It's easy to find a seat when all of them are empty. (Photo by flickr user bitchcakesny)
Finding a seat on the subway during rush hour can often seem like a fool’s errand. Some trains fill up so quickly and are so packed with people that it’s impossible to imagine a time where seats are plentiful and space bountiful. Yet, at other times, trains seem to carry an imbalance of people. The front is empty while the back is not or the middle has fewer people than the ends. Why?
In this week’s issue of Time Out New York, I help explore that question. The theme of the issue is 200 things you didn’t know about New York, and they include an extensive section on navigating the subways like a pro. I spoke with reporter Celia Shatzman, and we covered a variety of subway-based topics. I spoke on abandoned stations, tips for minimize wait times late at night and some subway etiquette no-no’s.
My favorite question though concerned the tried-and-true seat. What cars, asked Shatzman, tend to be emptier and what’s the best way to score a seat? David Holland from Transit Blogger, Tom Sibley of Subway Douchery fame and I gave the answer:
Know the flow of ridership patterns and locations. Benjamin Kabak is the blogger behind Second Avenue Sagas, which has tracked the progress of the Second Avenue subway and other transit news since 2006. He explains that because of the way entrances are staggered, back cars are less full. To get a seat, try to board at a major transfer point, where people tend to exit en masse. David Holland, who runs Transit Blogger, recommends looking for wear and tear on the edges of platforms, near the tracks—this allows you to guess where the doors will open, so you can swoop in quickly and grab a seat. “There are certain spots that will stand out, because [the doors on] each train open in practically the same spot every time,” he explains. “The repeated foot traffic will eventually leave marks.”And if all else fails? “Start coughing,” suggests comedian Tom Sibley, the guy behind Subway Douchery. “It makes people nervous. They’ll be too worried about getting whatever disease they are certain you have to grab the empty seat.”
Unfortunately, due to the demands of space, I couldn’t elaborate much on the differences between train lines and original systems, but something as simple as station design at one end of the train can impact the way trains load throughout the route. Take, for instance, the IND stations built after the IRT and BMT systems. The IND stations are three-block behemoths that make room for long cars with lots of room, but a design quirk means that trains fill up at the ends and not in the middle.
Placing entrances are opposite ends of a station can create passenger bunching on the platforms. Shown here is the IND's W. 4th St. station.
That quirk is one of convenience. Most — but not all — of the IND stations have entrances at the northern and southern ends of their platforms but not in between. At 14th St. on 6th Ave., for instance, passengers can enter at 16th St. or 14th St. At West 4th St., riders board at 3rd St. or closer to 8th St. At Bryant Park, passengers are funneled underground at one end of the park or the other. Thus, it’s possible to find more space, if not an errant seat or two, in the middle of the IND trains at certain stations.
Meanwhile, the designs of IRT and BMT stations seem to spread straphangers out through the natural flow. Take, for instance, a 1 train going south from 96th St. At the express stop there, the station entrances are at the extreme ends of the train, but at 86th and 79th Sts., the entrances are a few cars from the front. At 72nd St., with the new stationhouse, passengers can board at various points along the train, and 66th and 59th Sts. have multiple egress points at opposite ends of the platform. (For what it’s worth, the Phase 1 Second Ave. Subway stations will naturally push passengers to either the front or the back of the trains.)
Of course, this is a simplified look at the boarding process. Generally, people board their trains in the morning, as the popular mobile app Exit Strategy has noted, based upon where they have to get off. If the train isn’t there, straphangers will walk to the car closest to their exit even if seats are harder to come by. I know my B train is emptier at the front of the train, but I’d rather save the two minutes walking from the 7th Ave. entrance to the back car for my exit at West 4th St.
The trick then is to know the hot spots. I know that my train empties out at De Kalb Ave. as workers bound for the hospital there, Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus or Downtown Brooklyn head to work. If I’m quick, I can nab a seat, and if not, I can find space to move in the car. As veteran riders know, it’s all about the flow of passengers. If you ride long enough, you’ll find a seat, and you’ll know just when it’s going to open up.
