Archive for April, 2011
Apr
07
The view from inside the Second Ave. Subway
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Toward 63rd Street (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
Six hours ago, I found myself standing where few civilians have been. I am approximately 55 feet underneath Second Ave. between 91st and 92nd Streets, and I am standing inside a wet, dark, round tunnel. An industrial-sized air vent hangs above me while a set of rudimentary train tracks stretch southward as far as the eye can see. In five and a half years, the Q train, bound for Brooklyn via Second Ave. and Broadway, will rumble past that spot, but right now, it is the largest construction site in New York City.
Eleven months ago, the MTA readied the Second Ave. Subway launch box for a ceremonial start. The tunnel boring machine was set to launch, and the press and politicians gathered amidst as much pomp and circumstance as one can lend to the city’s largest ongoing public works project. I had the opportunity to attend that launch and posted the photos back in May.
Earlier today, in a far less ceremonial fashion, the MTA graciously brought a bunch of photographers and reporters down into the launch box to show the progress so far. Even as the MTA’s capital budget remains stretched to the max with a $10 billion hole, work underneath Second Ave. is proceeding at a rapid clip. The western tunnel is dug out all the way to 65th St., and the tunnel boring machine is a few hundred feet into the eastern tube. It might take another five years to finish, and the drama aboveground over station entrances and cleaner construction sites continue. There will, though, be a subway underneath a part of Second Ave. in the foreseeable future.
To get into the launch box requires a long walk down a staircase draped in scaffolding, and the first thing you notice is how truly deep the cavern is. The floor of the launch box, which will one day host the track bed and 96th St. station for the Second Ave. Subway, is around 60 feet down. While the station itself will be at around 50 feet deep, that’s more of a hike that most New York City subway riders are used to today. The next thing you notice is how wet it is. There’s water and mud everywhere, and one of the construction crews told me the wetness is natural. It’s all from the water table, and it’s all moisture that will have to be insulated so it doesn’t seep through station and tunnel walls.
Once inside, you can see just how much of a construction site it is. Heavy machinery that wouldn’t look out of place above ground sits dwarfed by the immensity of the launch box. While my photos — and these links all head to them on Flickr — look as though the launch box is well lit, it’s dark, foreboding and dirty. Sandhogs scurry about, and the subway is on its way.
I’ve embedded the slideshow at the bottom of this post, but I wanted to highlight a few photos I enjoyed: While we were underground, a crane lowered a portable toilet into the launch box. We spotted a microwave at the entrance to the western tunnel. Construction officials told us it takes around 70 minutes to walk from the launch box to the end of the tunnel at 65th St. due to the wetness and mud, and so the crews need their sustenance. The water, as you can see, is literally pouring out of the walls.
Dangling from the roof of the launch box are a series of wooden boxes. These boxes are holding the platforms that are underneath street-level manhole covers. This is infrastructure turned inside out. Above ground, federal safety regulations make sure everyone who enters the launch box is accounted for while inside the tunnel itself, it’s very dark.
After the jump, a full set of photos from the tour. Read More→
Apr
07
For customers, the sign’s the thing
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Signs as clear and as informative as this one are rare throughout the subway system. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
The MTA has long had a tough relationship with signs. It has struggled over the years to present Weekend Service Changes in a graphically-pleasing yet easy-to-read format, and it recently rebranded its house ads to better promote system-wide improvements. Now, its signage is again coming under question as construction sites around the city remain shrouded in mystery.
The problem is one of explication and explanation. At too many sites around the city, the MTA doesn’t adequately explain what work they’re doing, how long construction will last and what the final outcome will be. Signs are often haphazardly hung in odd places and feature long-gone completion dates with no nod to reality. In fact, signs I noticed this week at the 7th Ave. stop in Midtown claim that work is being done to improve service along the E/V route. The V, of course, hasn’t run since last June.
Andrew Grossman, the Wall Street Journal’s transit writer, tackled the issue of signs earlier this week. He writes:
Tunneling for the first phase of the Second Avenue subway will be finished by summer. Or possibly next spring. Much of the 96th Street subway station being built along the line will wrap up this summer, too. Or maybe winter 2013.
