this one’s a keeper.
Jan
29
A busy weekend work slate
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I’m not going to mince words: This weekend’s slate of service advisories is a tough one. Again, nearly every train route is altered. As always, these come to me from the MTA and are subject to change. Pay attention to announcements and read the signs. Subway Weekender is back up and running, and you can find the map right here.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, downtown 12 trains skip 86th, 79th, 66th, 59th and 50th Streets due to switch renewal north of 72nd Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, Manhattan-bound 2 trains skip Burke Avenue, Allerton Avenue, Pelham Parkway, and Bronx Park East due to track work leading into East 180th Street Yard.
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, 3 train service is extended to/from 34th Street-Penn Station due to switch renewal north of 72nd Street.
From 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, January 31, downtown 4 trains run local from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to a cable pull.
From 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, January 31, downtown 5 trains run local from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to a cable pull.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 29, to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, there are no 5 trains between Dyre Avenue and 149th Street-Grand Concourse due to track work leading into East 180th Street Yard. Free shuttle buses replace 5 trains between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street. 2 trains replace the 5 between East 180th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Parkchester to Hunts Point Avenue due to asbestos abatement for station rehabilitation at Whitlock Avenue, Elder Avenue, Morrison-Sound View Avenues, St. Lawrence Avenue, and Parkchester.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, there are no 7 trains between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve. The NQ and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. Note: 42nd Street Shuttle runs overnight. Q trains are extended to/from Ditmars Blvd.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, uptown A trains run express from Canal to 125th Streets due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization and conduit installation for public address systems north of 59th Street.
Manhattan-bound A platforms at Beach 25th and Beach 67th Streets are scheduled to close for rehabilitation at 12:01 a.m. Monday, February 1 for approximately four months.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31, uptown C trains run express from Canal to 125th Streets due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization and conduit installation for public address systems north of 59th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, uptown D trains run local from West 4th Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a substation rehabilitation north of 14th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, January 30, downtown D trains skip 167th, 161st, and 155th Streets due to track cleaning.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, January 31, downtown D trains skip 174th-175th and 170th Streets due to track cleaning.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, E trains are rerouted on the F between West 4th Street and 2nd Avenue due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization. For service to Spring Street, Canal Street, and World Trade Center/Chambers Street, customers should take the A or C. Note: Uptown A and C trains skip Spring Street.
From 10:30 p.m. Friday, January 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1 (and also next weekend), there are no G trains running. For service between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Queens Plaza, customers should take the R during the day and the E during the late night hours. Free shuttle buses run between Queens Plaza and Jay Street. For service to Church Avenue, customers should transfer between the shuttle bus and F trains at Jay Street. This is due to a switch replacement at Bedford-Nostrand Avenues, asbestos removal at Greenpoint Avenue, fan plant work at Jackson Avenue and track maintenance work at various locations.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to Lawrence Street Station Rehabilitation and Construction of Underground Connector to Jay Street.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, January 30, N trains skip 49th Street due to track cleaning.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, uptown Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a track chip-out at 14th Street-Union Square.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, Q train service is extended to/from Astoria-Ditmars Blvd due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31, R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to Lawrence Street Station Rehabilitation and construction of underground connector to Jay Street.
Jan
29
Inside the East Side Access project
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Fifteen stories below street level, this space will hold one day hold four platforms and eight tracks 15 for the LIRR at Grand Central Terminal. (All photos courtesy of the MTA.)
As part of its increased presence on social media sites, the MTA has been sharing more information and more pictures of their ongoing projects with the public. Last night, via their MTA Insider Twitter account, the authority released some shots of the work in progress at the Grand Central end of the East Side Access project. For transit construction enthusiasts, these photos offer a glimpse of some good old fashioned digging. I’ve posted a few below, and the entire album is available on the MTA’s Facebook page. The Journal-News has profiled the ongoing work as well.
Once the location of Metro-North’s Madison Ave. train yard, this space will become a passenger concourse for the LIRR.
These workers, according to Metro, spend their days deep within the rocks below the city. The Manhattan schist proves a sturdy rock, and the Sandhogs say they are often joined in their work by hordes of rats.
