MTA Absurdity

Finally – finally – after a long Halt the Hike campaign that blended journalism and public advocacy reporting, the Daily News has produced a story that shows the deep-rooted institutional problems inherit in the MTA.

As part of a special I-Team investigation, Benjamin Lesser and Greg B. Smith report on rampant bureaucratic redundancy and overspending at the MTA. Through a FOIL request, Lesser and Smith delve into the Transportation Authority’s books and show what many thought all along: The MTA could use some paring down. Their topline summary breaks down nicely into bullet points:

• Instead of one president, there are eight – the MTA chief and seven agencies.
• Instead of one chief financial officer, there are six CFOs.
• Instead of a central staff, each agency has its own lawyers, auditors and payroll clerks.

The first point is a contentious one. The MTA asked the state legislature to allow for an internal restructuring to streamline the various agencies into one, but this request was denied. Otherwise, the Daily News article does not paint a flattering picture of the MTA’s internal structure. Look at the MTA’s legal eagles:

Take, for instance, lawyers: The MTA couldn’t fit all the lawyers it employs on a city bus. Dredging through last year’s records, The News found a total 112 lawyers with a $12 million payroll. Many of them are hidden in a sub agency practically no one has ever heard of: the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority. In that agency alone, The News found 35 lawyers.

There were 39 more at NYC Transit, 19 at MTA headquarters, 11 at the LIRR and eight at Metro-North. Even that was not enough. MTA headquarters has spent millions on outside counsel from some of New York’s most prestigious – and expensive – law firms.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Lee Sander, the MTA’s CEO, gets a $60,000-a-year housing subsidy even though he lives in a $1.4 million house in Douglaston and owns three other New York properties. The heads of the LIRR and Metro-North both earn substantial housing subsidies despite similar residences.

For their part, the MTA says that they have someone on sight investigation the waste. “Over the long term, we believe that the MTA could see significant savings by centralizing many human resources and financial functions. To that end, we have begun to analyze the costs and benefits of a business services center,” MTA Spokesperson Aaron Donovan said.

But the report isn’t due until next year. Why not just use the information put forward by the Daily News? The world will never know.

After the jump, a full breakdown of some of the other problems identified in the article. My favorite expense is the bathroom attendant program. Talk about a useful program.

When it rains bad news, it pours for the MTA. Hot the heels of this whole fare hike mess comes the MTA’s Office of the Inspector General, an independent state-run, investigative and audit unit tasked with keeping an eye on the MTA. All things considered, they do a fairly terrible job. Just ask the City Comptroller.

But, to be fair, when the MTAIG issues a report, it’s usually not good news for New York City Transit, and yesterday’s release of a report on the sorry state of the NYCT lost and found is no exception. The reports, available here, paint the picture of a service that is lost and found in name only. It’s more likely to be a lost and never found again.

The highlights:

• The recovery rate for lost items on NYCT-controlled property is a whopping 18 percent. The MTAIG calls this a “needlessly low” recovery rate spurred on by operational problems and no real agency committement.
• In a field audit, the workers at MTAIG handed 26 items over to NYCT employees. Twenty three of those items were never logged into the system and could not be located in the end. Just three — or 11 percent — were logged.

So here we have two problems: The MTA doesn’t have a very good process for getting lost items to a central processing center, and once there, the methods for identifying lost items are fatally flawed. Basically, the first problem is what you would expect. “We found that on some occasions, valuable jewelry such as a diamond earring or a wallet containing hundreds of dollars had been turned in as lost property, but never transported to the [Lost Property Unit] to be claimed by the owner,” the Inspector General’s report said.

Well, of course. If anyone finds something in the subway of any monetary value, “finders keepers” seems to be the name of that game. But the fact that subway supervisors don’t even know the proper intake procedures is troublesome to say the least. My advice to you, dear straphanger: Don’t lose anything of value on the subway. You’re not getting it back.

The second report — the one detailing operations at the MTA’s Lost Property Unit — is even better. Personal Identification (driver licenses, passports, etc.) are left unsecured in a massive pile of lost property, and the “unnecessarily long retention policy” leads to some pathetically amusing descriptions.

