Back in May, New York City Transit President Howard Roberts, new to the job, expressed a desire to receive grades on the subway from straphangers. While some good MTA ideas fall by the wayside, Roberts has delivered on this promise, and starting yesterday, 7 riders received report cards. They are, much to my delight, also available online.
These report cards, as I originally noted, ask riders to rate the subways based on a series of fairly obvious categories. Comfort, cleanliness, security, congeniality of employees and clarity of public address announcements are the benchmarks. But while this may seem like a complete overview of the system, the report is noticeably lacking in certain areas.
A quick glance at the report card template shows that Roberts and his group at NYCT have managed to hit upon the big ones. The first few questions deal with train delays and overcrowded subways; the next few focus on riders’ senses of security and the functionality of station escalators and elevators; announcements and signage are grouped with station and car cleanliness; and the survey wraps up with a question on whether or not riders find the insultingly easy-to-use MetroCard vending machines insulting easy to use.
Personally, my two favorites are 13 and 14: train announcements that are easy to hear and train announcements that are informative. I would say that most train announcements are not informative. How many times do I need to hear the MTA tell me to check myself and protect myself (before I wreck myself) due to heightened security in the subways?
But for the 21 questions plus on on overall subway performance, one key topic is noticeably missing from the survey. As SUBWAYblogger eruditely pointed out this week, it’s freakin’ hot on the subways right now. Roberts’ questionaire asks riders if the temperature on train cars is comfortable. (Answer: Usually ok. Sometimes, way too cold. Those cars with broken air conditioners are to be avoided like the plague.) But no where does Roberts ask about the temperature inside the stations.
Now, while most 7 train stops are above ground and this question may be more relevant to riders on trains that stay below ground (the IRT comes to mind), those 7 stops in Manhattan are insufferably hot. Try waiting in Grand Central during rush hour for a 7 train. It’s easily 110-120 degrees on that platform.
So maybe the MTA knows that it’s hot and doesn’t want to get a bunch of bad grades for platform temperature. Maybe they’re trying to figure out some way, any way, to cool down the platforms. Again, SUBWAYblogger isn’t too optimistic, and I agree with him there. But no matter; the MTA should not be avoiding this question. It’s hot in the subway stations; do something about it.
7 comments
Lets meet at the hardware store, buy a thermometer and go measure the temp, OK?
Then we can accurately -if not exactly easily – say how hot it is on the 7 Plat.
I think you hit it when you stated that the MTA knows the platforms are hot. Why ask the question when you already know the answer?
Sometimes it’s so hot on the platform that I can’t breathe. I would think the MTA would want to do something about the temperature on the platforms so they don’t have people passin’ out all over the place.
I would think the MTA would want to do something about the temperature on the platforms so they don’t have people passin’ out all over the place.
Yeah, like me this morning. Wow was it hot in the subway today.
peter: I think I just might take my Sharper Image thermometer clock into the subway one of these days to see just how hot it really is. This morning at 7th Ave. in Brooklyn on the Q/B it was easily pushing 100.
Boston is experimenting with a new way of cooling underground stations using some sort of water cooling system (sort of similar to Grand Central’s 4/5/6 cooling). Their success has been mixed–at some stations, it just seems to blow around hot air and not actually cool that much. But honestly, even a breeze would help wick sweat away at the very least.
The subway stations got a lot hotter once they started air conditioning the trains. The use of the air conditioners on the trains throws off a great deal of heat, which plays a factor in how hot it is in the stations. Back in the days before we had air conditioned trains, the stations were somewhat less hot and the trains were unbearable. I suspect there is very little that can be done about the temperatures inside the stations.
Well there’s something to be said about sitting in your air conditioned car in Los Angeles when you want to get from Point A to Point B. The rub, however, is that one must travel on crowded streets and freeways most of the times and that you live outside of New York City.Hmmm….