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Some thoughts on building the ideal transit app

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 7, 2013

With underground wifi, demand will increase for more transit apps. (Photo via Second Ave. Sagas on Instagram)

A thought experiment, if you will, based on the following question: What elements would the ideal transit map contain?

Over the past few years, the MTA has embraced, with varying degrees of success, a mantra of open data. It began with Jay Walder and has continued since his tenure as the MTA has released a whole bunch of information to the public. Some of it, such as turnstile data, helps us visualize ridership patterns while others — BusTime and SubwayTime APIs — help riders track buses and trains in real time. Even as a report from the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA rightly criticized the agency for shuffling its feet on issues such as searchable board PDFs and the like, the MTA has improved in leaps and bounds since early 2009 on open data.

Still, transit apps are rather limited right now, and the MTA, not the best at designing things, has tried to encourage private developers to pick up the slack. This past weekend, the agency along with AT&T hosted a hack-a-thon. It’s part of a long-term effort to reward app makers using MTA data, and as this weekend’s winners walked away with a concept and few thousand bucks, the summer’s winners could earn as much as $40,000 when the dust settles. That’s not chump change for a transit app.

As a sponsor for Capital New York, AT&T filed a puff piece from the hackathon if you want a sanitized version of the experience. Meanwhile, a few developers took home smaller prizes this weekend. Earning $5000 were the creators of Subculture.FM, a web-based app that allows straphangers to identify their favorite subway musicians, find them in the system and buy songs via a QR code. A real-time tracking app called MTA Sheriff took home $3000. It allows riders to submit reports on subway conditions. The third place winners were Accessway, an app that assists visually- or mobility-impaired riders in navigating the subway.

Of that group, the third place winner likely has the most utility. It serves a legitimate, non-frivolous purpose and is seemingly missing from the marketplace right now. Disabled passengers have a tough time getting around the system as it is, and the MTA doesn’t go out of its way to aggregate its accessibility information in an easy-to-find and easy-to-digest format. Still, it’s potential reach is limited by the number of users who need the information.

To me, it seems as though app developers are spinning their wheels a bit. An app about Arts for Transit performers, while kitschy, is hardly going to improve or impact my commute, and that’s what I want from a transit-based app. I need something with information that helps me make decisions and streamlines my ride.

That said, I see the best transit app as offering up the following:

  1. Real-time train tracking. Admittedly, this is limited by the fact that the B division has no countdown clocks. Add the BusTime API, and this theoretical app is even better.
  2. Above-ground entrance locations. I can never remember where the nearest Wall St. and Fulton St. entrances are. Show me staircase location as the MTA’s neighborhood maps do, and add Exit Strategy’s staircase location as well.
  3. Point-to-point directions that incorporate up-to-date service changes.

As far as I’m concerned, anything more is just window dressing. But that’s just my personal preference, and it’s a bit utilitarian. So what do you think? What goes into your ideal transit app? Maybe I’m missing something, but maybe, in an age of ever more complicated devices and apps, we’re just overthinking it.

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Penn Station

City Planning calls for 15 more years for MSG

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 7, 2013

Moving MSG is a key to increasing Manhattan’s rail throughput. (Photo by flickr user [mementosis])

As the movement to reimagine and replan Midtown West takes shape and calls for some solutions to the Penn Station morass grow, the Department of City Planning is considering limiting the renewal term on Madison Square Garden’s occupancy permit to 15 years. The move — not without controversy — comes after a recommendation of 10 years from the Community Board and a request of an unlimited term from the Garden’s owners. A 15-year term would force the city to confront the problems of Penn Station before the end of the 2020s.

“While Madison Square Garden maintains that the arena special permit should continue in perpetuity, we believe the term is warranted due to the uniqueness of the site and the importance of Penn Station to the city,” Amanda Burden, director of City Planning Department and chair of the City Planning Commission, said.

