I'm an expat New Yorker (in California most of the time), but when I come back to visit (not often enough!) I love the subway! New York is the only city in the US with decent mass transit. When I was growing up, my parents preferred the 104 (these days the M104), and a bus came every three minutes. I was astonished to discover that here in Berkeley the rush hour service is a bus every half hour.
But what prompts me to comment is my dismay at discovering, on a recent visit, that they've started locking the doors between cars. One of the (many) reasons I loved the subway, growing up, was the feel of the breeze riding between cars. This is part of the birthright of a New Yorker, liability lawyers be damned!
And, although these days you see them in yuppie health food emporia, the first time I ever saw one of those automatic orange squeezing machines with a huge basket of oranges at the top and a spigot at the bottom was in the subway.
5
You lost me when you said you eat on the subway. I hope you were being facetious. Otherwise, disgusting.
3
So glad YOU said ”passengers.” That irritating announcement from the MTA refers to us as “customers” — which we are only when we buy a metrocard, My wife gnashes her teeth every time she hears it. Maybe the MTA should invest in a few grammar police and leave the kids alone. While they’re at it, how about half fare rides for kids
6
Great illustration by Tomi Um!
8
Nice piece, but clearly written by a transplant.
2
"I’m not worried about an immigrant woman providing treats for a dollar apiece or people who need to get somewhere but can’t afford the $2.75 fare. I am worried about overcrowding, delays, the welfare of M.T.A. workers and, of course, small children’s ears." Am I the only one who found the first sentence of this paragraph slightly...elitist? Insensitive? Dare I say tone deaf? Not every woman who sells delicious churros are immigrants; many are born here and need to have an outside source of income. And you should be worried about the people who need to 'get somewhere' (I will assume you meant work) but can't afford the fare in a City that is increasingly pushing out those who are not wealthy. Yes, I do believe tone deaf would be correct.
5
I have been riding the subways for over sixty years in every borough.
I recognize that the subway can take you to so many places in NYC.
But it has become more and more smelly, unsafe, and unreliable. How many people are late to work every day is incalculable. How much loss of productivity as a result.
How incompetent our government for allowing this to happen - Andrew Cuomo has no business making excuses. We deserve what we get for electing him.
When I take the subway, I stand near the stairs, ready to dart up and out if I see a scene or a potential attacker.
I cannot understand the people who stand on the edge of the platform when it is well-known that commuters get shoved onto the tracks.
1
The subway experience is usually totally benign or awesomely terrible...rarely great.
BUT...
One exception : whenever I bring my old dog on the train (in a tote bag) and he is such a ham and he charms the other passengers ...and I watch people break from their glazed-over misery and boredom and light up just at the sight of him with his head sticking out of that bag...smiling at everyone. That’s when I love the NYC subway.
5
The infrastructure of the NYC subways is a gift our forbears gave us.
But we’ve been poor stewards. The system needs billions of dollars of capital investment.
Sound like a lot? A billion is less than a tenth of one percent of what we flushed down the toilet in Afghanistan, with nothing productive to show for it.
The writer appreciates the system, and that’s wonderful. But the system deserves a few billion to maintain - and we have the money to do it.
No reason for 19th century technology, rats, trash, poor lighting, etc. in the wealthiest country in the world.
Discuss.
7
RE: "I’ve noticed graffiti saying “More churros less cops.” ... I approve of the sentiment. I’m not worried about an immigrant woman providing treats for a dollar apiece or people who need to get somewhere but can’t afford the $2.75 fare."
If there were fewer cops, you might need to worry about something more distressing than petty violations. Those of us who were here in the 1970s and 1980s enjoy being able to ride the subway without being attacked by strangers.
10
I lived in NYC for 13 years and spent many hours of that on the subway. I never realized how much I miss Showtime, the crazy people, the dozens of languages and ethnicities, and the ability to get absolutely anywhere at anytime. Until I moved to DC. My daily subway rides withered to only 4 metro trips in all of last year. A 15 min journey can take anywhere from 15 min to 1 hour. 90% of the passengers are beige and black-clad, boring, white, government apparatchiks. There’s no food allowed, no music, no performers, no flirting, no crazies, no joy. It may be unreliable, smelly and overcrowded, but I’d take the MTA subway over the WMATA Metro any day!
4
Like Maeve, I definitely share the same sentiment of being very attached to New York’s subway system from my student days. It’s like family - you hate it at times but you can’t live without it. The system also encapsulates the “Quirks” of New Yorkers.