That’s the conflicting guidance on signs posted along the massive construction zone on Manhattan’s East Side. And confusing as they may be, they offer more details than riders and pedestrians get at many other Metropolitan Transportation Authority projects…
The MTA has made efforts to improve its subway communication. Last year, the agency started using a new system of clearer, centrally located signs listing service changes. Sometimes, when staircases are closed, paper signs tell people why they’re closed and when they’ll reopen. New screens revealing the wait for an approaching train got high marks when the authority surveyed riders last year.
The authority is starting to post some newly designed construction signs that are “uniform and provide consistent information,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said on Tuesday. On projects funded with federal stimulus money, the agency displays signs noting the federal government’s role—though some completion dates are no longer accurate. And it also requires contractors to post notices when station stairways and entrances are closed.
Of course, problems creep up when weeks fly by. Elevators are often shuttered long past the dates promised on the signs, and those who have worked with the MTA recognize the challenge. “I think for these big agencies, they’ve got a lot on their plate—to their credit perhaps,” David Gibson, a one-time MTA consultant on signage, said. “You can get very involved in the perspective of the project people, the construction people, and you kind of forget that this is all about customers. It takes a rigorous concern for customers to get this stuff right.”
The customers — those folks who need the system to work — are often left in the dark. “It seems like it’s never-ending,” a woman attempting to navigate Fulton Street said to The Journal. “They should post some signs somewhere…the extent of it and how long, so people don’t wonder.”
Ultimately, as Gibson notes, this is about the passenger, and it’s about communicating effectively with the passenger. Historically, the MTA has struggled to do that. It’s true that the system is vast and construction projects often do not wrap when promised. But as capital work continues, the MTA should make sure those who have only a passing interest in what goes on underground and care more about getting from Point A to Point B are well informed. It is, after all, all about the customer.
Apr
07
CBC: Subway ops efficient; buses, commuter rail not so much
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Over the past year, as the MTA has struggled to maintain a balanced budget, “making every dollar count” has emerged as the authority’s mantra. Since finding itself on the wrong end of a budget crisis, the authority has identified over $500 million in annual savings and, amidst repeated cries for a forensic audit, has identified nearly $200 million more in savings with the potential to save on labor costs as well. But since the state comptroller can’t seem to figure out how to drill down on the MTA’s finances quickly, we have no way of knowing what the MTA should target and if their cuts are efficient.
To rectify that problem, the influential Citizens Budget Commission unveiled a report benchmarking the efficiencies — or lack thereof — at the MTA, and the findings may surprise a casual observer. The CBC found that the MTA’s subway operations are their most efficient and compare very favorably to subway systems across the country. The authority’s city-based bus network, however, is among the least efficient in the country, and their commuter rail network suffers as well. Across the board, the agency must rein in maintenance costs, the report noted.
“This benchmarking analysis highlights both the national leadership of the MTA and specific opportunities for improvement,” CBC President Carol Kellermann said. “It’s a very valuable tool for understanding the efficiencies and inefficiencies of the system and how the taxpayers’ money can be better spent.”
The report — available here as a PDF — is pretty straightforward in its methodology. Using readily available numbers, it compares the MTA’s costs of operations across a variety of metrics to assess efficiency. Using vehicle revenue miles and hours, unlinked passenger trips, passenger miles traveled and vehicles in use, CBC analysts determined a variety of unit cost measurements. It also examined employee productivity levels as well.
The CBC bulleted the findings in a top-line summary:
- New York’s subways are among the most efficient in the nation. Among the ten largest subway systems in the United States, the MTA has the lowest cost per passenger trip; it has the second-lowest cost per passenger mile (behind Atlanta) and second-lowest cost per hour of service (behind Chicago), and it is third (behind Philadelphia and Chicago) in cost per active vehicle. New York is fifth in cost per mile of service. In non-vehicle operations (stations and other facilities), the MTA scores only in the middle of the group – a notable opportunity for further improvement.
- The MTA’s bus operations are relatively inefficient. Among the ten largest urban bus systems in the nation, the New York City Transit bus operations rank last in three of five cost indicators: cost per mile of service; cost per hour of service, and cost per active vehicle. The MTA Bus Company ranks seventh or below in all five indicators; the other two being cost per passenger trip and cost per passenger mile.