Matt Chaban of Crain’s New York broke the story following the vote this morning, and his reporting provides some context on the next steps:

It’s been nearly a decade since efforts to move the Garden surfaced. Early talks involved city, state and federal governments, the three railroads that use the station, two developers and the Dolan family, which controls the Garden. Under that plan, the Garden would have moved across Eighth Avenue into the old Farley Post Office. It fell apart in 2008 under bureaucratic inertia and the wreckage of the real estate bubble. “We are recommending today that the commission call for a renewed, multiagency initiative to improve Penn Station,” Ms. Burden said.

Her notion of a 15-year permit drew vocal support from fellow commissioners, who will officially vote on the plan later in May. “I think 15 years, in my view, was a good decision and the minimum of what we could do because 10 years is too short and does not give the Garden enough to relocate,” said Commissioner Angela Battaglia, who had been skeptical of a limited term during past commission hearings…

Manhattan Commissioner Anna Levin reiterated the need to use the permit to jump-start the negotiations around the arena. “I’m fully in support of the general direction of the 15-year permit,” she said. “But we’ve got to rally the troops to get this to happen. It goes beyond these walls.”

Should a deal fall through, the special permit calls for a commission to reassess the area around the arena, perhaps creating more entrances on the plaza surrounding the Garden. The arena would not be responsible for such changes, but it would have to make way for them. “If such a plan does not come to fruition, making improvements to the station with Madison Square Garden at its current location will become critical to the future of Penn Station,” Ms. Burden said.

Various stakeholders expressed varying degrees of acceptance. The Municipal Art Society, which is seemingly more concerned with a great public space than a train station that can meet demand, still hopes for a 10-year permit while Madison Square Garden lashed out at the Commission’s decision. “Adding an arbitrary expiration for reasons unrelated to the special permit process or requirements would not only set a dangerous and questionable precedent, but would also hinder our ability to make MSG and New York City the long-term home of even more world-class events, and would harm a business that has served as a significant economic driver for the city for generations,” the arena’s owners said in a statement.

If the late-May vote upholds the 15-year permit and if the City Council does as well, the next decade and a half becomes a critical one for the region’s rail infrastructure. As I’ve mentioned a few times this year, the fight over MSG and, subsequently, Penn Station should not be about the above-ground elements. We can’t resurrect the old Penn Station, and we shouldn’t be sinking billions of dollars into a station house as we are with PATH at the World Trade Center site.

Rather, as Scott Stringer carefully elaborated, Madison Square Garden’s future must be tied to underground improvements. We need more track capacity, bigger platforms and a train station not interrupted by support columns that hinder passenger flow. MSG, already one of the country’s oldest arenas, has moved in the past, and it can move again if better transit connections warrant it.

Today’s announcement is the first real salvo in this fight, and the permit has clear a few hurdles before becoming law. Then, the battle of form vs. function over Penn Station will start to play out as well. For now, though, the move is a welcome one if we are to expand rail access into Manhattan, and the City Council should follow suit.

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View from Underground

The Air Down There: The Way We Ride Breathe

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 6, 2013

An air quality monitor tests the conditions at Union Square. (Photo via flickr user wwward0)

It’s not secret that the subway system is not the cleanest spot in New York City. The dirt, grime and garbage is evident on platforms and trackbeds and fills tunnels and even train cars as well. Some people brave the mess to grab a quick bite to eat, but we’re all better off not dwelling too much on the cleanliness, or lack thereof, underground. But what of the air quality?

The odor of the subway is often distinctive and, depending upon location, unique. The 2nd Ave. station smells like the 2nd Ave. station, and a few other underground stations are signature smells. Generally, though, the subways smell like some combination of the unwashed masses mingled with various bodily odors, the scent of food or garbage and often, if we’re lucky, nothing. But that doesn’t mean we’re not breathing in various microbes, metal dust and other assorted things.

It’s hard to believe, but in all of the years of subway operations, scientists haven’t taken a close look at the air down there. A group of scientists out of Colorado have taken it upon themselves to do just that, and they’ve released their findings [pdf]. “The goal of this study,” they said, “was to determine the composition and diversity of microorganisms associated with bioaerosols in a heavily trafficked metropolitan subway environment.”

