Based on something I read this morning, I wanted to poll my crowd. I know today is slow due to Rosh Hashanah, but I’m curious to see how my readership does. Comments are closed to avoid spoilers. I’ll explain later.
One of my more frequently traveled airplane routes involves leaving from Terminal 5 and arriving in West Palm Beach. The trip to visit my grandfather via JetBlue takes me through two airport terminals with free WiFi, and I often forget that free isn’t necessarily the norm in New York City. When I had to fly out of Newark in late June, the Internet, to my dismay, wasn’t free.
It’s kind of crazy, when you think about it, that WiFi in New York City’s airports in 2013 costs money and that Boingo, the provider, doesn’t supply a particularly robust network at that. As a leading business hub, New York should probably have as much free WiFi as possible (although one could argue that charging a captive audience for WiFi is a solid business model). But Boingo signed up for a 15-year exclusive deal in 1999 with a ten-year renewal option. Now, as the window for Boingo to renew opens up, a group of New York business leaders are arguing for free Internet at the airports.
Crain’s New York profiles these efforts today. Nazish Dholakia writes:
The Global Gateway Alliance, created by New York developer Joseph Sitt to promote improvements at the airports, issued an open letter urging L.A.-based Boingo to provide free access to the 110 million passengers who use La Guardia, John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports each year. Boingo currently provides only paid Internet access at these airports, to the ire of many travelers…
New York’s airports are at Boingo’s mercy because of a contract it signed in 1999 with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports. Under the terms of the 15-year deal, Boingo has exclusive rights to provide Internet access at all three airports and can renew it for another 10 years during a six-month window which began last week. “Boingo is operating under a very favorable contract that was signed during the Internet’s dark ages. We need to update that for a 21st-century model,” said Steve Sigmund, the executive director of the Alliance.
In its letter, the Alliance suggests Boingo adopt an advertising-supported model for free Internet access. As an alternative, it proposes a tiered system that is free for at least the first 30 minutes or provides options for both free and paid access. “It’s past time for our airports to offer what other airports offer—what even cafes and parks offer,” Mr. Sigmund said.
We know Boingo could pursue the ad-supported model, and we know it could work because of the current setup in the subways. Boingo supplies the Wifi that Transit Wireless makes available underground, and except for a brief spell earlier this summer when no sponsors came forward, the connection has been ad supported and otherwise free. I wouldn’t be surprised if Boingo could make more money, in fact, from an ad-supported network than it does through one that relies on users to pay a fee. The company has not yet responded to the Global Gateway Alliance.
By and large, the subways are not a very forgiving environment. Filled with rats, garbage and a general lack of cleanliness, it’s too hot in the summer, and too stuffy in the winter. It’s also loud. With a constant barrage of announcement, screeching brakes, and express trains rushing by, we expose our sensitive ears to noise on a regular basis. Just how loud the subways are and how damaging the noise exposure can be is a constant topic.
Today, in The Times’ Science section, the regular Q&A column tackles that question. Linking to a 2006 study (that predates this site by a few months), C. Claiborne Ray explains that constant exposure to the noise of the subway system could pose a threat of hearing loss. Writes Ray, “Guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization set a limit of 45 minutes’ exposure to 85 decibels, the mean noise level measured on subway platforms. And nearly 60 percent of the platform measurements exceeded that level. The maximum noise levels inside subway cars were even higher than those on the platforms, with one-fifth exceeding 100 decibels and more than two-thirds exceeding 90 decibels.”
Recent technology has included sound dampeners on some new rolling stock. It may, then, be time to re-run the study, but in one regard, we’re doing ourselves no favors by shoving headphones into our ears. The NIH study notes that “personal listening devices only increased the total noise and risk.” So there you have it. Or as a certain Twitter account might put it: GUYS, it’s loud in the subway, and The Times is ON IT.
Lady, you’re doing it completely wrong. (Photo by flickr user Runs With Scissors)
Over the years, I’ve often returned to the theme of underground etiquette. It’s always entertaining to think about future subway expansion plans, ongoing construction projects and the things we would do if money were no obstacle. But on a more immediate level, the way we ride and interact with each other lends more to our day-to-day subway rides than any theoretical transit expansion does.
By and large, New Yorkers are considerate of each other on the subway. Rare are the days when someone is stabbed simply for staring, but lesser violations can mar our days or our weeks. Those lesser incidents too are usually minor. Someone will not get out of the way; someone will hug a pole or block a door. Some subway preacher will interrupt an otherwise-peaceful morning commute or a bunch of kids will insist that it’s showtime. We’ve all been there.