- The two MTA commuter railroads, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, also are relatively inefficient. Among the ten largest commuter railroads in the nation, the Long Island Rail Road was at or near the bottom on three of five indicators (last on cost per passenger mile; ninth on cost per active vehicle; eighth on cost per mile of service) and below the median on the other two (seventh on cost per passenger trip and sixth on cost per hour of service). Metro-North was in the bottom half of the group on all five indicators (eighth on cost per active vehicle; seventh on cost per hour of service, and sixth on the other three indicators: cost per mile of service; cost per passenger trip, and cost per passenger mile).
When it comes to buses, the CBC fingers both poor road conditions and congestion as the likely culprits for the costs. Because our city roads are in such bad shape, MTA buses break down more frequently. Because the roads are so crowded, buses do not operate efficiently. The MTA has two of the nation’s three bus operators that run their vehicles at an average speed under 10 miles per hour.
Ultimately, this report doesn’t help to highlight specific ways in which the MTA can solve money. Being a leader in efficiency, at least on the subway side of things, doesn’t mean the MTA can’t spend less; they likely could. But these totals should help policy analysts pinpoint ways in which the MTA can save. Right now, buses — and to a lesser extent, commuter rail — remain the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Now who wants to tackle the problem?
Apr
06
An end to the Yanks’ Great Subway Race controversy
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The Yanks' own subway trains are going the way of the dodo. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
For the baseball fans among us, the subways often play an integral part in our enjoyment of the sport. If I’m heading to see my Yankees play in the Bronx, I’ll always take the B, D or 4 train, and if I’m venturing out to Coney Island for a Cyclones game or Flushing to see the Mets, the subways are always the way to go. In the Bronx, the Yankees have long embraced the subway by featuring the Great City Subway Race on the jumbotron, and although I’ve bemoaned the inaccuracies of the scoreboard entertainment in the past, the subway race is a quintessential Noo Yawk part of the Yankee Stadium experience.
Imagine my surprise then when, during the fourth inning of Opening Day, the subway race no longer featured MTA trains. Instead of the B, D and 4 trains, the Yanks were using three trains labeled Road Gray, Midnight Blue and Pinstripes. The animated contest still started at Herald Square and Grand Central, but the trains weren’t a part of New York’s subway system.
Once I got home from the game and thawed off from the cold, I got on the horn with the MTA, and authority sources told me the change seemed to stem from a misunderstanding. As I reported over at River Ave. Blues, when the Yankees first started the subway race, they asked the MTA for permission to use the transit agency’s intellectual property. The subway bullets, after all, are MTA trademarks, and the authority granted that permission, for free, as long as the Yankees did not attach a sponsor to the race. Here, the story gets a little fuzzy. The Yankees had long had Dunkin Donuts sponsoring the race; the 4 train was frequently slowed by a jelly donut in the tracks. The MTA though didn’t seem to notice a sponsor had signed on until last year when Subway took over.
Following the 2010 season, MTA sources tell me, the authority attempted to reach out to the Yankees to discuss the subway race sponsorship. At no point did the MTA ask the Yankees for money, and one person with whom I spoke said the MTA had no plans to do so. Rather, they were going to ask the Yankees to append a public service announcement to the subway race urging fans to take mass transit to the game. The Yankees though never returned the MTA’s calls, and the authority never had the chance to make this offer.
For its part, the MTA was disappointed. “The video race was considered a method to promote taking mass transit to games,” Kevin Ortiz said. ” We are disappointed the Yankees decided to change the look of the trains.”
Yet, this story has a happy ending as the Yanks and the MTA resolved their differences. The trains, as I noted at RAB, will return to the scoreboard tonight, and while the Yanks’ sponsorship will remain, the race will now conclude with a public service announcement concerning mass transit. “The Subway Race,” the authority said in a statement, “will continue to remind fans that taking the train to the game remains the quickest and least expensive way to get to the game.”
For the subways, all’s well that ends well. Yet, I wonder how the company running the South Bronx’s ridiculous $35-per-car parking lots feels about the whole thing. If the Yanks and the MTA are making a more vocal push to promote mass transit at the stadium, those parking lots, which shouldn’t have been built in the first place, will continue to remain empty.
