For the past few years, as smartphones, Kindles and iPads have become ubiquitous in society, they have invaded the subways. As I observe straphangers during my morning commutes, I’ve noticed how Kindles often outnumber books, and more people are reading the paper on their eReaders than in hard copy. It’s the wave of the future.
A few weeks ago, as I stood on my 3 train en route from Grand Army Plaza to Nevins St., I stood against the door reading The Times on my iPad as a cop stood next to me. In a friendly tone, he told me to guard my iPad because they are the number one item stolen on the subways. I politely thanked him and told him I knew the stats. I, along with many others on my car, went back to my digital newspaper.
Now, I and my fellow straphanger police officer are not the only ones who have noticed this increase in the number of eReaders underground. Thieves have as well, and over the past few years, we’ve heard multiple stories about how subway robbers are targeting smartphones and other electronic devices. One time-tested method involves the grab-and-dash. Thieves will pick a victim sitting close to a door who is seemingly paying more attention to their iPad than their surroundings. As the train pulls into a new station, the thief will grab the device and dash out of the train, leaving behind a electronics-less victim with little hope of catching the perpetrator.
This week, as the MTA Board committees gear up for their monthly meetings, the MTA has released a new set of data showcasing how these types of robberies are on the upswing. As the NYPD reports, reported grand larcenies for January 2012 were up by 42.2 percent over January 2011. Of course, with 155 reported larcenies, those numbers are still incredibly low. Average weekday ridership is over 5.4 million people so the chances of being a victim of such a grand larceny are slim.
Back in October of 2010, I noticed how New Yorkers these days ride obliviously. As a child of the 1980s, I remember when people were loath to ride the subways let alone flash their iPods, iPhones and Kindles. We take for granted the fact that the subways are safe, and even with grand larceny totals are rising, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are still essentially safe. Very few people are the victims of reported thefts, and the subways are safer. Even without station agents, rapes and murders are both at zero, and felony assaults are down too. With headlines talking about crime increases, we should ride carefully but not with a tinge of paranoia.
Subway ridership is on the upswing.
Meanwhile, subway ridership too is up significantly. According to the latest numbers from the MTA, total subway ridership last year hit 1.64 billion, and the authority says it’s the highest total since 1950. Average weekday ridership hit 5.3 million, the highest total since 1951, and combined Saturday and Sunday ridership was 5.4 million, the highest weekend total since 1947. As fares go up and service levels are cut, as cleaners vanish and station agents are cut back, people are riding the subways. Now if only someone in Albany would listen to the interests of the riders.
22 comments
Look, Cuomo wants more parking and more car lanes, so more parking and more car lanes it’s gonna be.
Number one reason why when the train pulls into the station I stop looking at my smartphone and in some cases I will put it away in my pocket until the doors close and we begin to move towards the next station.
Also one of the better techniques by thieves is to reach in the door of a door blocker holding a tablet or smartphone and grab it as the doors are closing. I almost hate to say I have not much sympathy in that type of a situation.
“Well clearly you guys are doing fine with all those extra fares from the subways, so we definitely will be slashing your funding.” – Albany sometime this upcoming week
How come in the article the MTA states that annual ridership is 1.64 billion but the graph states it just over 2.3 billion. Am I missing something?
The graph shows bus + subway ridership. I didn’t label it properly.
That makes sense. Thanks! 🙂
Was 1996 really the low point for ridership in the subway? I had thought by that point the graffiti problem had been fixed, trains were getting fixed up and improvements were made in the physical infrastructure. I would have thought the nadir would have occurred sometime in the 80’s.
The turnaround began with the MetroCard and the end of the two-fare zones. When riders no longer had to pay one fare for the bus and another fare to use the subway, transit became a good deal, even a bargain.
Wikipedia says the first turnstiles taking MetroCards opened in January 1994, but the full system roll out was not completed until May, 1997. In July of 1997, the first free transfers became available at any location.
To encourage people to buy cards to be used more than once, a 10% bonus for cards of $15 was begun in January, 1998. The unlimited ride cards came on July 4, 1998.
And easily forgotten, there have been a number of improvements to the system — rehabbed stations, e.g. at 72nd and at 96th St on the Broadway lines, two or three much better transfers such as Jay St-MetroTech, more elevators for ADA compliance that make it much easier for mothers with strollers and others not fully “D” status, and so forth.
