Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

Wife says some guy told her L isn't running - anyone know if that's true?

nm apparently resumed

robert caro endorses jsk: http://www.observer.com/2011/11/janette-sadik-khan-is-o-k-in-robert-caros-book/

there are def problems w/ taking the comparison too far - closing down times sq + adding bike lanes vs. turning like half of new york city into freeways and housing projects. nobody can really be the new robert moses! okay I'm not doing her justice, but her legacy will be a lot more about changing the philosophy here than anything else.

map of abandoned stations and unbuilt lines

The L train is so nice at holiday times when everyone is away.

Eventually with the pace of construction in Williamsburg the thing is just going to be bonkers.

I saw that thing...I'm not sure what criteria they're using for inclusion in their map. seems kinda sloppy?

missing most of the IND second system stuff, which are the most interesting 'what if' lines

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/1929_IND_Second_System.jpg

http://transportationnation.org/2012/01/11/a-whole-new-york-city-borough-gets-real-time-bus-information/

That is so cool!!! I could have used that option at 8.15 this morning when I waited for a local bus that never came.

I could have used that option every time I've ever waited for a new york city bus and it didn't come when it was supposed to, which is every time.

Unfair. The buses usually run really well ime!

My gripe with the B46 is that there are 6 limited buses for every 1-2 local ones, and my stop is a local. So I have to let a lot of them go by. But presumably this is based on how people use the bus, and where they need to go, so I'll just have to deal.

still not gettin a mobile

I could have used that option every time I've ever waited for a new york city bus and it didn't come when it was supposed to, which is every time.

places w/ heavy traffic + hundreds of stops + millions of people using public transit can't just magically ensure that buses come on time. two buses cluster together naturally when a lot of people get on the first, which slows it down. someone in a wheelchair can take more than 2 minutes to get on. etc.

what's more important is overall frequency. a bus that comes every 20 mins but rarely hits schedule > a bus that comes ~on time~ every 40 mins. and nyc has lots of pretty frequent buses.

"The MTA hopes to roll out a city-wide system by mid-2013."

Really this is a great thing though. I've been finding buses a lot more useful since I moved to North Brooklyn (where I'm only close to L service), and the main drawback to them is waiting outside for long periods of time in the rain or on freezing cold days. The two main buses I take (the Q59 and the one that goes up Manhattan Ave - forget the name) have both been pretty unreliable IME and I've waited EXTREMELY long times for both at least a couple times. I'm not talking about the 5:49 coming at 5:52 -- obv I know you can't time a road vehicle with that degree of certainty.

I think the bus system is pretty good all things considered, tho I only use it for supplementary trips + occassionally in a far out part of the outer boroughs. sometimes just out of boredom.

but it's mostly pretty good because it's wayyy more subsidized than the subway system.

What was up this morning? Just weather related?

Subways are apparently like to Gremlins -- don't get them wet, don't feed them after 10pm.

Ha.

There were also some other explanations on the mta page.

This morning my L train driver announced that the train was going express from Lorimer to Union Square. Whenever they announce that I think "you fucked up, didn't you"

a lot of the time they do that when one train get delayed and the one behind it catches up

That's what I always figured. Either that or there is a slow train- maybe even a work train- before it on the local track.

What MTA page had the explanations? Not finding them....

Fulton/Broadway station mildly NUTSO this morn, since it's still under construction and only small passageways are open between each set of points. Add crazy religions lady shouting the gospel over everyone else's heads, and I wanted to go back home.

http://mta.info/

Ah, thanks--I see. Not much info, though, is it.

Truth be told I feel like some of those reasons they post were already timed out by the time I got on the train although maybe there were lingering effects.

(ha xpost)

Maybe the general lack of info is not knowing how to explain the gremlins thing to the public

In Brooklyn, Suspicious Passenger, With a Tail

party possum goin' places on a D train

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/yesterday-four-men-died-new-york-subway.html

http://secondavenuesagas.com/2012/01/23/bronx-tabbed-for-next-bustime-borough/#comments

bronx (boo) and imna guess queens but possibly brooklyn by the end of 2012

fine with me, ppl are pigs

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/155083/state-senator-wants-to-ban-eating-in-the-subway-system

otm

Is it just me or are subways getting much louder/screechier lately? Like is the MTA saving money by skimping on the WD40 or something? It's killing me -- Union Square green line in particular.

Don't know about screechier, but certainly funkier.

Oh man sound of MTA train leaving the station is one of my favorite sounds ever

I like that normal high-pitched whir you hear, followed by the lower but rising whir. That's a great sound. I'm talking about ear-piercing screech that sounds like it's from the wheels scraping against something. I don't hear it in every station.

Truth be told, the whole subway system has been giving me some kind of Jacob's Ladder sensation that I never really made it out of the seventies.

union square 4/5/6 platform is bendy, which probably makes it worse, though i don't know why it would be worse *now*

in montreal the metro wheels are rubber-coated

Truth be told, the whole subway system has been giving me some kind of Jacob's Ladder sensation that I never really made it out of the seventies.

― POLL Removal Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, January 29, 2012 5:47 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahaha this nails it

rubber tires aren't v. compatible w/ snow and ice, montreal's whole system is underground, ours notsomuch

xp

it's a shame cause it would really benefit a lot of outer borough neighborhoods that have to deal w/ painfully loud els, but nope, no easy solution for the noise

Due to the Giants parade, Tue, Feb 7, the 4, 5, A, C, E and R trains will skip some stations in lower Manhattan.

Beginning at 10 a.m., to prevent overcrowding conditions, trains will NOT stop at these five stations. Wall St 4 or 5, City Hall R, Chambers St A or C, World Trade Center E or Fulton St 4, 5, A or C.

so glad I'm just out of range at Canal

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/02/we-need-broken-windows-traffic-crimes/1264/

- 241 pedestrians or cyclists were killed by drivers last year. Only 17 of the drivers responsible faced criminal charges.

- The NYPD issued more summonses to cyclists than truck drivers last year: truckers got 14,962 moving violation summonses and 10,415 Criminal Court summonses, while cyclists got 13,743 moving violation summonses and a whopping 34,813 Criminal Court summonses. Priorities!