“At one point, it took an LPU employee almost four hours to locate a sample of 10 items selected by the auditors from the inventory. In order to retrieve items, staff often climbed shelves, moved large parcels and generally exerted notable efforts to search through piles of lost items. The items were ultimately found but it is not practicable to spend so much time on every request,” reads the report. I can’t make that up.

Obviously, the Inspector General recommended a better approach to lost property. He has advised New York City Transit to adopt a better processing system and a more defined retention and storage policy. For their part, NYCT is listening. “New York City Transit has either implemented or is in the process of implementing the majority of the recommendations made by the Inspector General in his report. Those recommendations which we have not implemented are under review. We appreciate the constructive criticism of the Inspector General and his staff,” the TA’s statement said.

While it’s easy to joke about the MTA’s seemingly inept LPU, the reality is that this is exactly the kind of press the MTA doesn’t need right now. With Lee Sander and a much more qualified crew heading up the MTA and its various divisions than we’ve had in a long time, the MTA will become a more streamlined transportation authority. Right now, though, the bureaucracy can still be pretty thick, and this IG report certainly brings one highly flawed process to light.

The latest issue of Time Out New York has a great cover story this week on ruling the subways. Personally, I’m kicking myself over this one right now. TONY writers contacted me two weeks ago right when I was in the middle of re-hosting Second Ave. Sagas, and I dropped the ball on getting back to them.

So since I want to opine on these questions, I’ll do it here. So presented for your approval is the Second Ave. Sagas’ Guide to Ruling the Subway. That’ll really teach, um, me not to delay these things. All your subway questions are answered after the jump.

HOW DO I LINE UP MY EXIT?

Some guy (right) is clearly breaking the law. Arrest him! (Photo courtesy of flickr user veyone)

When last we discussed the New York City Transit rules, it was Tuesday, and Jeremy Olshan had been detained during his Metrocard Marathon because his bus driver didn’t know if photography was allowed on NYCT vehicles. As I noted, the vocal folks on Subchat had a concurrent conversation about how many MTA employees enforce their own version of the rules. So let’s delve into the rules.

Submitted for your approval are five excerpts from the Rules of Conduct that you didn’t know existed. Not all of them ban activities; in fact, some allow certain things you would never guess to be permissible underground. And, by the way, photography, as Section 1050.9 (c) details, is permitted, but “ancillary equipment such as lights, reflectors or tripods may not be used.”

1. While Section 1050.6 (c) states that non-transit uses of NYCT property are expressly prohibited, the section allows some exceptions. Did you know that public speaking and political campaigning are allowed provided they adhere to a whole set of rules limiting where in a station the activity occurs? The same holds true for voter registration drives, artistic performances and donation solicitation for religious or political causes. While the distance regulations make it exceedingly difficult to find space in the subways for this activity, those Scientologists in Times Square aren’t actually violating any laws. Damn.

2. It is illegal and punishable by criminal prosecution for you to put your feet on another subway seat. Section 1050.7 deals with disorderly orderly conduct, and clause j is fairly strict. A person may not occupy more than one seat on a station, platform, bus or subway if he or she is interfering with the comfort of other passengers. A person may not place his foot on a seat in a station, bus or subway, and a person may not lie on any NYCT floors (ew) or “block free movement” in a station stairway. Don’t believe me? Just ask Crystal Rivera, the pregnant teen who, in 2003, got a ticket for resting on a staircase. And no, you can’t use this rule to make that person next to you sit up straighter. I wish.

3. Just as it’s illegal for a person to take up more than one seat — and people too large for the Japanese-style bucket seats do not count — get your stuff off that empty seat. Anyone placing bags or other items on an empty seat in such a way that it interferes with other riders will be subjected to a ticket and the Evil Eye. If the train is empty, you can spread your stuff out a bit and then talk your way out of a ticket when an uninformed uniformed cop shows up.

4. Section 1050.9 (f) contains a bit of NYCT legalese: “No person shall enter or leave a subway car, bus or other conveyance operated by the Authority except through the entrances and exits provided for that purpose.” In layman’s terms, the rules states that anyone traveling between cars is subjecting themselves to a ticket. Every day, I get one or two blog hits from straphangers searching for information on just those tickets, and these tickets do seem to lead to arrests for more pressing criminal matters. Only outlaws ride between subway cars.