I credit the two key changes in transportation economics that occurred in the late 90s. One was the introduction of the unlimited metrocard. That encouraged additional rides during the time period as each additional use lowered the overall cost per ride. This meant that transit was becoming a more viable choice for those off-peak, non-work/school related trips.
The other factor was the end of the great gas price decline. The price of oil bottomed out about the same time and began its incredible upswing run. This had the effect of pushing marginal car households (lower income households with older paid off cars) out of car ownership altogether as the relative price of transit fell and improving reliability and service made it a viable alternative. It also raised the price of cab and livery car service rides.
No doubt the changing composition of neighborhoods and wholesale rebounds of some areas played a part in brining new transit riders into the mix. But the changing economics of transit cost helped push more of those new rides onto busses and trains.
Trend-watchers say that young people in Japan and the U.S. aren’t as ‘into’ cars as their elders, and sitting in transit is relatively less boring than driving, exactly because of all those things the thieves want to grab: devices for listening to music, playing electronic games, texting and talking (when above ground).
I’m one of those who thinks that trends start in NYC and go to L.A. to fade away. I’d certainly like to think we were ahead of the national trend here.
There was also that great decline in the crime rate that took hold in the early 1990s. (Freaknomics said the largest single explanation was the legalization of abortion some 18 or 20 years before, sparing us from an otherwise larger number of children growing up unwanted and antisocial.) For whatever reasons, the crime rate has continued to fall, and as Ben points out, today the subways are remarkably safe places.
Of course, nothing succeeds like success, so the safer people felt about the subways, the more they rode them. The more people rode the subways, the more riders enjoyed the safety of numbers.
Anyway, pea-jay, I like your explanations above. And there usually is more than one explanation for things.
…young people in Japan and the U.S. aren’t as ‘into’ cars as their elders, and sitting in transit is relatively less boring than driving, exactly because of all those things the thieves want to grab…
I’d count myself among them–I find that a good book or magazine makes the ride much less boring, and I’ve never heard of thieves trying to grab those.
Another thing that might be driving young people away from cars is more economic. I don’t think the kind of cheap suburbanization that was possible in the 1950s in the NYC region is possible in most mature metropolitan areas anymore. And, by 2050, it will probably be done even in border cities. The boomers and Gen Xers grabbed all those properties, and the options for younger generations is to either go further out or to go to the urban core.
Not to say social explanations are bad. I tend to think they are better explanations, actually.
And then there’s gas prices. All the different effects are reinforcing each other.
According to the manufacturer, this device withstands a full 40 pound pull before harmlessly releasing your iPod, iPhone or iPad2. I use it on my iPad2 with some confidence, not only from theft, but from dropping it while innocent jostling occurs on subway platforms and cars. There’s a YouTube video showing how strong it is – and when one considers how much these devices cost us, the lanyard is worth the investment.
http://www.amazon.com/Danglet-.....B002M22C3M
Wait, wasn’t there a rape on the tracks near Bowery a few weeks ago?
Yes, but these are numbers only through January.
Coincidentally, I just a new MTA/NYPD sign about this on the B heading uptown. There’s a picture of a BB, iPhone and what is apparently and Android phone, but no iPad picture.
I’ve read (maybe here?) that some thieves want only iPhones and iPads and will not bother with BB’s anymore.
Is the MTA on the verge of releasing station ridership stats? They did so relatively the same time last year.
Does a continuous ride starting on the subway and ending on the bus count as one ride now ( you would think so, but the chart does not say so )
Before the MetroCard, there would have been plenty of people who made such trips from outer Queens / SI etc. How would they know if it was a continuous trip, or two separate trips, as both were paid by token?
How do we know we are dealing with apples to apples here?
The MTA’s headline numbers count swipes. If you transfer from bus to bus, between bus and subway, or from subway to subway out-of-system (e.g. from the F at Lex to the 6 at 59th), then you’re counted twice.
[…] the MTA touts the fact that subway ridership is on the up-and-up, its ever-shrinking bus network is telling a different story. Authority board members want to do […]
Wow. How long until the NYC Subway has actual all-time ridership records? The peak years were 1930 (right after the crash) and 1946 (right after WWII), according to what I’ve just looked up.
But now it’s just on a steady upward trend and it’s already moving into that territory. 5 years? 10?