Apr
06
Video of the Day: Trike vs. M42 bus
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a silly little stunt that makes a fairly obvious point: Mark Malkoff, a Queens filmmaker, raced an M42 bus from 10th Ave. to Madison Ave. and won. That’s not so much of an accomplishment until you realize that he did so on a child’s Big Wheel tricycle.
The Daily News has more on the race:
The 5-foot-7, 131-pound Malkoff set out at 1:18 p.m on Feb. 17 to test his pedal power against the MTA behemoth. Riding a Razor Rip Rider 360 he ordered off Amazon for $80, Malkoff waited for his unsuspecting opponent at the traffic light at 10th Ave. and 42nd St. “Once the green light went, the bus was destroying me,” Malkoff said. “Then we were neck and neck for a while, and suddenly I was able to propel myself faster.”
Wearing a bicycle helmet, he made sure to obey all traffic signals as he rode in the street. “I was nervous about what the police would think, but … they just kind of smiled,” he said.
He mounted a flip-camera to the handlebars and had a team of camera operators following him as he reached speeds of 4.7 mph. Malkoff made it to Madison Ave. in 12 minutes and 42 seconds. The bus took 15 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the same distance at an average of 3.9 mph.
Those who watch the buses for a living weren’t surprised. “It’s a fact of New York life, but it’s awful,” Gene Ruissianoff said. “That bus is actually slower than a running chicken.” In fact, the Straphangers Campaign had given the M42 its Pokey Award in 2010. Between the surface congestion and the dwell times as stations as passengers dip their MetroCards, the M42 is a bus fit for a snail.
Apr
06
A few months late, Help Point pilot debuts
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Created specifically for the subway environment, the Help Point is designed to be an easily recognizable communications tool for customers who need to either report an emergency or ask for travel directions. Photo by Felix Candelaria for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Once upon a time, back in 2005, a shop called Antenna Design built a prototype for an in-system intercom that would provide an immediately recognizable beacon for emergency communications. Termed Help Point, the intercom system won a Bronze medal at the 2006 IDEA Awards and has been a part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection since 2006. It was also included in an exhibit at MoMA in 2005 entitled SAFE: Design Takes on Risk. For a device that hadn’t yet seen the light of day, it had an impressive pedigree.
Last fall, in an effort to ensure a safer subway system amidst personnel cuts, the MTA announced a Help Point Intercom pilot program. By the end of 2010, two stations would be outfitted with these intercoms in an effort to determine whether or not the design worked and how feasible it would be to bring the blue-light beacons to the system’s remaining 466 stations.
Yesterday, a few months late, the MTA unveiled the pilot. At both 23rd St. and Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall along the Lexington Ave. IRT line, these Help Point Intercoms have gone live. With their blue lights, they are evocative of safety features often highlighted on tours of college campuses, and the MTA has high hopes for the design.
“These Help Points will make our subway system safer and easier to use, expanding access to assistance throughout stations in a way that wasn’t possible before,” MTA Chairman & CEO Jay H. Walder said. “This is just another step in our efforts to bring new technology to customers in ways that make using the transit system better every day.”
These intercoms, a far cry from the ones currently in use that are so easy to ignore and hardly ever work, are designed to be “highly visible and easy to use.” Nine of them are in place at 23rd St., and another ten have been put along the platform at the Brooklyn Bridge stop. As part of the pilot, the MTA is also working to determine whether wireless communications or a hard-wired line will better fit their needs.
In terms of functionality, the new ADA-compliant devices have both an emergency call button and a green information button that will connect straphangers with the station agent on duty. As Transportation Nation’s Jim O’Grady notes in covering what he aptly calls new subway emergency thingies, the audio quality will be digital and much improved over the current intercom system. “The older devices,” he writes, “did not have digital audio, which sometimes made it hard to hear and be heard. They also had an indistinct design that made them blend with their surroundings–few riders knew where they were or what to do with them.”