With that in mind, the paranoid among us may cast a wary eye upon its findings, but the study should assuage those fears. “We encountered no organisms of public health concern,” the researchers noted. But what did they find? In a nutshell: “The microbiology was more or less similar throughout the system and with time, and most similar to outdoor air, consistent with highly efficient air mixing in the system. Identifiable bacterial sequences indicated that the subway aerosol assemblage was composed of a mix of genera and species characteristic of soil, environmental water, and human skin commensal bacteria.” Essentially, we’re breathing in the same things underground as we do above ground.

The study went into more detail:

The subway environment, underground and away from light, might seem remote from our usual environment and potentially occupied by distinct or novel kinds of microorganisms. Rather than unusual however, our survey finds that the microbiota encountered in the NYC subway is fairly mundane, essentially a mix of outdoor air with an overlay of human-associated microorganisms typical of the skin. No significant evidence of pathogens or other organisms of concern was obtained, beyond what might be encountered in any human-occupied indoor setting. Thus, this survey provides the pre-event information necessary for surveillance activities for pathogens that might occur or be introduced into the system. The results also provide pre-event information necessary for interpretation of the microbiological consequences of the recent flooding of the NYC subway system during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Although subways might be considered confined environments, the similarity of subway air microbiota to that of outside air suggests that the subway air significantly equilibrates with outside air on relatively short timescales. There is little or no local air conditioning in the NYC subway. Instead, air movement in the system is driven by passive train-pumping, with air taken in and exhausted through street-level ports, the NYC sidewalk grillwork. The general uniformity of microbial assemblages throughout the system indicates good air mixing, a testimony to the efficiency of the train-pumping process.

Ultimately, the study provides a baseline for air sampling for security detection. By setting levels now, officials can more easily detect living things in the air that shouldn’t be there and that may pose a risk to humans. To that end, NYPD officials plan to release a colorless, odorless, harmless gas into the subway system later this summer to determine how air flow would spread something dangerous in the event of a terrorist attack. “The subways play a major role in how air moves through Manhattan and the five boroughs,” Paul Kalb, an engineer at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, said. “If you’re in the subways and there’s something released on the surface, you could be vulnerable.”

As that express train rushes by you next time you’re waiting for a local, note the wind, and dwell on what may be in that gust of air. It may not always be such a comforting thought.

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BrooklynService Advisories

Map: FASTRACK, shuttle buses arrive in Bay Ridge

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 6, 2013

Shuttle buses and a stub N train will pick up the slack during this week’s FASTRACK.

During my talk at the Transit Museum a few weeks back about the MTA’s FASTRACK program, Larry Gould, an ops official with New York City Transit, spoke at length about the operations planning that goes into FASTRACK. Where possible, Transit prefers to limit the use of shuttle buses and tries instead to urge riders to use alternate nearby routes. For most FASTRACK treatments, that’s an easy ask as the nearest subway line isn’t too far away, but for this week’s Bay Ridge/4th Ave. FASTRACK, the shuttle buses will be out in full force.

Starting tonight at 10 p.m. and continuing each weeknight until 5 a.m., trains will not run along 4th Ave. in Brooklyn south of 36th St. N trains will be diverted along the D train’s West End line to Coney Island while a special N shuttle will operate along the Sea Beach branch from 8th Ave. to Stillwell Avenue. R trains, until they cease operating for the evening, will terminate at 36th St., and only shuttle buses will supply transit service into Bay Ridge.

This week’s treatment is likely the trickiest and most onerous for riders as late-night Bay Ridge service usually isn’t the best. On a good day, the R train operates only as a shuttle late at night, and riders have to switch at 36th St. anyway. Now, though, there’s no direct N service to and from Manhattan. Though the transfer at New Utrecht/62nd St. to the N shuttle alleviates the pressure, travel times will be significantly longer this week for Brooklynites.

As this is one of the tougher FASTRACK’s, the next weekday change is the easiest. Later this month, Lexington Ave. trains will run only on the local tracks overnight — which they sort of do anyway. More on that in a few weeks.

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AsidesQueens

Rockaways subway service inching closer

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 6, 2013

As the MTA tries to fulfill its promise of restoring A train service over Broad Channel and to the Rockaways by the end of June, a few bits of news have trickled out regarding the status of these efforts. First, the MTA announced late last week that indicator board in the signal tower at Rockaway Park – Beach 116th St. is up and running once again. In other words, the signal system — which had been utterly destroyed by Sandy — is up and running again.

