New York City Thread: Part III (Info in OP)

[East Coast Bias]

You sure you take the subway? Can be just as bad in my experience (even vs a local bus). I take the express bus top work every morning and its a lot faster than the subway.

haha. all subway lines are not created equal though. that's for sure.

 

[Deleted member 23124]

haha. all subway lines are not created equal though. that's for sure.

I hear the same thing about the express buses.

 

[GordonGecko]

You sure you take the subway? Can be just as bad in my experience (even vs a local bus). I take the express bus top work every morning and its a lot faster than the subway.

Subway is hell these days, I try to bike whenever possible. The governor is too busy having cocktail parties in new stations and the mayor is too busy getting rid of quality of life laws to actually work on getting the trains to run properly

 

[Ori]

Subway is hell these days, I try to bike whenever possible. The governor is too busy having cocktail parties in new stations and the mayor is too busy getting rid of quality of life laws to actually work on getting the trains to run properly

Is the subway too crowded or is it delayed all the time? Maybe the whole system is outdated like not comfortable to use?

 

[sbjnyc]

Subway is hell these days, I try to bike whenever possible. The governor is too busy having cocktail parties in new stations and the mayor is too busy getting rid of quality of life laws to actually work on getting the trains to run properly

My company is moving to hudson yards next year so back to the subway for me. Then again, I'm looking forward to getting out of fidi.

 

[GordonGecko]

Is the subway too crowded or is it delayed all the time? Maybe the whole system is outdated like not comfortable to use?

delayed all the time, runs slowly, stops for long periods all the time, and it's getting very very dirty because now that Giuliani and Bloomberg are gone they aren't kicking the homeless out of the subway anymore so the trains reek of human waste and you have lots of panhandlers going from car to car

 

[dstoffa]

delayed all the time, runs slowly, stops for long periods all the time, and it's getting very very dirty because now that Giuliani and Bloomberg are gone they aren't kicking the homeless out of the subway anymore so the trains reek of human waste and you have lots of panhandlers going from car to car

Agreed.

The problem is that a politician doesn't win points by simply taking care of existing infrastructure (rail, subway, roads), but almost always get their photo-op at the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new subway stop or new bridge... There is no glamor in taking credit for two years of repairs to replace a section on highway that was reaching the end of its life, or refurbishing a subway line after years of neglect and deferred maintenance.

It's all about the Broken Windows... but toady's politicians will have none-of-that...

I'd love to hear a politician's response to, "When is a crime no longer a crime?"

 

[Deleted member 23124]

delayed all the time, runs slowly, stops for long periods all the time, and it's getting very very dirty because now that Giuliani and Bloomberg are gone they aren't kicking the homeless out of the subway anymore so the trains reek of human waste and you have lots of panhandlers going from car to car

Last time I was down there, i nearly passed out from the heat....most stations are brutal.

 

[East Coast Bias]

Agreed.

The problem is that a politician doesn't win points by simply taking care of existing infrastructure (rail, subway, roads), but almost always get their photo-op at the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new subway stop or new bridge... There is no glamor in taking credit for two years of repairs to replace a section on highway that was reaching the end of its life, or refurbishing a subway line after years of neglect and deferred maintenance.

It's all about the Broken Windows... but toady's politicians will have none-of-that...

I'd love to hear a politician's response to, "When is a crime no longer a crime?"

This is true here and true for systems infrastructure.

I watch tech folks at my company lay fancy web front ends one after the other, on top of 40 year mainframe systems.

To truly upgrade the mainframe infrastructure is a no win situation. At best you don’t wreck it. If it works, things just go on as they are - albeit more efficiently. But no upper mgmt type wants to take it on, cause it’s a can of worms.

 

[GordonGecko]

Last time I was down there, i nearly passed out from the heat....most stations are brutal.

Yeah it's terrible. At Brooklyn Bridge if I'm waiting for the express I will hang out inside the 6 train for the AC until it's about to leave. The hottest I've noticed is the IND platform at Herald Square. It's a special kind of hellish heat

 

[Deleted member 23124]

Yeah it's terrible. At Brooklyn Bridge if I'm waiting for the express I will hang out inside the 6 train for the AC until it's about to leave. The hottest I've noticed is the IND platform at Herald Square. It's a special kind of hellish heat

Times Square has to be the worst...IRT 96th is not far behind.

 

[dstoffa]

Yeah it's terrible. At Brooklyn Bridge if I'm waiting for the express I will hang out inside the 6 train for the AC until it's about to leave. The hottest I've noticed is the IND platform at Herald Square. It's a special kind of hellish heat

Times Square has to be the worst...IRT 96th is not far behind.