Long time ago, I was riding the “R” train to midtown - going home from my first job. I was tired and was zoning out. All of a sudden, this woman started screaming at me: “What are you looking at??”. I was very startled because I was not looking at her at all. Anyway, few minutes later, I got off at Penn Station.
This older man also got off and tapped me on the shoulder - he told me “Hey Kiddo, from now on - wear sunglasses in the trains.” Since that time, I always wear very dark sunglasses and try my best to look as inscrutable and as insouciant as possible.
It has become such a habit that during my frequent business trips to London, I always wear sunglasses in the Tube as well. My co-workers were intrigued by my habit. I just shrugged and told them - “Don’t worry about it - it’s a New York thing.”
1
The most important thing to know about the subway: Never get on an inexplicably empty car in an otherwise very full train unless you have a terrible cold or are an experienced Kung Fu practitioner.
6
I don't want to be Debbie Downer...Ms. Higgins correctly points out that very good things do occasionally happen on the MTA, especially if there is some type of disaster and/or impending doom (e.g. someone jumps in front of the train, Hurricane Sandy is about to hit NYC, etc).
But the reality is, the daily commute on the subway is bleak. I lived in NYC for 14 years and I don't miss the subway...at all. It's fine if you only take it once in a while or if you live in a centrally located neighborhood (such as the East Village, Columbus Circle, etc), but if you live North of 168th or deep in the heart of Brooklyn, or the last stop on the 6 train in the Bronx, it gets old really fast.
There were so many times when I craved relative peace and quiet (meaning someone sitting next to me was not watching a movie on their phone at full volume without earbuds). Sadly, it only takes 1-2 inconsiderate people to change the vibe of an entire train. I remember getting on the A train at 6:15AM and traveling from 168th to 59th listening to a preacher wail at the top of his lungs about Jesus Christ and how we were all going to hell. I happen to be pro-Christ but this preacher's in-your-face delivery was off-putting and only served to disturb the majority - especially so early in the morning.
I will always miss parts of NYC but the subway is one aspect I can do without. Presently, I commute to work in my car and am eternally grateful for the peace and quiet in my own controlled environment.
4
Week two of strikes in Paris make me miss our metro terribly.
4
Soooo...person romanticizing the MTA proclaims let's not romanticize the MTA whilst humblebragging about returning a lost wallet.
1
All it will take is one case of food poisoning and everyone will be screaming why the government is allowing unlicensed food vendors.
2
Another reason to love the subway is Uli Buetter Cohen's @subwaybookreview interviews (published on Instagram) with people on the New York City subway about the books they are reading on the subway.
2
Screaming kids on the dirtiest snot and puke filled L train at 10 o'clock at night with a mother lost in some kind of other realm a man is kicking my cardboard box of fragile plaster tchotchke it appeared I was doomed to extinction while MTA tries to figure out how to deal with the upcoming rise in our water table.
There's no way I can live with this, and I don't, and I won't.
3
“... modeling my voice on that Theranos scammer.” That gave me a good chuckle. Thank you. I needed one.
Dear Ms. Higgins:
NOBODY, but NOBODY has a mass transit system like NYC.
I remember the subways as a small child when they had woven rattan cushioned seats.
I saw the evolution of the subway system in every Mayoral administration from Lindsay through Bloomberg.
take a clue from the poster "Celeste" who says:
"you don't know what you've got till it's gone..."
go ahead, Ms. Higgins, live somewhere else, I dare you, and then you'll find out.
2
oh please; most of the same people you say can't afford the $2.75 subway fare wear $200 sneakers or Timberlands.
4
The subway is a travesty. It’s been getting steadily worse and disgusting over the last 15 years. I can’t believe anyone picked anything up off the floor of a car, diamond or not. I see how the homeless use it as a bathroom every day.
While I find the Paris Metro and the London Tube reaches more parts of their cities than the subway here, our 24/7 system is quite remarkable. It's just sad that poor planning (only two lines on the UES) and management have made daily usage so unpleasant.
More cops or subway personnel is needed on platforms on every line. Riders during the day (or night) shouldn't have to put up with mentally ill homeless fellow riders seeking shelter with all their belongings in a shopping cart. The danger of being pushed off the platform is real and extra personnel could be used to spot the mentally ill walking about and have harmed others in the past.
Getting the signals upgraded should be priority #1. New ways to pay the fare is the lease of my worries. One day in the future, there might be a dedicated car for bikes during the rush hours.
1
Perfect essay. You’re a nyc dweller who knows both John Steinbeck and Lou Reed and in between with the perfect spectrum to call out the outside looking in. I read Milan Kundera in the same subway car - a seething wave of humanity.