According to the MTA, this is no small feat. The signal system in place in the Rockaways is decades old, and the MTA burned through its supply of spare parts. Crews had to refurbish old parts that were inundated with salt water or find replacements. These efforts will be magnified as other signals knocked out by Sandy and its floodwaters continue to degrade. Still, work remains, as Joe LaPorta, a signal engineer said. “The TA signal shop rebuilds these. They can’t even get them from a manufacturer anymore,” he explained. “By the end of the day, we might have all this cleared up here. But the yard part we can’t clear up, because we’re still waiting for parts.”

With the signal system on the mend, Transit will soon begin testing trains, The Wave, Rockaway’s local paper, reported on Friday. According to Transit officials, test trains will likely run across Broad Channel during the week of May 17th, and if all goes well, service will resume in June. As of yet, there is no set June date for restoration of the A train, but for Rockaway residents who have faced more than six months without a subway connection, it cannot come soon enough.

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East Side Access ProjectPenn Station Access

From LI pols, unreasonable opposition to Penn Station Access

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 5, 2013

A proposed build of the Penn Station Access plan.

Despite the fact that Long Island has thrived due to transit, LI residents and politicians have long fought against any sort of transit upgrades for the area. Nassau County’s NICE has not been a success while NIMBYism has killed a much-needed third track for the LIRR’s Main Line. Now, with East Side Access inching forward an the MTA’s Penn Station Access plan for Metro-North coming into view, Long Islanders are throwing a selfish fit over transit improvements that will benefit the region.

The latest salvo in the inexplicable war pitting Long Islanders against New Yorkers from points north of the city comes to us courtesy of Jack Martins, a State Senator from Nassau County. He’s not the first to object to Penn Station Access. In fact, we first heard word of Long Island insurgency in March when Charles Fuschillo raised some concerns. But Martins, in an Op-Ed he wrote for a local Hicksville newspaper, takes this opposition to an entirely new level.

Claiming his missive comes from the “Department of Bad Ideas,” Martins writes against Penn Station Access. With a misguided reference to the Payroll Tax as a selective tax targeting “only downstate businesses whether their employees used mass transit or not,” Martins rails against the future plans:

Lest these ideas feel lonely, they’re now trumpeting yet another that is so illogical that, if adopted, certainly belongs in their top goofs of all time: displacing LIRR trains at Penn Station for Metro-North trains. That would mean by 2016, four railroads – LIRR, NJ Transit, Amtrak and now Metro-North – would share the tracks and platforms with Metro-North adding an “estimated” ten trains per hour. I can just hear the collective sighs of those who regularly brave Penn as it is now and trust me, I sympathize with you. Why would the powers that be at the MTA want to make it worse?

But Thomas Prendergast, the newly-nominated Executive Director of the MTA has already gone on record as supporting the idea and essentially sticking it to us Islanders. He reminds the more than 300,000 daily LIRR commuters, that “…we are a regional agency and we need to make sure we’re doing everything across the region to provide benefits to the people.” (In case you don’t recognize canned statements prepared by out-of-touch PR bureaucrats – that was one.)

I see where this came from. Soon, the Long Island Railroad will have East Side Access into Grand Central station, so there should be room, right? Wrong. I’d love for someone involved – anyone really – to just try to remember why we’re spending billions of dollars to carve through millions of tons of bedrock under the East River. It was because Penn was overwhelmingly recognized as being much too crowded – and I might add – nobody could find any room on tracks leading into Grand Central for the LIRR. Are they now suggesting that taxpayers and commuters foot a bill that will eventually top out at $18 billion only to see the problem we attempted to alleviate made worse?

It’s nonsense. The whole point of the East Side Access Project was to create a terminal under Grand Central Station that would increase ridership on the LIRR, accessing central Manhattan without affecting Penn. In fact, Metro North went undisturbed by the LIRR move to Grand Central because the LIRR was forced to create its own space, literally carving out a cavern for its own terminal.