You can thank air conditioning for that... The heat extracted from the subway cars must be transferred somewhere... And that somewhere is the tunnels / stations. I am not sure if anyone has quantified it, but brakes also contribute to heat in the subway... not to mention the people themselves, plus the lights.... it all adds up fairly quickly when you can't expel it.

 

[GordonGecko]

Times Square has to be the worst...IRT 96th is not far behind.

This got me thinking so I looked around, and it turns out someone went around and took measurements:
Here’s why subway platforms are so hot in the summer

 

[Deleted member 23124]

I'm sure the number of people contributed greatly to the heat...look at the times on most of those...they are during morning rush hour. Would be interesting to see what temps are during the evening rush.

 

[GordonGecko]

I'm sure the number of people contributed greatly to the heat...look at the times on most of those...they are during morning rush hour. Would be interesting to see what temps are during the evening rush.

And when a heat wave breaks and have this nice cool air outside, it's a real shock to hit that wall when you go underground and all that heat is still trapped inside

 

[Deleted member 23124]

And when a heat wave breaks and have this nice cool air outside, it's a real shock to hit that wall when you go underground and all that heat is still trapped inside

Don't recall the experience....stopped riding subway during rush hour back in the 1990s. I'm sure people recall all the horrors occurring then: sick passengers, police action and, my personal favorite, congestion ahead (which I found funny since the train before left 20 minutes earlier). That's when I discovered the Limited buses. Helps to live in Manhattan.

 

[GordonGecko]

Don't recall the experience....stopped riding subway during rush hour back in the 1990s. I'm sure people recall all the horrors occurring then: sick passengers, police action and, my personal favorite, congestion ahead (which I found funny since the train before left 20 minutes earlier). That's when I discovered the Limited buses. Helps to live in Manhattan.

The funny one is the conductor trying to stop people from cramming into the train and saying "there's a train directly behind this one"

You don't say Einstein - trains on rails follow each other directly??, genius! What he doesn't tell you is he actually has NO IDEA when the next train is coming and when it does it's just as packed and if you waited for an empty train you would miss your entire work day

 

[Deleted member 23124]

Everyone knows the "train right behind this one" message is a scam. It only makes them want to get on that particular train more.

 

[dstoffa]

Everyone knows the "train right behind this one" message is a scam. It only makes them want to get on that particular train more.

But what if I am a savvy native New York Conductor, and I say that facetiously or sarcastically?

 

[Deleted member 23124]

Sometimes I think they say it because they'll be penalized if they don't.

 

[Ori]

It was extreme hot weather this summer even in south Norway. We had records from all three months May, June, and July. It was much warmer here compare to south Spain in the same time period so the hot global climate is concerning, and they believe it get more dry as well in the future the weather forecast. And we had unusual amount of tropical nights with over 20 degrees from midnight to 06.00 AM, and that is rare circumstances since we live so far north.

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

Everyone knows the "train right behind this one" message is a scam. It only makes them want to get on that particular train more.

Given that most stations have real time arrival screens, it's very easy to know when a train will arrive and how far apart the trains are. Makes super easy to decide whether to jump on a really crowded train or wait. Obviously, there are times when all the trains are going to be crowded, but overall it's very useful info and makes it much easier to get a seat when you're destination is a 45 minute ride away.

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

Try living without a subway/decent public transportation. Not everyone can drive/has a car. I've been riding the NYC subway for over 55 years and the current problems do not compare at all to most of the past. Think things are bad now? Back in the good old days (late 1970s into the 1980s), trains derailed almost very week. Trains were taken out of service for breakdowns (not routine maintenance) every 6,000 miles (the numbers now are over 100,000 miles, down from double that). You never knew where you would end up (trains were re-routed constantly or how long it would take. The air conditioning rarely worked and the announcements were impossible to hear.

Now's a piece of cake.

 

[GordonGecko]

Given that most stations have real time arrival screens, it's very easy to know when a train will arrive and how far apart the trains are. Makes super easy to decide whether to jump on a really crowded train or wait. Obviously, there are times when all the trains are going to be crowded, but overall it's very useful info and makes it much easier to get a seat when you're destination is a 45 minute ride away.

The arrival screens are a recent addition. Most stations still only have one per platform or 2 at most, so usually not where you're standing. I really don't understand why they don't list all the arrival times online like they do with BusTime

And yes it's so much better than the bad old days but we've come so far it sucks that they're letting it fall apart again

 

[Boris Zubov]

This got me thinking so I looked around, and it turns out someone went around and took measurements:
Here’s why subway platforms are so hot in the summer

Next they need a chart for which station smells the worst in the summer.

I'll cast my vote for the winner... 59th Street & Lex for the 4,5,6 trains. I haven't lived in the city for 11 years, but I'm willing to bet this is still the worst offender by far!