5. Selling swipes just isn’t worth it. Wait, you say to me, of course it is. I can buy my Unlimited Ride Metrocard and sell a swipe at the other end. I can buy five rides, get my sixth free and still charge $2 a swipe at the nearest turnstile, right? No way, says Section 1050.13, added to the code in 2005. If you’re in the subway at the turnstile and someone offers to sell you a swipe, it’s illegal. The Good Samaritan in you can do it for free as long as the swipe is not part of an “exchange for value.”

So those are just a smattering of the subway Rules of Conduct. While lots of people lay claim to the phrase “rules were made to be broken,” I wouldn’t recommend testing that old adage on NYCT property. You could end up facing civil penalties such as a $60 ticket or criminal prosecution with a fine up to $25 or ten days in jail or both. You also could be ejected from the subway. Imagine that; kicked out of the train just for kickin’ back after a long day.

Now, if only the cops would enforce Section 1050.7 (a). The subways would be litter-free. I can dream, right?

These marathoners don’t get to enjoy the use of a Metrocard during Sunday’s race. (Photo courtesy of Action Cancer)

In 2006, New York Post transit beat writer Jeremy Olshan ran the New York City marathon in four hours and fifty-five minutes. Last week, Olshan tackled a different kind of marathon: He rode the course of the upcoming marathon via MTA-only public transportation options. It was, in other words, a Marathon by Metrocard, and you’ll never guess whether Olshan finished his MTA marathon quicker than he did the ING Marathon.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Why didn’t I think of this? The thought flashed through my mind as I read this tale of urban transportation marathoning. If you want to recreate the marathon and see if you can beat Olshan, keep on reading.

Starting a few yards behind the Verrazano Bridge toll, Olshan used various buses and subways to wind his way through the five boroughs, ending just three blocks from the actual finish line to this Sunday’s race. His route, if you please:

1. Get on S53 bus on McClean Avenue just west of Lily Pond Avenue in Staten Island
2. Switch to R train at 86th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn
3. Get off R at Pacific Street and walk to Fulton Street stop on G train
4. Take G train to Court Square in Long Island City
5. Walk to Queens Plaza to get Q101 bus
6. Take Q101 over Queensboro Bridge and get off on Second Avenue
7. Get on M15 bus at 57th Street, and take it to 125th Street
8. Switch to BX15 bus at 125th Street, and take it over Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx.
9. Take Harlem-bound BX33 bus to 135th Street and 5th Avenue.
10. Take downtown M1 bus to Central Park South.
11. Take cross-town M7 bus to Columbus Circle
12. Get on one of the rear cars of uptown C train and take one stop to 72nd Street.
13. Exit at 70th Street and run three blocks to finish near Tavern on the Green.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

As Olshan relates, he got off to a great start. He was just nine minutes into his marathon when he boarded the R train at 86th St. and 4th Ave. in Bay Ridge. For those keeping score at home, that’s a 3.3-minute mile. It would take less than an hour to run the marathon’s 26.2 miles at that pace.

But it was not meant to be. While he hit the halfway point at the hour-and-fifteen minute mark, surface traffic slowed this party down. The Q101 crawled over the Queensboro Bridge, and on the M15, disaster struck as one MTA employee decided to enforce her own interpretation of the Authority’s rules about photography. Olshan relates:

Then on the M15 bus on First Avenue, we were held up for 47 minutes by a bus driver who did not think marathoning and flash photography were permitted on the transit system.

She insisted on calling her supervisor and held the entire bus hostage while we waited for him to arrive to clear things up.

It’s rather fitting that this photography issue came up as just yesterday a few Subchat poster got into a heated discussion about photography in the subways and on buses. As one poster rightfully claimed, many MTA employees and NYPD transit cops have decided to enforce their own rules by banning photography. As we know, photography is allowed in the subways and on buses. But for some reason, employees refuse to internalize this rule.

This extensive hold-up led to a delayed finish for Olshan. In the end, he spent three hours and 15 minutes riding mass transit and another one hour and 42 minutes waiting for the trains and buses to show up.

So there you have it. Proof that you running a marathon faster is faster than riding a New York City bus. Now go try this at home (or on the road) and see if you can improve upon Olshan’s time or route.