Where to even begin with Martins’ insanity? Perhaps the price tag would be a good start. East Side Access will clock far over budget and behind schedule, but Penn Station Access won’t cost an additional $9-$10 billion. It uses preexisting tracks and connections to deliver Metro-North trains to the West Side, a booming business center these trains currently do not access. These numbers are simply pulled out of thin air to further a poorly made point.

Second, relying upon the mistaken belief that Penn Station Access would be ready by 2016 when it wouldn’t be considered until after East Side Access is ready, Martins claims that Penn Station Access would make matters at Penn Station worse. It won’t at all because when East Side Access is ready, a lot of the train traffic and passenger traffic into Penn Station will shift to Grand Central. Despite Martins’ protestations concerning more studies, the MTA and regional transit advocates have recognized the impact ESA will have on alleviating some train traffic into Penn and know that Metro-North can slot in without major issues. Politicians, on the other hand, cannot see the forest for the trees.

Throughout the rest of the piece, Martins’ complaints about fare increases ring hollow, and his attempts to portray Long Islanders as victims of the MTA’s callousness seem petty at best and ignorant at worst. He’s distorting transit as a whole and making a mockery of a project that will vastly improve regional access to both sides of Manhattan. As long as we continue to elect these representatives, though, transit policy will remain forever locked in some soft of stasis chamber, not moving forward and nearly moving backward.

Ultimately, Penn Station Access is not nonsense, and it is part of a regional economy and a regional transit network that should deposit riders on both sides of Manhattan. Provincialism from Long Island politicians is nonsense, and I fear these voices will only grow louder as the project nears reality.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting 13 subway lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 3, 2013

In a few weeks, the MTA is going to shut down the L train between for necessary repairs, and local politicians aren’t happy. While no time is good for a line shutdown, the looming weekends — Memorial Day and later June 15-17 during the Northside Festival — come at particularly bad times for local businesses, and this isn’t the first time the MTA has dealt with this issue.

Last year, a group of officials urged the MTA to schedule L shutdowns during off-weekends. In other words, when New Yorkers are eying the Williamsburg area, don’t cut off the easiest subway service. The MTA acknowledged taking these factors into consideration but seem to have ignored them this year. So the politicians sent this letter protesting to the MTA. The agency has yet to issue a statement in response, but it’s an interesting point to debate.

“We understand,” the letter says, “that planned maintenance to the subway system is essential and shutdown dates will never be ideal, but it is very important that the MTA follow through on its commitment to community engagement and reschedule these shutdowns.” So let me post this question: Should the MTA pay better heed to community input when scheduling these service changes? I think so, but then again, no weekend is every good for a line shutdown.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, there is no 1 train service between 168th Street and 242nd Street due to platform and canopy edge work from 181st Street to 242nd Street.

  • For service between 168th Street and 191st Street, customers may use the M3 or free shuttle bus.
  • For Dyckman Street and 207th Street, customers may use the nearby A stations; transfer between the 1 and the A at 59th Street-Columbus Circle or 168th Street.
  • For stations between 207th Street and 242nd Street, customers may take the A to 207th Street and transfer to free shuttle buses which make all 1 station stops between 207th Street and 242nd Street.


From 3:45 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 5, 2 trains operate in two sections due to track panel installation north of Gun Hill Road:

  • Between Flatbush Avenue and East 180th Street
  • Between East 180th Street and 241st Street

2 trains from Flatbush Avenue are rerouted to Dyre Avenue at East 180th Street during this time.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, uptown (Woodlawn-bound) 4 trains run express from 125th Street to Burnside Avenue due to station rehabilitation at 149th Street-Grand Concourse.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, downtown 4 trains run local from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge and uptown 4 trains run local from Grand Central-42nd Street to 125th Street due to due to signal work and testing at 42nd Street-Grand Central and 14th Street-Union Square.