Transit head Thomas Prendergast highlighted these improvements as well. “These units have a fresh new appearance that will make the Help Points easy to identify. The sound will be crisp, clear and easy to understand which is an important feature especially in the subway environment,” he said. “As designed, the Help Points are major step beyond the Customer Assistance Intercoms now in our stations.”
As the pilot is beginning, the MTA is vague on future plans. The authority says that “the plan calls for the installation of the Help Points in all of the system’s 468 subway stations.” Early estimates put the per-station cost at $300,000, and the MTA would have to purchase 5000 intercoms to place one every 150 feet on station platforms. Total installation costs for the entire system then would reach $139,800,000. Maintenance costs would be substantial as well, and the MTA doesn’t exactly have the cash on hand right now. Can the MTA makes us safer without spending the dollars?
Apr
05
Photo of the Day: Inside the 7 line extension
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Progress of station cavern construction for No. 7 Extension as of April 2011. Photo by Clayton Price for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
As progress underneath the Far West Side proceeds apace, the MTA sent its photographer Clayton Price underground to snap some photos of the 7 line extension. The photos focus on the excavation of a three-block-long station cavern at 34th St. and 11th Ave. that is 85 percent finished and on target for a September 2012 completion date.
As the extension stretches toward its December 2013 revenue service date, the MTA’s contractors have completed the concrete pours that create the main cavern arches. A systems contract, which will cover rail track, all mechanical, electrical and related systems throughout the tunnels, station, ventilation buildings and the main subway entrance at 34th Street, will be awarded this July. This is the final contract for 7 line extension as the secondary station entrance is, in the words of the MTA, “not necessary” for the 7 to start serving the Hudson Yards area.
Unfortunately, the station at 41st and 10th Ave. seems to be a lost cause right now. It’s no longer part of the dialogue and attempts to secure funding for a feasibility study failed. While this one-stop, $2.1-billion extension will bring subway service to an area of the city badly in need of it, failing to include that other station near Hell’s Kitchen will go down in city history as yet another missed transit opportunity.
For more photos from the station cavern, check out the MTA’s flickr photoset.
Apr
05
Recommended Reading: What future NYC BRT?
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This great idea remains alive only on paper. (Image via NYC DOT)
In the wake of the death of the 34th St. Transitway, transit advocates have been down on the state of citywide bus improvements. Everyone in New York admits that buses are too slow, but an ambitious plan to bring physically separated bus lanes with dedicated rights-of-way to Midtown has been replaced by another half-hearted proposal to paint some stripes on the street and call it a bus lane.
With the demise of the Transitway, none of the Mayor’s plans to slowly bring bus improvements to the five boroughs will include a “best practices” approach to BRT. While pre-boarding fare payment plans will speed up bus dwell times, the vehicles won’t enjoy the benefits of a dedicate ROW. To improve bus service then will require stringent bus lane enforcement efforts and true signal prioritization efforts.
Over at Streetsblog, Noah Kazis took a few minutes to wonder about the future of BRT. He writes, in part:
It seems likely that without physical separation on 34th Street, there won’t be physical separation on any bus lanes implemented before the end of the Bloomberg Administration. The remaining routes in the city’s first phase of BRT rollout — on the Nostrand Avenue corridor in Brooklyn and Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island — are scheduled to debut in the next two years and do not include physically separated lanes…
“A number of the environmental and transportation groups are starting to recognize that the next administration after Bloomberg is going to have to answer to us on where they stand on these issues that have been wildly popular for New Yorkers,” said Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Though a new physically separated busway is unlikely to be constructed in the next three years, said Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development, “Planning can happen and dialogue with stakeholders can happen that make it a lot more likely that the next phase is gets built and has those features.” Byron said she hopes that the BRT team at DOT can assemble a coalition along its next routes that can politically lock in full-featured bus improvements. “There are workers and residents and employers in the outer boroughs who would love to have this problem of a Select Bus route running by their door,” she said.
To get dedicated busways, the city will have to change its outreach approach. It’s going to have engage folks like Joan Byron of the Pratt Center and work with Community Boards to explain why dedicated lanes are necessary. It’s not enough to propose these improvements by fiat, but rather, DOT must educate New Yorkers who aren’t familiar with the rationale behind transitway improvements.