Another view of the platform cavern.
This tunnel will, by 2016, be lined with tracks that will bring LIRR trains into Grand Central Terminal.
Jan
29
The dangerous allure of a quick stimulus fix
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Over the last few weeks, as the MTA’s funding woes have risen to the surface, a debate over the use of stimulus funds to cover the budget deficit has emerged. On the one side are the City Council and Gene Russianoff’s Straphangers Campaign who support using stimulus funds to cover the gap. On the other are, for example, the Regional Plan Association and I believe it to be a bad idea. Today, we see exactly why it’s a dangerous plan to put forward.
On its surface, Gene Russianoff’s idea almost makes sense. The MTA is legally allowed to take 10 percent of its stimulus dollars to cover operating costs. Of course, the capital fund too is stretched to its limit, and future investment in the system even in the face of temporary operating shortfalls is a key component to the long-term health of New York City. If the Russianoff Plan is enacted, the MTA would be robbing its future self to cover numerous services that deserve to be reexamined anyway.
One of my counterarguments to the Russianoff plan is the way it provides only a quick fix. The MTA has an institutional funding problem in that the city and state are shirking their responsibilities to the organization, and a one-off stimulus fix does nothing to address those problems. An economic crisis should be the time for New York to establish a better approach toward funding transit.
I’ve also argued that politicians will embrace the stimulus funding plan because it allows them to disregard further their duties toward the MTA. Why bother trying to solve a problem when they can just plug a hole for one year? Not surprisingly, that — with a twist — is exactly what some upstate politicians are trying to do. As the Poughkeepsie Journal reported earlier this week, five U.S. House representatives have asked Gov. David Paterson to reduce the MTA’s payroll tax and use stimulus funds to cover this year’s gap.
I won’t mince words here: This is a terrible idea. It would take another $110 million away from the MTA at a time when the authority is already running deficits of around $300-$400 million. It would leave the MTA with less guaranteed money after 2010. At Mobilizing the Region, Steven Higashide says it best: “This would blow a hole in future MTA budgets, since it would replace yearly tax revenues with one-year stimulus funds.”
Higashide’s Tri-State Transportation Campaign is one of the co-signers of the Russianoff Plan, but it is a plan that puts more faith in our politicians than they seem to deserve. The use of stimulus funds to hide this year’s budget gap is a dangerous move to make, and our politicians are slowly starting to show us why.
Jan
29
Purpose & Design: A look at subway maps
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Baseball fans who go to enough games grow family with the old concessionaire’s adage. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard, the saying goes. Similarly, a subway rider generally can’t navigate the the subway system without a map. Someone going from Point A to Point B needs to know the best way to get there, but how?
Yesterday afternoon, in a discussion on the recent history of New York City’s subway, a discussion broke out on the best way to present a subway system. Should the map be purely schematic and assume that people know the above-ground geometry? Should the map integrate the subway system on a near-accurate geographical representation of the city it services? As New Yorkers used to the geographically integrated subway system, we view those schematic maps suspiciously.
Up above is a thumbnail of our familiar New York City map. Click it to enlarge. As it stands right now, this map has a lot of information on it, and most of it is unnecessary. Boxes about bus connections — with no further information — ring the map, and lines emerge from major subway stops. Staten Island has been moved to abut Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the box in the lower right corner attempts to explain which trains run when. Rush hour, weekdays, evenings, weekends, late nights: read the key and then find your line. It’s almost a game.
Meanwhile, this map also incorporates almost the geography of New York City. Some major through streets are marked, and some — but not all — parks show up on it. As The Local noted a few months ago, Fort Greene Park is nowhere to be found, but the smaller Washington Square Park is front and center near the W 4th St. stop. For those not familiar with New York City, our subway map simply doesn’t help above ground even as it tries to. It makes distances look shorter than they are and omits some landmarks while including others. It’s an approximation of the city at best.