6
I have found, at times, a crowded subway car to be more glorious than a sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.
5
Love this piece. It really encapsulates the bitter sweetness of the subway and NYC. The 7 train can be extremely testing, but once a few months ago on said train a guy thought he dropped his phone and the entire car was frantic helping him find it - even older folks getting down and looking under the seats. When he realized he actually had it on him the entire time I thought people would be annoyed but instead everyone celebrated. It was great.
12
Native New Yorker here, traveling the subway system alone since 11; on a regular basis starting with high school (round-trip bronx to manhattan)
Been a rider since there were straw seats with fire-breathing heat forced out below during the winter, double letter trains, etc.
Been through its ups and downs, and improvements that crept in over the years.
What I finally became somewhat cynical about with service disruptions was noticing, as I waited and waited that there seemed to be no lack of advancing technology for ads and more ads - more invasive, more disruptive to my commute than I am willing to concede to at 6:00 am.
Feels like a mashup of the underground chambers of the morlocks and the cacophony the original "Blade Runner"
8
I lived in NYC in the early 90s. Returned recently after an absence of 25 years, and was shocked by the state of the subway. It was like a time warp opened up, a window to the past.
It’s unfathomable to me that anyone would celebrate a system in such a desperate state of disrepair. I suggest the author of this piece travel abroad and acquaint themself with modern subway systems, in Europe and the Far East.
8
@Xoxarle don’t assume s/he hasn’t
Enjoy Tampa
2
The homeless begging and at night at least 2 or 3 sleeping in each car is not easy for me to be comfortable with ...
8
Spend a night with them, out of the cold. Might change your perspective a little.
1
While I do not like the idea of more police when I consider them targeting young men of color, I am tired of getting on the train with my young children after school and encountering addicts shooting up or waging brawls with one another. And that’s just last week’s stories of commuting with my 6 year old. I grew up in the city, and in my view it’s as terrifying a place to be on a Tuesday afternoon as it’s been since the mid 90s.
9
It's far from glamorous, but it gets me where I need to go.
2
I dont love it, and thats why I left nyc. spending too much money on commute is just not worth it. I dont like be stripped off money for a bad service.
4
@Tara Much cheaper than owning a car.
2
I lived in NYC for the first 31 years of my life and return every year. I've seen the good and the bad on the subways. This past year in a couple of stations there were buskers with boom boxes. If they were singing along with the "music," their voices weren't audible over the recordings. The noise was ear-splitting--even when I took out my hearing aids it was painful. I can't imagine why anyone would give those guys money.
10
I loved the NY Subways most of the times. When I last took the BMT back in the 1970s, you had to be very good in folding the NY Times while standing in front of someone sitting. I knew how many stop it took me to get home after a night at the Jazz clubs. I sat there with m y eyes closed and counted. I don't know if that can be done today especially when a big rat decides to jump in and take a ride to its destination. However, my favorite subways were the Metropolitan in Paris.
I haven't read the article but will tomorrow. I used the subway to commute to work from 1984 until 2008. I read hundreds of books during my commute and never had a problem. I was never a victim of crime even though I fell asleep a couple of times and missed my stop with my book lying in the floor. I don't remember many delays. Since then perhaps the city has become overcrowded. I loved the buses and the subway because I didn't have to own a car. I hated and still do, cars and driving.
4
Living in New Orleans for a short while, a weird magical city with zero mass transit. Back home in NYC the subway is the great equalizer, and I do miss it a lot.
3
My subway experience is very limited. I’m only on it when I visit my son in Ridgewood. My solo trips on the subway have been interesting in a positive way. During one visit a woman on the platform could see I wasn’t sure what train to get on and directed me. On another trip my phone died and a woman several seats away could see I was in a panic. She wrote out directions for me. In my humble opinion New Yorkers are friendly and helpful. But again, I don’t have to depend on the subway on a regular basis.
2
The first thing to acknowledge is that New York City could not possibly be the world city it is without the subway--love it OR hate it. The NYC subway, like any public amenity in the world, goes through tangible cycles of neglect and appreciation, but it always reflects a side of NYC that is authentic and in-the-moment.
The subway is as existential to NYC as Manhattan Island. And that's no loose comparison. Manhattan could have never supported its scale of development over the last 100 years without an underground system that moved millions of workers, consumers, neighbors, and visitors from/to a few blocks of every address on its grid. And the concentration of subway lines corresponds similarly with the development intensity in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx respectively. So, you might as well learn to love it!