From 3:45 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 5, 5 service is suspended due to station rehabilitation at 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Customers may take the 2 and/or 4 trains. For service between:

  • Dyre Avenue and 149th Street-Grand Concourse, customers may take the 2 instead (the 2 operates between Dyre Avenue and Flatbush Avenue during this time).
  • 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Bowling Green, customers may take the 4 instead.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, Main Street-bound 7 trains skip 33rd, 40th, 46th, 52nd and 69th Sts due to installation of signal cables and track tie work.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, downtown (Brooklyn-bound) A trains run local from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to West 4th Street, then are rerouted via the F line to Jay Street-MetroTech due to manhole and tube surveys south of Chambers Street.


From 11:15 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, uptown (Manhattan-bound) A trains run express from Euclid Avenue to Broadway Junction due to tie block renewal at Euclid Avenue.


From 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, downtown (Brooklyn-bound) C trains are rerouted via the F line from West 4th Street to Jay Street-MetroTech due to manhole and tube surveys south of Chambers Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, uptown (Manhattan-bound) C trains run express from Euclid Avenue to Broadway Junction due to tie block renewal at Euclid Avenue.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, downtown E trains run express from 34th Street-Penn Station to Canal Street due to manhole and tube surveys south of Chambers Street.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4, from 11:45 p.m. Saturday, May 4 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, May 5 and from 11:45 p.m. Sunday, May 5 to 5 a.m. Monday May 6, Manhattan-bound E trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Queens Plaza due to conduit work at Steinway Street.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, Jamaica Center-bound E and Jamaica-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to ADA work at Forest Hills-71st Avenue.


From 11 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, there is no G train service between Church Avenue and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts due to tie block renewal north of Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. Customers should take the F instead. For F service, customers may take the A or C between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts and Jay Street-MetroTech. G service operates in two sections:

  • Between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avs.
  • Between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts, every 20 minutes.


From 12:45 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Saturday, May 4, J service operates in two sections due to escalator replacement at Bowery:

  • Between Jamaica Center and Essex Street
  • Between Essex Street and Chambers Street, every 20 minutes.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, N trains are rerouted via the R in both directions between Canal Street and Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center due to NYC DOT work on the Manhattan Bridge. N trains will stop at City Hall, Cortlandt Street, Rector Street, Whitehall Street, Court Street and Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, downtown (Brooklyn-bound) N trains skip 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue and 39th Avenue in Queens due to station painting at 30th Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, uptown (Queens-bound) N trains run local in Brooklyn from 59th Street to Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center due to NYC DOT work on the Manhattan Bridge.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 6, Q trains are rerouted via the R line in both directions between Canal Street and DeKalb Avenue due to NYC DOT work on the Manhattan Bridge. Q trains will stop at City Hall, Cortlandt Street, Rector Street, Whitehall Street, Court Street and Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, May 3 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4, from 11:45 p.m. Saturday, May 4 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, May 5 and from 11:45 p.m. Sunday, May 5 to 5 a.m. Monday May 6, uptown (57thStreet-7th Avenue-bound) Q trains stop at 49th Street due to station painting at 30th Avenue.


From 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, downtown (Brooklyn-bound) R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Queens Plaza due to conduit work at Steinway Street.

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AsidesSubway Security

Link: Tracking a stolen iPhone on the 7 train

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 3, 2013

Let’s take a familiar conceit from The French Connection and revise it for the 21st Century: What if Jimmy Doyle’s foil had a stolen iPhone? That is the premise of this New York Times Crime Scene article in which one Queens woman goes from unlucky to lucky thanks to Apple’s “Find My iPhone” app.

As Michael Wilson relates, a woman, like so many New Yorkers these days, found her phone unceremoniously snatched from her hands while walking in Queens. When she flagged down a cop and called up her phone’s location, the blue dot revealed a perp on 7 train crossing the borough above. Officers tried to spot the thief but finally had to ask Transit to halt the train. A well-timed phone call revealed the stolen phone, and victim and technology were soon reunited.

This tale at least has a happy ending, but most of these stories do not. Thefts of devices, especially from subway cars, has pushed crime totals up over the last few years, and most pick-pockets aren’t quite so foolish as to leave that phone turned on. So just think of this as a modern-day chase beneath the city’s looming elevated trains but without so much of the dramatic tension.