11 comments
Alternatively you can stereotype the people in seats and pick someone to stand over who you think will get off soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10.....story.html
I absolutely love doing this, and I take pride in it too. When taking the E train towards Queens, I try and stand near someone sitting who looks like they would be going to the UES for the transfer to the 6 at Lexington Avenue.
Doesn’t it make sense to have entrances at both ends so people can get as close to their destinations as possible? The 68th st stop on the 6 comes to mind. It’s busy and only has one entrance at the southern end of the platform. With a northern exit, people could get two blocks closer to 72nd st and there wouldn’t be so much crowding at 68th st. It seems having exits at each ends maximizes the investment of each station. After all, can’t people just walk to the middle car if they really want a seat?
When you’re building stations in the main business areas roughly 5-7 blocks apart, as the IRT and BMT did with their trunk lines, an egress someplace between the third and eighth cars makes sense, since the station’s target area above ground is smaller. With the IND, since their stations were built 8-10 blocks apart, the idea of putting the entrances and exits at the ends to mimic the existing lines and their station stops as much as possible made sense (though thanks to the station extensions/new exits, you can still have problems on the older lines, as with, say, getting on the R train at South Ferry/Whitehall bound and getting off at 60th St. and Third Ave., or getting on the downtown No. 6 train from the Lexington Ave. end of the Grand Central stop and getting off to transfer to the B/D/F/M at Bleecker).
i received a great compliment once from a friend who moved to new york. after about a year we were with someone else and he said of me, “i was impressed with myself when i learned what train to get on. this guy knows what door to get on.”
more than getting a seat my concern is situating to make connections. last door of the E queens-bound to get to the 6; front door of the 3rd from last car of the N queens-bound to get to the uptown 6; front door of the N downtown to get to penn station; etc, etc.
The real trick when I was riding multiple lines regularly back while I was still attending college classes wasn’t just to learn which door on IRT, BMT and IND lines, but also to learn which door on the various rolling stock. Knowing which door on the old
This sounds like an old article from the New York Times’ Tunnel Vision Series. This was published almost 10 years ago, yet its almost exactly the same.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01.....ndykennedy
Are you accusing me of plagiarizing The Times article? I can assure you that there aren’t that many similarities and I hadn’t read that before writing this post.
I would say he isn’t.. just pointing out that a similar article had been made before (and probably has many times).
No I am not. I am just trying to say that this reminds of that particular article.
I don’t think this is as much an IND vs. IRT/BMT thing as you claim. While there are many extreme-ended IND stations, there are plenty that aren’t, perhaps more than half (I haven’t counted). And there are plenty of extreme-ended IRT/BMT stations. Many original IRT local stations have their entrances one or two carlengths from the end of the train, because they were extended in only one direction. And even the express stations are often extreme-ended. On the 7th Ave. line, every express station except Chambers has an entrance at either the far south (96th) or far north (72nd, 42nd, 34th, 14th) end. There are certainly some segments of the IND that have end-loading problems, but those are generally due to extremely busy destination – most notably Penn Station, which is only reachable from the south end of the IND platforms (the IRT platforms, by contrast, have two access points to Penn).
One other issue to watch out for is that lines that run short trains – the C, M, and G – are prone to overloaded end cars. If you want an end seat, stay towards the middle.
People who are familiar with their destination stations always tend to “prewalk” (unless the train comes right away, of course) – I don’t think this is peculiar to the morning. But that just shifts the heaviest loads to the cars closest to the exits at the busiest destination stations rather than the cars closest to the entrances at the busiest origin stations.
I also disagree with the advice to board at a major transfer point. If you’re only boarding there, you’ve missed your chance – everybody staying on the train has already gobbled up those seats. You need to get on before the transfer point. Of course, you’re probably getting on at the station closest to your point of origin, so this particular bit of advice isn’t very useful.