This week, Gawker, in a way only Gawker can, reminded us of the bad times. Their post — The Ten Worst People on the Subway — has been making the rounds in every possible format. It’s been shared countless times on my Facebook timeline (including by me); it’s been on Twitter; and it’s even been included in an email my dad sent me on Thursday afternoon. With 650,000 pageviews as of this writing, it is a viral sensation and one that seems to ring a bit too close to home for many New Yorkers who ride the subway each day.
So who are these ten terrible straphangers? I’ll urge you to read Gawker’s snarky commentary on them all, but here’s the top ten:
It’s hard to disagree with much of this list though I’m not sure No. 7 belongs. I’d also add the people — like my seat neighbor this morning — who insist on spreading their legs for no good reason and the more active interrupters such as the aforementioned breakdancers. Riders who put bags on empty seats deserve our scorn as well. Subway riders who can’t remove their backpacks on crowded trains get an honorable mention.
Whenever I run across these situations or posts like Hamilton’s on Gawker, I always wonder why we care so much. I think we care so much because riding the subway is a collective experience. Over the past six or seven decades, America has been a more individualistic country where we guard our space, and travel by car is a very solitary experience. But the subways are the opposite. We have no space, and we have to share it with millions of other people every single day.
And so we expect everyone else to be courtesy because it’s a shared experience that’s less than ideal. If I’m going to keep my legs closed, my bag contained and my body within its allocated space — if I’m going to move into the middle of the car and get out of the way when someone needs to get by — everyone else should do. Yet, New Yorkers also like to think the rules don’t apply to them. They bike against the flow of people in the running lane in Prospect Park; they speed through red lights to save 5 seconds of travel time; they block doors; they hop turnstiles; they don’t stand to the right and walk on the left. And that’s why we get the popular senstation of Gawker’s list.
A public awareness campaign on platform safety could be nearly as effective and much more affordable than a technological fix. (Photo via Second Ave. Sagas on Instagram)
The media furor over deaths caused by subways has died down a bit over the last few months, but every few weeks, the issue creeps back into the headlines. The TWU is still trying to convince the MTA to institute an efficiency-crippling 10-mph speed limit for trains as they pull into the station while the MTA is focusing on track intrusion-detection technology, a solution that can generally prevent many collisions other than suicides but has severe limitations. Still, I wonder about the costs and benefits of investing much money into a solution for something that isn’t a major problem.
A recent NY1 piece again piqued my curiosity in this topic. According to Jose Martinez’s report, “the MTA plans to test suitable track intrusion programs by the end of the year, with the goal of cutting back on the number of people who come into the path of trains.” (Already, the short-comings of such a system are obvious. It would do nothing to prevent collisions between trains and people leaning too far over the platform edge.)
It’s clear too from Martinez’s reporting that political pressure is driving this pilot program. In his piece, Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. claims that “high profile deaths…show the need for such a [detection] system.” If anything, high-profile deaths and random incidents further the point that bad policies and investments come out of knee-jerk reactions to one-off events. With that in mind, has 2013 been notably more deadly than in the past?
As of June 14 when the article was published, the MTA had reported 77 incidents with 29 deaths. Last year, by comparison, there were 141 train/person collisions and 55 deaths. If that rate continues through the year, we’re on pace for 170 incidents and 64 deaths. It’s an increase but not a significant one when you consider annual subway ridership is over 1.7 billion. We’re searching for a solution to something that’s hardly a problem.
Before the MTA invests serious money into any technology designed to prevent deaths, it must figure out how effective the technology will be and how many lives it can save. Jumping into this project willy-nilly because some politicians are riled up over news coverage will only create more problems than it will solve.
Without street fairs, how would New Yorkers get their MozzArepa fix? (Photo by flickr user Joe Shlabotnik)
When I was a little kid, I used to love the street fairs on the Upper West Side. In the early spring, the Daily News would hand out printed one-sheeters featuring the Yankee schedule, and I’d follow along for the season. Plus, those funnel cakes were great. My parents and I — sometimes with my aunt and uncle along as well — would stroll the fairs and soaking in the street life.
Somewhere along the way, though, over the past three decades, New York City’s street fairs have grown to be intolerably repetitive events with no relationship to the neighborhood and little in the way of overall utility. On Sunday afternoon, the street fair came to me, and I obliged. I awoke to the sights of merchants constructing their white tents along Park Slope’s 7th Ave., and I ended up spending about an hour walking the gathering called, for some reason, the Seventh Heaven Festival.