Moving out of the city, we arrive in London to find an entirely different concept of the subway map. The current Tube map, an evolution of a design by Harry Beck, is a diagrammatic map of the Underground. It bears little resemblance to the actual geography of the city and instead presents the system as a series of zones with subway lines running in straight lines or at 45-degree angles. Sparse and simple, it has become a widely recognized symbol of London.
This map helps those who know where they’re going and few others. It gives no indication about distances between stations or about what might be around each station. It’s sometimes better to get off at an early station to reach a destination with a name similar to the next stop, but only those in the know would actually know that. It might look good; it might lend itself to easy imitation; and it might make navigating the subway system itself simple. But it provides no integration into the city.
Since Beck’s design arrived in London, derivatives have become the norm. Take, for example, a look at D.C.’s Metro map or Paris’ schematic. Angles, zones and sparse geographical markers rule the day while New York stands alone as a beacon of graphics design slowly, evolutionarily gone wrong.
So what’s the best map? Maybe New York’s old map — the one that used to show just the subways with a nod toward geography but an understanding that it wasn’t perfect — was the way to go. Vignelli’s map almost fits the bill, but navigating the subway system with it can be a Herculean task. Maybe we’re still just waiting for the right subway map, one that incorporates geography and complicated and convoluted subway systems into an easy-to-use map. Consider it the Holy Grail of subway mapmaking.
Jan
28
In New York, ARC tunnel could face eminent domain delay
Posted by: | CommentsAs the Port Authority has begun its preparations for construction of an $8.7 billion commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson, its need for property has arisen to the forefront. In a report prepared for New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie, an advising committee has warned that the start of construction on the New York side could be delayed by up to six months if issues relating to eminent domain takings are not resolved. Patrick McGeehan goes in depth into the issue today in The Times, but in a nutshell, some local business owners are questioning the need for a second train terminal so close to Penn Station. Still, the Port Authority says it is following proper procedure, and with the recent eminent domain holding concerning the Atlantic Yards plans, a legal challenge here would be highly unlikely to survive. [The New York Times]
Jan
28
On the history of subway maps
Posted by: | CommentsOver the last year, I’ve compiled an extensive collection of historical New York City subway maps dating back to the late 1940s. It’s fascinating to see how the subway map has evolved along with the geographical representations of the city. In my opinion, today’s map is far too cluttered to be absolutely usable, and the pinnacle of subway representation in New York with an eye toward both geography and ease of map use would involve a combination of the Vignelli map and the 1979 Michael Hertz Association version reworking. Once I have some spare time and access to a good flat-bed scanner, I’ll be writing a series of posts on the subway map over time.
Today in amNew York, Heather Haddon examined the history behind the evolution of our current subway map. She traces the move from the Vignelli map to the Hertz version and explains how the MTA’s color-coded system, still in place today, came to be. The current version is an outgrowth of Hertz’s 1979 rendering, and last year, it celebrated its 30th anniversary. “It’s an absolute work of art and very clear,” Peter Lloyd, a U.K. author writing a history of the subway map, said. It’s clarity might be lacking today, but the old maps are definitely works of art.
Jan
28
New TWU head gearing up for layoff battle
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Recently elected TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen poses outside of MTAHQ on Wednesday. (Photo via the Daily News)
As part of the MTA’s planned service cuts, the authority is trying to spread the pain around. We know that Transit is trying to minimize the disruptive nature of their necessary cuts. We know that the MTA’s administration budget will be reduced by 10 percent and that everyone will have to take a paycut. We also know that the agency is going to try to eliminate 700 union jobs. The TWU will not, according to new president John Samuelsen, go down without a fight.
Speaking in front of MTA Headquarters on Wednesday shortly before the authority’s board met to discuss the service cuts, Samuelsen lobbed some charges at the executives. “This document was obviously written by accountants, bean counters, people who obviously don’t ride our system and who don’t understand that these cuts are negatively impacting hundreds of thousands of New York’s working families and their children,” Samuelsen said. “They’re clueless.”
Samuelsen, according to Pete Donohue, also called upon the MTA to eschew their countdown clock program in favor of covering operating deficits. It is this attitude that will result in a transit policy and a transit system stuck in neutral, and as we know, the agency as no plans right now to shift any capital money to cover its operating deficit.