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Straphangers Campaign

Straphangers highlight Sandy-related delays

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 3, 2013

For the past few years, the MTA has embraced mobile communication by issuing digital alerts for most major incidents that lead to subway service changes, and a few months ago, the agency posted the alerts archive to its website. An enterprising organization looking to assess major subway delays could parse that database for information, and that’s just what the Straphangers Campaign did this week.

According to the subsequent report, the MTA issued more alerts for the F line than any other, and the G train suffered the fewest. After Superstorm Sandy, though, alerts increased by nearly 30 percent, portending a system suffering from saltwater corrosion. It is, unfortunately, impossible to know from the text alert archive how long these various service changes lasted, but the data provides a further glimpse into the way we ride.

The Straphangers posted the spreadsheet online and offered up a topline summary of their findings:

  • The most improved line was the G, which had 19% fewer delay alerts, comparing the first ten months of 2011 to the same period in 2012. The G went from 42 MTA delay alerts in 2011 to 34 alerts in 2012.
  • The L worsened the most — by 60% — from 84 MTA alerts of delays in 2011 to 134 alerts in 2012.
  • Manhattan was the borough with the most MTA alerts with 1,219 out of 2,669 in the first ten months of 2012, almost half of all total alerts. The Bronx had the least in 2012 with 9%.
  • The most improved borough was the Bronx with 17% fewer MTA alerts of delays, going from 283 alerts in 2011 down to 235 in 2012. Queens performed the worst, going from 392 alerts in 2011 to 458 in 2012, a 17% increase in delays.
  • “Mechanical problems” generated the most alerts — 36% — or 949 out of 2,669 alerts in 2012, followed by “signals.” While the number of mechanical delays increased 25% between 2011 and 2012, the number of signal delays remained unchanged.

Additionally, as I mentioned, track, switch and other mechanical problems drove a big jump in text alerts after the system reopened in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. From what I’ve heard, these Sandy-related problems will only increase until the MTA commits extensive resources to repairs on a number of flooded tunnels. That time is coming soon, and the service advisories will be quite severe, according to my sources. G and R train riders, in particular, may find their tunnels undergoing extensive repairs in the coming months. The MTA has yet to comment on these reports.

The agency did, however, issue a statement on the Straphangers’ study. Without offering much further explanation, a Transit spokesman said in an email, “The Straphanger Campaign’s use of the MTA’s email Service Alert as a barometer of individual subway line performance does not paint a full picture of service issues. However, it does serve to highlight one of the efforts in place to keep our customers informed.” The statement went on to nod at the wait assessment figures provided to the MTA Board, but those numbers aren’t as indicative of delays as the text alerts.

Ultimately, we know that subway service is fraught with problems. The system prior to Sandy needed to be modernized, and then-MTA Chair Joe Lhota spoke extensively about a capital campaign focused around just that sort of effort. Now that the mechanical aspects to the subway are suffering, that effort becomes even more vital. Unfortunately, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, and that database of text alerts will grow and grow and grow.

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AsidesBusesStaten Island

Staten Island SBS lanes set for camera enforcement

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 2, 2013

Considering Staten Island’s lukewarm embrace of Select Bus Services and the fits SI politicians threw over flashing blue lights, the news that camera enforcement is coming to SBS bus lanes should raise an eyebrow or two. As the Staten Island Advance reported yesterday, DOT crews are installing cameras along the bus lane on Hylan Boulevard and expect to activate them by month’s end. Those drivers found cruising down the SBS lanes during certain hours will receive a $115 summons in the mail.

According to the Advance, drivers can make only an immediate right-hand turn or pick up and drop off passengers, but continued travel in the dedicated lane will result in a fine. Already, Staten Islanders are concerned that “drivers unfamiliar wth the area could be at a disadvantage,” but these residents recognize the benefits. “I think overall, for the intention that they are trying to do in keeping motorists out of the lanes, it will work,” Michael Reilly said to the paper.

Lane enforcement is the next step in improving the bus system. Without it, SBS lanes are nothing but painted strips of asphalt, and the cameras will help clear the lanes of cars while keeping the buses moving. DOT plans to add signal prioritization to Staten Island later this year, and by then, we’ll know how accepting the prickly borough has been of camera lane enforcement efforts.

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