My girlfriend and I did our best to make the most of it. We ate only from local restaurants and skipped past the sausage stands, zeppole booths and mozzarepa dealers that have become the hallmarks of these city-wide fairs. Still, we were hard-pressed to find anything of value. Outside our apartment were stands hawking allegedly hand-made baskets, $5 dresses, cut-rate sunglasses with designer names attached, tube socks and sheets. Down the block were people also selling allegedly hand-made baskets, $5 dresses, cut-rate sunglasses with designer names attached, tube socks and sheets. The crowning moment came when a booth bearing the sign “Interesting Items” promised to sell us scissors, tweezers, and magnifying glasses. Never have I been less interested.
My not-so-newfound boredom with street fairs isn’t something that has come with age and experience. The city over, these things are the same, and even those street fairs with a modicum of individuality — the Atlantic Antic comes to mind — have seen booth space taken over by discount merchants selling a bunch of junk no one needs or wants. As I surveyed the scene (and later spotted a B67 bus trying to wind its way down 6th Ave.), I marveled at the street fair’s complete takeover of normal New York City life. Local businesses are literally crowded out by tents of remainder goods too cheap for Target; pedestrian life is interrupted; and transit services are diverted to less optimal routes. Why exactly do we put up with these things?
Over the past few years, New Yorkers have lived through a remarkable transformation in public space. As Clyde Haberman profiles in today’s Times, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has led an effort to restore street space to people. After decades of prioritizing cars and eliminating sidewalk space and room for people, New York planners have tried to make it work for everyone. We’ve seen pedestrian plazas grow in popularity, and a new City Bench program brings seats to areas where a fire hydrant or curb were the best options around. And yet street fairs persevere.
The problems with street fairs are well documented. Seven years ago, the Center for an Urban Future called upon the city to rethink street fairs, and in subsequent testimony before City Council, Center officials blamed the monopolistic set-up of the street fair structure. One company runs nearly every single street fair in the city, and the choices they make are mind-numbingly repetitive and boring. Three years ago, the Center followed up with a series of suggestions for improving street fairs that would have them look more like a greenmarket/holiday market/Brooklyn Flea/Red Hook Food vendor set-up than the current iteration. The plans sound good, but policy changes remain few and far between.
I don’t have any great answer for the street fair problem. Yet, as I strolled down 7th Ave. today, I wondered what the point of it all was. If street views disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in New York City miss them? I don’t think so.
Redesigned exit signs could enhance subway wayfinding. (Via Improve The Subway)
The Website: Improve the Subway
Concept: Randy Gregory, a Masters candidate at SVA, offers up this summary of his site: “For the next 100 Days, I will propose various improvements to the New York City Subway, which in 2012 had 1.6 billion riders, and should be seen as the best subway in the country, if not the world. I’ll be exploring various ideas, from UX, Environmental, Co-Branding, Audio/Visual, and more, including potential interviews with MTA employees, all in an attempt to create discussion.”
* * *
As New Yorkers ride through the subways each day, they spend some time dwelling on ways to improve commutes. From a more pleasant station environment to real-time train location information to a smell-free ride, these improvements range from the dramatic to the mundane. Randy Gregory has decided to turn his own thoughts into a project. Gregory is 55 days into his 100-day effort to present ways to improve the city’s subway system. Some ideas — platform screen doors, electronic notice boards — are ideas in the works or under consideration while others — USB power strips — are more fanciful than practical. Others — a Laguardia AirTrain, RFID fare payment systems — remain frustratingly out of reach.
My favorites are the technological fixes that would drastically improve our rides but would present challenges to the MTA in adoption. A real-time car-density monitor would better allocate passengers to empty spaces, but think about the obstacles that must be overcome (including, of course, dollars). We’ll probably have animated in-car ads sooner rather than later, but I wouldn’t expect a smell detector any time soon.
The Montague St. tunnel, shaded white during its Sandy outage, will soon undergo extensive repairs.
The past weekend came and went with little fanfare, but for New York City, June 1 should have raised a few eyebrows. Down south in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, Saturday marked the start of the hurricane season, and the first tropical depression that could warrant a name is brewing in the Gulf. New York City celebrated the start of the season by reopening the A train over the Jamaica Bay crossing and crossing its fingers that no storm would take aim at our city this summer.
For the MTA, last week’s reopening of the A train and regular service to the Rockaways was a milestone to celebrate, but it’s not time to rest on the laurels of that work. It may be easy for an armchair quarterback to look at the subway system and appreciate its return to a completed state barely seven months since Sandy arrived. With the old South Ferry loop recommissioned and Rockaway service restored, things are back to normal, right? At least, that’s how it appears on the subway map.
Of course, that’s far from the truth. On the one hand, the MTA hasn’t even addressed hardening the system in any significant manner. Parts of the Broad Channel crossing were rebuilt to withstand storm surges, but otherwise, every single part of the subway system that was vulnerable last October is still vulnerable this June. The MTA has begun to assess various solutions including tunnel plugs and removable floodwall paneling, but it’s a long ways away from implementing a fix.