At a time when the MTA is suffering in the eyes of a skeptical public, his rhetoric rings a certain bell. He knows that the MTA’s proposed service cuts were written by people very much in tune with the system. That’s why the proposal is designed to limit the number of passengers and riders it impacts. He knows that MTA officials aren’t clueless. But he also knows that he’s going to have to fight for the jobs. Right now, despite the fact that wage increases for TWU workers is contributing to the MTA’s deficit gap, Samuelsen is clearly winning the war of the words.
On a more practical level, though, Samuelsen and new MTA CEO and Chair Jay Walder are going to try to work together to address the MTA’s deficit. City Hall News’ Chris Bragg profiled Samuelsen yesterday, and his piece adds a level of complexity missing in the Daily News’ coverage of the TWU head’s public comments.
Samuelsen and Walder recently met for the first time, and the two have pledged, according to Bragg, to work together. Walder — known for being hard on labor during his days in London — had a more optimistic assessment of the potential relationship between the two men. “He has pledged to [work together], and I have pledged to do so,” he said. “But we’re both new to our jobs, so we’re finding our way.” But Samuelsen countered, “We have diametrically opposite positions on a whole array of issues. It’s not going to be personally hostile. But we’re not going to just roll over, either.”
Samuelsen is taking over the TWU after a few tumultuous years of labor relations with the MTA. Roger Toussaint’s decision to strike in 2005 cost the union dearly, and Samuelsen vows to avoid making the same mistakes of capitulation. Still, some observers think the two new heads will see a thaw in their early discourse. “Roger Toussaint came into office with a reputation as a firebrand kind of guy too,” Bill Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said to Bragg. “Eventually, the relationship changed.”
Right now, Samuelsen’s job is to save 700 of the 37,000 workers over whom he is in charge from getting the axe. He’ll try everything in his power to save 1.8 percent of his workforce from the unemployment lines because he knows what giving into the MTA will mean. As the authority fights for its money, the war — one that will probably end on a reconciliatory note — is just getting started.
Jan
27
A ticketing blitz for two-seaters
Posted by: | CommentsI find people who intentionally take up more than one seat on the subways to be among the most egregious examples of the disregard straphangers have for each other underground. Most normal-sized people can’t fit on the made-for-tiny-people bucket seats in the R62s and R68s, but some people like to spread out, lie down or use the seat next to them for their bags. It’s rude, and when it interferes with the comfort and convenience of other passengers, it’s against New York City Transit Rules and Regulations.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the NYPD should begin a ticketing blitz to target everyone taking up too many seats. Yet, according to the Daily News, that’s just what they’ve done. Officers have handed out 8700 tickets to people taking up two seats, “a 17% increase over the previous year.” Of course, police officials declined to comment, and the stories are egregious. One officer ticketed a straphanger on an empty G train at 2 a.m. and told the person receiving the summons that the ticket “would probably be tossed out by the Transit Adjudication Bureau.” TAB, not known for adhering to normal legal procedures, upheld the ticket because the person arguing didn’t put forth “a legally recognizable defense.”
As a current student of law and a transit advocate, unnecessary ticketing along with shady adjudication procedures irk me. The Rules of Conduct clearly state that taking up more than one seat is a violation only “when to do so would interfere or tend to interfere with the operation of the Authority’s transit system or the comfort of other passengers.” A crowded train at rush hour would fall under that provision; a G train at 2 a.m. would not. I know revenue is tight, but the egregious issuing of summonses, as I said in December, should be put to a halt.
Jan
27
SAS recognized as a top Gotham blog by the Voice
Posted by: | CommentsAllow me to take a few minutes of your time this afternoon to toot my own horn. This week’s Village Voice, available today city-wide in those ubiquitous red boxes, features a cover story on 18 of the city’s “obsessive, cantankerous, and unstoppable” blogs, and yours truly was included in this elite list. The piece’s introduction starts right here, and my profile is on page eight. The print edition even features my head shot on page 18. So if you’re around New York City, check it out, and as always, thanks for stopping by.