In New Orleans, while we have an attachment to our streetcars that may be romanticized, it is also much more limited because the extent of streetcar service is as well.
You have to get to Paris, London, Tokyo or Moscow for a real baseline comparison to NYC subway. Parisian Metro riders never have the behavior conundrums Ms. Higgins cites, because there has always been an unwritten code for our French cousins' Metro behavior: they comfortably balance necessary interaction with stylish insouciance. They even have fine art on display at the Louvre metro stop! Moscow's stations look like palaces before 1917!
So c'mon, NYC, represent!
5
@Gui Most forget or don’t know that all the world’s great city metros are far more subsidized by their federal governments than NYC’s. Ours would be much better maintained if funding matched theirs. Americans don’t want to pay for infrastructure for 40 years now.
4
I love the subway right now when it seems most of the seats are taken by one man lying prone. Or I miss my child’s recital because the subway was MIA and the train guy kept saying it’s one minute away. Or perhaps at 110th and Central Park north anytime I open the gate there 10 people on the other side just waiting to gang rush through. But otherwise it’s awesome!
3
It does seem that the MTA wastes (or worse) a ton of money that could be used to make the system safer, cleaner and more reliable. Nevertheless, we can do better than to assume that every fare-beater is too poor to pay and every enforcement effort is racist. And in general, I think it’s unrealistic to think that you can have anything as large as the subway system run safely and efficiently while adopting voluntary adherence to the rules. In New York?
6
I have been riding the subways for over 50 years. The trains are OK. However, many of the stations are decrepit. That said I see that some stations are finally being renovated. This will not be an overnight process. I'd start with the gateway stations, Grand Central, Times Square, Penn Station.
I'd like to see a lot more escalators, better lighting, and no more performers asking for money on the trains. Air conditioned stations would be nice.
As far as the 500 new officers go, I see fare-beating almost everyday. People jumping turnstiles and using the swinging doors to evade fares. Cutting down on fare beating will will pay for itself and the 500 new officers. Let's keep in mind that many of the fare beaters are undesirables. Just keeping them out and causing them to behave themselves will be a boon.
9
Maybe I'll take my traditional anchovy-and-Gorgonzola churros down to the platforms - should be a big hit on the hottest day of the year while I celebrate my native heritage.
2
The subway is my ride, for work and also not for work. I’m proud of the day I took 9 rides, for work, on my unlimited metro card. There’s a lot bad: delays, unexplained delays, suicides and “unruly passengers,” people who think headphones are for other people and people who have no indoor voices.
Still, I love the anonymity and the privacy. I love knowing the subway like I know my neighborhood and it makes the whole city my own backyard.
The MTA breaks my heart regularly but we’ll never break up.
11
@Ellen Tabor - you should have ridden the trains back in the day(1970's- 1990's). What's happening now can't compare to those days, plus crime was at its apex back then.. a cop on every train at night too. Still i went on my weekend party excursions using the subway and the S.I. ferry at some point to get there and back often after 3 A.M. i got tired of it all and left NYC for good.. don't miss it except for the food, and culture, but not the subway, noise , crime, the insensitivity people develop when they live there, and of course the pollution.. too bad after all of these years no one has figured out a way to fix these problems.. quality of life any one?
2
The subway is also a great place to see truly beautiful people. Physically beautiful, I mean. It’s like a Benetton ad. All of humanity is represented. Look up from your phone and you’ll be awed.
6
@mci - see beautiful people all fixated on their smart phone never looking up , why would i care to see such "beautiful" people or even deal with them?
1
@mci yes + great style
As a sometime overseas visitor to NYC, let me say I am in awe of the Subway. I admire its efficiency and convenience but it offers much more.
A year after 9/11, I stayed for a couple of weeks in Brooklyn with some Australian mates. I was curious how the city was recovering and what better way than Subway rides.
Yes, there was the traditional vacant stares and impatience that can be seen in any commuter system around the world. However I also observed an openness, affability and interest between erstwhile strangers that suggested a curious come together approach in the wake of the tragedy 12 months before.
One mid morning I was heading in to Chinatown from Brooklyn. I was dreaming away when an elderly African American local asked me if I had the time. I apologised as I had forgotten my watch. The teenage girl sitting next to the elderly gent piped up to tell us the time.
We started chatting once the ice of time and commuter convention had been broken and quickly traversed several subjects.
It was with great regret my stop appeared all too soon and I bid my goodbye. I imagine the two locals despite their 50 plus age difference continued chattering and enjoying each other's company.