On the other hand, the system isn’t really repaired. While service has been restored, components that were inundated with floodwaters are corroding at a rapid clip, and signal and switch problems are on the rise. This weekend, we received another glimpse at the future ahead of us as the MTA announced an upcoming bidding process for work in the Montague Tube. The R train’s connection from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn suffered extensive flooding and is one of the few tubes that will have to undergo a near-top-to-bottom makeover.
In the documents [pdf], the MTA offered up the following assessment:
Work includes the demolition of existing duct banks; removal & disposal of existing tunnel lighting, conduits, wiring, fixtures, ballast & receptacles; construction of new duct banks; installation of new Power & Communications cables in the new duct banks; reconstruction of circuit breaker houses CBH # 82, CBH # 83 & CBH # 91; rehabilitation of two substations (Montague Furman Substation & Broadway-Park Row Substation); new tunnel lighting including fixtures, wiring, & conduit; replacing isolation dampers & wiring for the fan plant; replacement of three submersible pumps & new AC/DC lighting at the pump rooms; track work including new rails & plates; installation of new 8” dry discharge line in both tubes; painting & lead abatement.
Needless to say, none of that is good news for riders who depend upon the R train for their daily commutes. MTA officials haven’t yet confirmed the extent of the work or any potential service outages, but I’ve heard long-term rerouting may come into play. On the bright side, the R train through Montague St. is one of the least-used East River subway crossings, and with the 4 and 5 trains via the Joralemon St. tunnel just downstream, riders enjoy plenty of redundant (and faster) service.
This work and the outages won’t be limited to the R train. The L train’s 14th St. tunnel suffered extensive damage, and the G train’s tube underneath Newtown Creek did as well. And now we’re in that hurricane season again with our fingers crossed that nothing will hit the area that could roll back the recovery progress already in the books. It takes time to rebuild and fortify the system, but time isn’t necessarily on our side.
Over the weekend, a 22-year-old Bronx man dropped his iPhone in the subway tracks, and then he decided to go it. He electrocuted himself upon jumping into the tracks, and then the incoming 2 train struck him. It was a fatal accident, and it wasn’t the only one this weekend. Two other New Yorkers — both determined to be suicides — were killed by trains this past weekend.
After an initial flurry of press over subway/passenger collisions earlier this year, the coverage has largely died down, but the issue remains. As part of a general awareness campaign, the TWU released the video posted above. It’s a rap urging straphangers to stand away from the platform edge as trains enter subway stations, and it’s sage advice. (The call at the end of the video for slower trains upon entering stations is, on the other hand, not a wise one.)
But will the video solve the problem? An article in The Post this weekend delves into the numbers behind subway deaths, and suicides have a slight edge over the last three years. According to numbers The Post received from a FOIA request, 78 of 153 deaths caused by subway trains from 2010-2012 are believed to be suicides. So far this year, 16 of 28 deaths fall in that category as well.
With these numbers on hand, New York politicians again called for the MTA to implement some safety measures, including as Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said, “better early-warning systems to detect people on our subway tracks.” But people who jump in front of an incoming train wouldn’t trigger the warning system early enough and even a train traveling at reduced speeds will still kill someone who leaps in front of it. Platform edge barriers — an expensive and sometimes impractical solution — remain the best deterrent.
Meanwhile, it’s not unreasonable to question how much of a problem these collisions truly are. According to Pete Donohue’s latest, there were 657 train/passenger collisions from 2008 through 2012 out of over 8 billion subway riders and around a quarter of those were attempted suicides. As the TWU rap says, stand back just a little bit, don’t jump in the tracks over replaceable items, and personal safety shouldn’t be an issue.
A sign once useful. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
While roaming the York St. platform Monday afternoon waiting for a Brooklyn-bound F train to arrive, I came across this neat scene. This is no optical illusion. Rather, it is a sign — of half of one — reflecting in a mysterious piece of stainless steel ceiling panel. The letters are cut off slightly above the halfline, and although some are nearly mirror images, many are not. The words are just jumbled.
For the MTA, this sign is another in a long line of poorly placed panels. Perhaps not as egregious as the since-corrected sign fail at Atlantic Ave., this one still shows a left hand/right hand problem. It appears that, due to some structural issues with the York St. ceiling, crews put in place the metallic panel to bolster the ceiling or product passengers from something dripping. Instead of rehanging the sign to make it visible, they…just left it there. And now it’s blocked.
For a critique on MTA signage, check out Allan Rosen’s latest on Sheepshead Bites. For more scenes from the subways, follow Second Ave. Sagas on Instagram.