For now, the 34th St. changes are a set-back, but their ramifications echo into the future. It’s not too late to bring dedicated bus lanes to the city, but it will require stronger and more inclusive leadership than what we have seen so far. To improve the buses, we’ll need it.
Apr
05
From Chicago, a glimpse at the subway real estate future
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The MTA has frequently come under fire for its real estate holdings. Politicians and advocates believe that the authority doesn’t make proper use of the space it both rents and owns, and underground, commercial opportunities are decidedly low rent. It is a problem the MTA is trying to solve in order to generate more money.
A few weeks ago, news broke that the authority may try to offload some real estate holdings as part of the overall overhaul of the way the MTA works. Meanwhile, back in November, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder spoke to me about the need to find a more diverse and appealing group of businesses willing to take out space underground. It’s a process.
In Chicago, the CTA is engaged in a similar process, and the Windy City’s Tribune profiled that authority’s real estate overhaul. Jon Hilkevitch reports:
The Chicago Transit Authority, which has its hands full running trains and buses, concedes it has no business managing the retail concessions on its properties. Sixty-six of the 137 concession spaces at CTA rail stations are vacant, according to the transit agency. Commuters aren’t exactly missing their trains to buy the snacks and refreshments available at the open concession stands either.
The grimy appearance of CTA subway tunnels extends up the escalators to many of the vendor stalls, which haven’t been overhauled in decades. A campaign is beginning to upgrade the selection of offerings to commuters and boost CTA rental income by attracting new retail tenants, including national chains that would operate rail station stores in multiple CTA stations, officials said…
Commuters may soon be able to drop off their dry cleaning, conduct other business or just buy a cup of coffee right inside or next door to their “L” stop. The two newest leases are with Maui Wowi Hawaiian, a coffee and smoothie shop that will open at the CTA Belmont station serving the Red, Brown and Purple/Evanston Express lines; and Lupito’s juice bar at the Damen station on the Pink Line, officials said. Both businesses are scheduled to open this spring.
Upscale merchandise could become part of the mix too. Vending machines that feature iPods and digital cameras are deployed at increasing numbers of airports, and they may turn up at CTA rail stations as well. The CTA is considering vending machines that dispense DVDs and electronics at select rail stations, CTA President Richard Rodriguez has said.
There’s more than a little amount of common sense involved in the CTA’s thinking. While many of their stations have a more visible ground-level component than New York’s do, the simple idea of placing vending machines in stations could be one that tips. Why shouldn’t I be able to grab a DVD from a Redbox machine at Grand Army Plaza? If the MTA can maintain its MetroCard Vending Machines and if my local Key Food can keep in better working order than its credit card readers, convenience would demand one in the subway.
Of course, the idea that the subway is for anything other than commuting is tough sell. Other than concession stands, businesses aren’t drawn to the subways because of its negative connotations. It’s dirty; it’s dark; it’s delayed. I prefer my dry cleaners to inhabit a clean building with some modicum of proper venting instead of the dirt- and rat-infested subway system.
Still, money is tight. Transit agencies have to get creative with their rent-seeking efforts, and perhaps Chicago is on to something. As New York searches for a similar solution, they could do far worse than to take a cue from our neighbors to the west.
Apr
04
Photo of the Day: Ad-covered turnstile arms
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Photo by Benjamin Kabak
For the past few years, the MTA has decorated its turnstile arms at Herald Square with a variety of advertisements. Other transit agencies across the country had eked out some dollars selling sponsorships on their entry gates, and the authority had hoped to do the same in New York. The early ads never really spread beyond the busy 34th St. station though.
Over the last few days, however, I’ve seen the ads creep southward. Last week, when I arrived at West 4th St., I noticed blue wraps on the southern turnstiles. The ads — supporting New York’s anti-smoking campaign — are on the three turnstile arms on each of the entry gates at the West 3rd St. entrance to the station, and it’s a part of the MTA’s attempts to squeeze dry its advertising potential.
I posted the photo to my Twitter account earlier today, and one reader questioned the wisdom of these ads. Should the MTA be hosting advertisements that will make straphangers slow down to reach the ad info or jot down a phone number as they swipe through at a busy and hectic station? I’ll leave that one up to you, dear reader, to decide.