8
Rush hour, pretty good: people who are commuting to work. Quiet, relatively clean.
Late evenings, not so much.
1
I lived in NYC and took the subway everywhere. When I was in labor with my daughter and had to get from Park Slope to the hospital on the UWS, I took the subway!
11
I thought the NY subway was amazing when I first moved there in the 90s. That is until I then moved to Tokyo and realized how a trains and subways ought out to be, clean, quiet and on time. And to top it off, your commute to and from work is paid for by the company you work for.
Now that's how to run a mass transit system.
15
@AWL - that'll be the day when businesses actual pay for the privilege of doing business in New York.... we don't dare touch their profits!
5
Not to be a downer—I too have moments of love and hate for the subway—but one’s experience on the subway really depends on lots of factors: Age, race, gender, ability, etc. For instance, being a kid or teenager who has grown up in the city, and has experienced a lot of the good and bad, there isn’t as much room for that nostalgia. It’s more of a necessity to get to point A to point B, preferably without incident. It’s just not that cute to see a person behave well after witnessing a group of loud kids heckling a passenger, or after a mentally unstable person starts yelling out profanity-laced insults and threats to someone. And, there’s always a teaching moment when my kids read about a person being pushed onto the tracks...always stand away from the train with your back to the wall.
10
Fine and noble sentiments.
But sorry, can't generate any nostalgia for the NYC subways, even in view of some touching subways anecdotes mentioned. Still thinking of that last but of unspecified liquid I stepped in before seeing it, or the greasy, smelly substance I almost sat in (which is why the 'miraculously empty seat" was empty), or the pushing and shoving to get on or off the subway at many stops.
Most NYC subway experiences are noisy, nasty, and not-short-enough
20
The subway is one of the reasons I moved to the city not long ago ago. Since then, the unwritten public transit rule of seeing but ignoring has won my heart.
While boarding the M96 one morning I learned that Elijah Cummings had died. This news on top of my usual base-line despair about Trump & Friends was overwhelming and tears welled in my eyes and soon were falling uncontrollable. It wasn’t an audible, sobbing “ugly cry” - just a river of tears that were escaping my will to resist. My fellow passengers surely saw this display but adhered to the ethos of minding their own business, for which I was grateful. By the time we reached the 96th St. station, my river of tears had been stemmed, but sitting on the Q and remembering what was lost, they started again. This time I wasn’t as mortified but was reasonably confident that I would be seen but ignored. This has never happened again - it was just one of those days.
6
I often take the subway to my Uber pick up location and it works pretty well.
6 years? Tourist! ;)
The longer you live here the more deeply the miraculous diversity of this city imbeds; when I travel, the comparative lack of it is one of the first things I notice - and miss.
Along with the incredible breadth and depth of all the arts. The pan cultural, intergenerational, cross fertilizing of creative fields is forever evolving and astonishing, achieving far more than the sum of its parts.
Small daily interactions open us up, make community - and life.
11
"I Still Kind of Love the New York Subway"
3
The subway. Here is a collection of disjointed recollections...
The first memories of my childhood subway rides start with being in the frontmost car, fascinated by traveling the tunnel as I looked through the front window (in the days that that was still possible), scanning the mysterious spaces that lay ahead. I loved it.
As the years passed, the leather straps became metal, then were finally eliminated completely in favor of the present day metal bars and posts.
A traveling Petri Dish.
One day I’m on the 1 train headed to work, and a mother and son get on. The small child reaches out to hold onto one of the upright posts, and the mother instantly says “Don’t touch that. It’s filthy. “
On another occasion, while waiting for my train, a young child peers over the platform edge and looks down at the tracks. The kid excitedly says “Look mommy, there’s a cat down there!” The mother then looks and exclaims “That’s not a cat!! It’s a rat!!” As if loaded onto a catapult, the mother and child spring back away from the edge faster than one might ever think possible.
5
I love the subway point blank for the democratizing experience it has always been as well as the fastest way to get around. I’ve ridden it since I came to NYC in the late 70s despite girls from NJ and LI in the dorm warning me not to. Apparently I was too naive to know better - thankfully - and nothing untoward has ever happened to me.
On NJ Transit Sat night back to NJ I sat near a group of 8th-grade girls (one liked my knitting) on their way back from Cirque du Soleil with a chaperone. One of them expounded loudly on why she would never ever again ride the subway while the rest of them sat in silence. She had apparently gotten lost. It made me sad.
