For straphanging New Yorkers, summer means but one thing underground: It’s very, very, uncomfortably hot in the subways. Just how hot, though, is very hot? Recently, on a 92-degree day, WNYC’s Beth Fertig and Amy Pearl ventured underground with a digital thermometer to find out just how hot is hot. Their findings are unsurprising. According to the story (with accompanying audio), most stations were a few degrees warmer than outside temps. The Houston St. stop on the 1 clocked in at 95 degrees while the platform at Times Square registered a balmy 102 with blasts of heat up to 106 when trains pulled into the station. At 72nd St., the temps hovered at 100 degrees.
Once Pearl and Fertig boarded one of the air conditioned trains, though, the climate dropped to comfortable. Temperatures on board ranged from 70-74. Therein lies the rub. Because air conditioners work by taking heat from an enclosed space and removing it to another, the constant ACs units that make our subway cars tolerable make the platforms unbearable. Considering how much more time we spend on the trains, though, it is a worthy trade-off.
In the end, Fertig and Pearl found relief in a few stations with treated air. While they didn’t venture into the state-of-the-art South Ferry terminal for the 1, at Grand Central, they found the fans in place on the IRT platforms actually worked. The temperatures under those fans dropped to the upper 80s. Assaf Shave summed up most New Yorkers’ take on the heat: “As long as it’s not overly dirty I’ve learned to accept it and to adjust.”
10 comments
[…] View original post here: It’s too darn hot […]
I wonder what the platforms would feel like if they ran the AC at 78, like everyone else.
They can run them as cold as they want for all I care. I like to dry off by the time I enter the office.
At 72nd Street, you can wait at the station houses at street level; you can see the tracks from there so you won’t miss the train, but the temperature is bearable.
And all this because New York doesn’t air condition its subway stations like some other cities.
I think you meant linking to Singapore or Hong Kong.
But their advantage is that they built their metros nearly 70 years after New York did. Perhaps there should be a A/C stations goal like the ADA-compliant “key stations” goal?
I haven’t been on the subway in Hong Kong, so I wouldn’t know – but I’d expect nothing short of full AC in there.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s just an age thing. The ventilation issue has always been there. It’s just that the solution the IRT came up with was to place ventilation grates strategically so that passing trains would create air turbulence, ventilating the stations. This stopped working once trains were lengthened to increase capacity; the grates were no longer in the correct positions.
Besides that bit of shortsightedness, New York is perfectly capable of installing AC in its stations, as it has at Grand Central. The key issues are that a) capital projects such as air conditioning, accessibility, and platform screen doors cost more in New York than they have to, and b) even if they didn’t, governments at all levels don’t like to spend that money.
having to endure miserably hot subway stations is one of the few things that i mention when people ask me what i don’t like about living in new york city. i hope all the work designing ventilation for the new 2nd avenue subway stations makes a difference. maybe the MTA could refurbish some of the old stations to somehow exhaust some of that hot air. i dream!
I’ve lived here 12 years now and I almost don’t even think about it any more. When I first moved here (from cooler climes), I actually had to bring a change of clothes to work during the summer. Now I don’t. Must be getting used to it?! But yeah, summers in general are my absolute least favorite thing about NYC. I may be more used to it, but I still don’t like it one bit.
Rhywun, the problem isn’t the summers, but how the city’s dealing with them. New York’s summers are colder than those of most places. Hong Kong would be absolutely intolerable without air conditioning. In Tokyo, green advocates have had to convince businesses to turn up the thermostat a bit during the summer and switch to ties-off dress codes.
If by “adjusting” you mean sweat uncontrollably, then yes, I have “adjusted” too