Fare Hike Up Fair Mountain — New York's MTA to start charging $3 per ride if they cannot meet $800 million deficit. "This whopping increase would likely be coupled with very serious service cuts. In plain English, it could be lots more out of your pocket for the joy of more crowding, longer waits and less reliable service." Time to invest in those bike lines the city has been talking about.
After a New York subway serial groper was arrested for the 53rd time, perhaps it's time to swap out that "See Something, Say Something" campaign with posters like these from a just-debuted ad campaign in Boston.
Oh, and maybe loosen those supposed terror-thwarting policies about videotaping in MTA spaces? Being able to film perv-y assailants might be, you know, a good thing.
(Click for larger version)
Okay, so the internet is destroying our children's lives, the journalism industry and the way we relate to one another. But, for if you're in advertising, the internet is awesome because you can assign users to generate your work for you.
That's what Quiznos did, asking users to make ads that “a comparison between Quiznos and Subway with Quiznos being superior” in the fall of 2006. We're split on the issue. They're both kind of gross, but for an ironic Valentine's Day, we prefer Subway.
The video below didn't win, but gets to the heart of what's wrong with user generated video. Namely, they all seem to be shot in New Jersey.
Subway, sick of having its good name tarnished on the internet, is suing Quiznos and iFilm, the site that hosted these videos, for libel. CONTINUED »
KEEP THAT JUNK IN YOUR TRUNK Watch out, serial subway flashers. The City Council just upped the penalty for committing lewd acts in public more than once in a three year period. Judges can now sentence you to a year in jail, three years probation and/or a $1G fine. So if you can, try to space those perversions out. [Gothamist]
Breaking photo feature from People magazine: Stars eat! But not "just like us," when they’re eating at Subway, it’s not for an ironic Valentine’s Day, but for unironic benjamins.
• A dude strips on the subway. Much like the clip of chicks stripping on the subway, it's not that hot.
• American Idol has announced that Britney is not "well enough" to appear on the show. When Paula Abdul is considered more stable than you, that's rock bottom. CONTINUED »
Here's an old joke: A man's talking to a woman, and asks, "Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?" The woman, replies, "Of course." So the man says, "Okay, what about one dollar?" and the woman says, "What kind of woman do you take me for?" The man responds, "Madam, we've already determined what you are, now we're just negoitating the price."
We kind of feel the same way about this clip of women pole dancing on the subway. Apparently they did it to win a $10,000 dare. Either way, they're still strippers. [Gothamist]
Like you, we’ve been dying to hear what Dia Roundtree, a special education teacher who from Canarsie thinks about the L line.
So finally the Times breaks the news that she thinks fixing the roofs on the L line is a top priority. God, she has so much insight into the way a billion dollar public institution should function.
The man on the street angle was prompted by news the New York City Transit will decentralize its management and have individuals run each line. Subway blog Second Ave. Sagas says, “adding more bureaucracy is never a good idea.”
Hey, that might be true in business, but this is the government, where bureaucracy is just another word for efficiency.
Who could have guessed that trying to maintain one’s balance atop a moving subway car would lead to disaster? A 21-year-old subway surfer died last night in Harlem after riding the C train wave into a wall. And once again, tragedy has vindicated nervous mothers everywhere. [WNBC]
As if the inevitability of overhearing someone else’s cell phone conversation on the way to work wasn’t exciting enough, soon commuters will have to pay more to do so.
Outside of the MTA, the upcoming 2008 fair hike doesn’t have many fans. Considering another hike is slated for 2010, isn’t a quarter a bit steep? MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin explains why the fare isn’t going up a dime:
The limitations of technology would make a $2.10 fare extremely costly to implement and would provide a much poorer quality of service
Translation: Giving ninety cents in change would be too costly for the MTA, so New Yorkers have to pay an extra 15 cents a ride. The guy at our bodega uses the same excuse for charging $2 for a bottle of water.
[Daily News via Second Ave. Sagas]
How long has it been since the L train has had no subway service problems over the weekend?
"Approximately forever," says Second Avenue Sagas guy Ben Kabak.
• Do you like grits? [Ed: Why??] If so, you're out of luck. The only diner in New York that actually sells them has always suspiciously "just ran out."
• New York City Hall installs world’s largest plasma screen. You know, in case Bloomberg wasn't already distracted enough by that presidential campaign that's "not" happening.
• There's something rather exhilarating about that first early-morning grope on the subway, isn't there?
• What better place to put a command post than on a ship with thousands of tourists and a McDonalds?