3
Yes, the subway can be great theater. However, it sure would be nice if the City went back to enforcing the laws. Not only do we have mobs of turnstile jumpers, last week two close friends in the 60s were attacked. What's more, the police didn't want to file a report - presumably, they had been instructed to avoid making reports to keep the crime statistics look good.
17
I grew up in New York and recently moved to Baltimore for a doctoral program. I miss NY everyday and this article didn't help (in the best way). My grandfather was subway porter and supported his family cleaning Broadway Junction. I met my partner on the walk from the J to L train at that same station. The subway is gross and I almost never sit down, except in the case of extreme intoxication. My dad is convinced I will be murdered due to my penchant for expletive-filled tirades aimed at men who stare at me and I've shared more than one subway car with (literal) rats. But I've lived all over the East Coast and Midwest and can attest to the beauty of getting on a (gross, delayed, stalled etc) train and going pretty much anywhere you want or need to go and to the humanity of the moments you described. Thank you so much for this story.
15
I’m from Alabama but I think the NYC Subway is an amazing place. It is one of the last places on earth where everyone is treated equally. There is no such thing as a rich person subway line or car. Lawyers, Doctors, and Politicians wait in the same smelly stations and squeeze into the same cramped subway cars as the rest of humanity. Money does not get your own private car during rush hour or a rat free station. I remember being in New York the weekend of the Marathon and hearing 5 different languages or more while I was on the subway and I just think if is beautiful.
20
@Vivian
Lawyers, doctors and especially politians (except during an election) are above ground in a car.
2
Nice little set of stories
I sometimes feel that way about the Tube in London - except that the major occupants are tourists. But the Northern line is still worth travelling on just because
Basically the author has described how the NYC subway system hasn't completely drained her of all of her humanity while riding. Bravo to the MTA.
4
Absolutely loved this - made my day! So perfectly captures the weird mix of love, hate, and indifference I feel about commuting on the subway. And the sparks of extraordinary that burst out of the extremely ordinary daily routine.
4
Dang, guys. I live in a city without real mass transit. What I wouldn't give for your noisy, smelly, not-always-on-time subway system. By the way, I remember the NYC subway of the late 1970s, graffiti-encrusted cars and all. Now that was a problem.
Just sayin.
7
@K Yates But it wasn't a problem! At least not for this 18 year old who was riding in a subway for the first time and loving it. Plus coming from living with super-efficient and ultra clean German transit systems. The NYC subway was alive.
6
@K Yates actually I and most I know love graffiti and miss it on the train exteriors: youthful exuberance and creativity like slam poetry, beautifying ugly infrastructure.
compare and contrast with the san diego 'trolly'..we have really revolting homeless, everywhere all the times, that sometimes seem dangerous..NO panhandling, we don't do that in san diego..puke, urine , etc., all evident, and we only have about 30 miles of line that goes almost nowhere....Sometimes I see ten wrapped bodies at the trolley station, when I take it at 6am..are they dead? or just sleeping..timekeeping - pretty good.. give me new york anyday, that takes you everywhere all the times..B ut I have not been there since the nineties!!
3
As an aging New Yorker who was born during, ahem, the Truman Administration, I must put my two cents in and say that the subway used to be unspeakably worse. Imagine torn straw seats and ceiling fans! Rush hour was strictly defined as 8 to 9 and 5 to 6 and if you dared to take it during those hours you were crammed sardine-like into a Turkish bath in the summer and a refrigerator in the winter. My mother dragged me into it, but my aunt would never take me anywhere except by bus or taxi. On the plus side, it only cost a dime. I'll take today's system, even with all its glitches and needs, anytime.
30
Well, if Miss Higgins is remotely concerned about over crowding on New York's MTA system then she needs to be directly concerned about fare prices and enforcing the fare rules. Which means someone needs to enforce that everyone pays the fare. Otherwise, everyone would ride for free and it would be be overcrowded and the system couldn't afford repairs and upgrades. Thus leading to a catastrophic collapse.
10
@Wade Cordy
Or, like the rest of the planet, increase government support for both the economic infrastructure that it is and quality of life.
1
Fact is the service is NOT that bad after all. The past 2 years have seen vast improvements. Try going to London on a sweltering summer day with no air conditioning or running to catch the last train at 1am and then think again about our 24hr service.
14
I moved back to the area a few years ago, after an eternity (seven years) in Florida. The first time I took the 126 bus from Hoboken into Manhattan, walked through Port Authority and the endless tunnel to the 1 train, and squeezed into the impossibly crowded subway car, I was beaming with joy. People probably thought I was nuts, but I was just SO happy to be home among the throngs of people, the lights, the smells, the vendors, the buskers...everything. I couldn't care less what shape the subway cars were in (you should have seen them in the 1960's when I was a kid!). But then I miss Times Square and the East Village and the Lower East Side back in their "seedier" days, too. Everything just seemed so much more full of life.
My only sorrow was to see virtually everyone's faces glued to their phones--if that's an "unwritten rule," it's an awful one! I think I mentioned this here before, but on one of my first subway rides since I came home again, I saw one man reading Catcher in the Rye. We had the most wonderful conversation, and I was still grinning like a madwoman when I made my way through the tangle of people and managed to get out the door at my stop.
12
I haven't lived in the City for a long, long time. When I did I lived near Union Square when it was affordable. The subway was great. I took the express from Union Square to Grand Central. But it never ceased to amaze me that there were five stops in two miles on the local, which almost no one rode. A stop every four-tenths of a mile seemed absurd, especially because the stations weren't used. Either the line was built to cater the the wealthy, or New Yorkers were vehemently opposed to walking.
There are extraneous stations all over the place. Closing them down would save a fortune and help get New Yorkers to walk a bit. TAll of this is so obvious that there has to be a reason. Perhaps walking on Park Ave between 28th Street and 33rd Street is just too dangerous. I've heard that the upscale people of Murray Hill watch the streets closely and confront any ordinary folks traverse their neighborhood.
@michjas The 1904 Interborough local stations pretty much replicated the elevated locals: short trains, frequent stations. Don't complain while your legs have strength! You may reach an age when you say, "Eleventh Avenue and 54th Street is too far from the subway." I reached that calculation a few years back, when the off-hours #5 ceased stopping on the South Ferry loop.
3
@michjas Geez yeah you obviously haven't been here in a long time (the upscale people of Murray Hill?) and the conclusions you draw are odd indeed. NYC subway lines were installed many decades ago and no one likes to walk more than a New Yorker. I often bypass lesser stations and walk to a larger one where I can connect with more trains + get more exercise.
1
Not caring about fare evasion or unlicensed food vendors is a recipe for a return to the NYC of the 1970s. Tolerating illegal behavior sends the message that it is acceptable. In addition why should the State or Federal government provide financial aid if the MTA can't be bothered to collect money that it is due and users care so little about the system that they don't bother paying.
21
I have and always will. There is no other mass transit system like it. None "feel" the same as New York City's subway lines. Whether you feel "a part of", like after a Yankee's playoff win (on the "D" or "4" lines), or when a fight breaks out (that is always crazy). For me, I have always been drawn to the "social aspects" which are present only on New Yorks subways. Granted, I have not ridden them in other countries, so I am extremely limited. However, I have ridden very many throughout the US: In Los Angeles, Buffalo's light rail, Streetcars in New Orleans and San Francisco, Washington DC's Metro, Chicago's elevated lines, Philadelphia's Metro, Atlanta's subway and loads of airports. However, the absolute worst are the entire PATH system. I used to say the "L" train from Brooklyn to Manhattan (in the late 1980's) were the worst. They had the old "Army-green" cars with no A/C. The most memorable of all were any and all subway lines in New York City, immediately after 9/11. Eyes which normally avoided one another, stared directly at each other. Everyone's "invisible wall of their space" disappeared for about 2 weeks.
11
For a transit system almost 100 years old, the NYC Subway is actually quite functional. Sure, there are the inevitable service disruptions, the open station platforms, overcrowding, etc, but the trains run virtually all the time.
I've been back in NYC after 30 years in LA, and I can attest to the age-old adage "you don't know what you've got till it's gone..."
Between the NYC subway, the local commuter railroads, and the NE Corridor Amtrak service, there is well over a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure in place that moves people efficiently with a very small carbon footprint.
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We're over 100 years old. Try 115 years. And parts of Brooklyn (BRT/BMT) are even older.
16
Just think of how much more you'd love it if corporations and the superrich were taxed appropriately and the city actually had enough money to maintain the subway system properly.
24
I "love" the New York City subway the way I love my heart or my liver - an essential, in this case for the functioning and survival of my City. New York City is even more dependent on its subways than, for example, Paris, and we saw just how chaotic it got there after 12 of their 14 lines went down due to the strikes.
What gets me and many of my fellow riders so mad is that we know just how good our subway service could be if given proper funding for upgrades and maintenance. Anything and anybody, be it a living being, a structure or a machine, doesn't work so great after decades of neglect. I am sometimes amazed that it even manages 80% on time performance with a signaling system that is old enough to qualify for Medicare.