• It's just like the fall of the Berlin Wall! Except horribly inconvenient and slightly less liberating.
• Staten Island zookepers already busy "grooming" the groundhog, to ensure that results from his upcoming weather report are not skewed.
• Brooklyn boy accuses his principal of nerd discrimination after she denies him the opportunity to compete in a regional spelling bee.
• Guy saves woman from jumping in front of the J train, demands $10,000 and a free trip to Disney World.
• NYC clubs to introduce wall-mounted flat irons in their restrooms, the bathroom line at Bungalow 8 to become "even more intolerable."
• Coney Island to house $56 million YMCA instead of really, really old amusement park rides.
• Mayor Bloomberg admits the alarming gassy smell is unpleasant, but says there is "no indication" it will eventually kill us all.
• Memo to the NYT: The first rule of ultimate fighting is you do not talk about ultimate fighting.
• Boy killed by LIRR; Subway Hero blasted for "dropping the ball."
• Many subway lines now support cell phone service; constant, annoying jabbering should make for pleasant distraction from Crazy-Eyed Homeless Guy.
• Abracadabra! With a sweep of their arms, subway planners magically transform a pretty, glass dome into an ugly, stainless steel cube.
• Ironically, the new, free NYC condoms to take after the various subways that never come when you want them to.
How much does your subway announcer suck? Probably a lot, right?
Unless you ride the fancy 4,5,6 and 1,2,3,9 (and some L) trains, which have updated to computerized announcements (and air-conditioning), you may have a little trouble trying to figure out where the hell your subway driver is saying. The latest report is that the announcements on the subway have improved a whopping four percent.
Besides the W, poor performing subway lines included the B and N, both of which scored below 70 percent, and had lower scores than in 2004. Lines that had improved announcement quality included the 3, 4, A, C, E, G, J/Z, L and R.
So, if you ride the B,N, or W trains, your drivers win the the awards for worst announcers. (We guess by "improving" they mean the drivers on J/Z and G are at least attempting something other than radio silence.) And those of you on the D train, or the F,V,Q,M,7 and S trains are apparently not hearing much of a change.
But four percent — wow! That's almost how much we understand of Cindy Adams' column.
Train Announcements Are Clearer (Squonk Mumble Brzzt), They Say [Thomas J. Lueck, New York Times]
Imagine you're riding along on the subway, thinking about how you'd rather be vacationing in the new hottest vacation destination, Brokeback Mountain, when suddenly, a fishing hook snags you by the ear.
So either, a) you're dreaming (which in case, Jake Gyllenhaal would be on the other end of the pole) or b) you are the victim of a complete moron who tried to re-enact the suggestions in an advertisement. Subway officials aren't taking any chance that the latter might happen, so their pulling a few Bahamas ads, which "advocate behavior that is clearly unsafe."
Under the heading "Instant Escape No. 2: How to Fly Fish with a Scarf and a cellphone," one ad seems to instruct riders to fish for trash on the tracks by putting something sticky on a cellphone and attaching it to a scarf.
Another sign in the series, "How to Turn a Subway Seat into a Hammock," shows a figure draped over several seats.
Track fishing and seat hogging are both forbidden by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's official rules.
WTF? You can't do anything on the subway anymore! No taking up two seats, no eating or drinking whole milk, and especially no fly fishing. What's next, no skateboarding, scuba diving, or rock climbing?
Take a vacation, but not on the subway [USA Today]
And When in Bahamas, Don't Jump Turnstiles [Anthony Ramirez, NYT]
Most people who don't live in New York have fears about the subway. They are afraid of the crazy folks walking around selling batteries and playing trash cans. But those who actually live here quickly learn to develop a fear of the real danger: falling onto the tracks and getting annihilated by the train.
The New York Times brings us a wonderful examination of those who's fate it is to end up under the subway. All 702 of them. That's roughly 54 people a year between 1990-2003 that end up in Bellvue hospital because of injuries accrued from face planting onto the subway tracks.
We learned some of the fun-filled statistics on subway track injuries today:
• In New York, 8 of every 10 victims treated at Bellevue were men.
• Roughly 20 percent of patients had amputations.
• Of the 208 patients treated at Bellevue, 28 lost at least one major extremity, 9 lost two and 1 lost four.
• Only 25 percent of the victims who had been hit by trains and taken to Bellevue had tried suicide.
Think of all the people standing on the platform of the metro stations reading the Metro section this morning. Really, it does make you wanna live another suicide-by-6-train-attempt free day.
Anatomy of a City Terror: Falling on the Tracks [Marc Santora, New York Times]
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