16
BTW - "man-spread" isn't an ego thing, it's just what happens when tall people sit on a bench designed for average-height people. If you sit there long enough your attention wanders and your knees drift. Don't take it personally.
Obscure safety tip for average height people - if you have a seat, do not pop up while the train is still pulling into the station and ask the tall guy standing in front of you to move so you can a head start to the door. This is dangerous. That tall guy has a high unbalanced center of gravity and is standing like that so he doesn't get catapulted down the train like a loose canon when the operator stomps on the brakes or flung into the benches when going through a crossover.
13
You romanticize too much NYC's subways. Unfortunately, I see them as a rough and tough and means to an end (my destination). I am always on the lookout for unhinged people lurking about.
9
@New Yorker we try not to live fear-based lives.
Abusive relationships can be the hardest to leave.
37
I moved to New England after living in Manhattan for 30 years. Some days I miss New York terribly, such as when I read Metropolitan Diary (or the *New Yorker'* lists and reviews of the astounding range of the city's cultural events, hi- and low-brow). Maeve Higgins nails it. She rocks!
76
Visiting Singapore reminds me of the contrast to NYC subways. I had bought a bottle of water from a small store in the subway system on my way to the platform. Moments after I opened the bottle a transit officer, small woman, politely but firmly informed me that open containers were not allowed on the subway. I immediately resealed it and put it away and she thanked me cordially.
I bet NYers can even eat durians on the subway!
10
Nice piece.
I disagree about having fewer cops. Fare evasion should be stopped. And food vendors must be licensed. Police aren't only for "serious" crimes. Indeed, in many languages the word for police is "guardians of the order" and that is what the subway police do.
On the positive side, I completely agree about the polyglot 7 train. What a tribute to our great city!
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@joelibacsi - i just got back from a trip to Thailand and the Philippines. I rode the Bangkok trains, some were subways, others elevated, not one person was panhandling, preaching, swinging from the polls or selling goods illegally. And Bangkok in particular is renown for it's "Pop-up" street vendors, street hucksters, and loud noise. Now, if Bangkok mass transit can do it, so can the NYC transit system
1
We deserve a subway system where the trains run on time and the stations don't smell of urine. We deserve a subway system where leftover passenger food does not become a restaurant for rats. We deserve a subway system that does not become a homeless shelter in winter, because homeless require better housing solutions. We deserve a subway system where passengers are not a captive audience for peddlers and annoying religious fanatics.
In short, we paying customers do not deserve this subway system.
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@S.G.
But isn't Pizza Rat part of it's charm?
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@S.G.
Maybe the extra 500 cops will sort most of that out.
There will always be people whining about police stopping " innocent" people fare beating or selling churros that attract rats but if they pay their fare and get a license to sell food then cops won't bother them.
Funny how breaking the law doesn't bother some people but obeying the law irritates those that choose to break it.
4
I used to live in New York and when folks ask me what I miss most, the subway is near the top of my list. Central Park and sidewalks filled with people of different colors and backgrounds too. Thank you for a lovely article.
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@Liz
I was born and raised in NYC, and am now living in a city I really like. But your list of the three best things about my hometown is exactly the same as mine. Whenever I go back to visit I make sure to take the subway, walk a mile or two on the sidewalks of Manhattan, and spend time in Central Park.
14
Maeve, I know you don't want to go all sentimental, but I thought you might like to know that one of your readers wouldn't be here if not for the NYC subway.
My parents met on an IRT train from the Bronx to Manhattan, shortly after the end of World War II. My father recognized my mother as one of six daughters of a judge who lived in the neighborhood and their first conversation began, "Aren't you one of the judge's daughters?"
She said yes, she was, one thing led to another, and they had nine children who live all over the US, pursued careers in nursing, science. postal work, therapy, teaching, journalism, sports, music, and social justice (some now retired).
There's grandchildren, too, who are lawyers, CPAs, social workers, chefs, IT techs, cops, school counselors, and entrepreneurs.
Look at what that one random conversation started. Every time I get on the subway and see people staring at their cell phones I want to make an announcement:
ATTENTION PASSENGERS. ESPECIALLY YOU SINGLE ONES LOOKING FOR LOVE. YOUR SOULMATE MAY BE ON THIS TRAIN, BUT YOU'LL NEVER KNOW IF YOU DON'T LOOK UP FROM YOUR CELL PHONE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.
I'm too shy to say that publicly, but I hope you'll think of it next time you ride the underground.
Especially you single ones looking for love.
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@Chrislav LOVE your intolerance of the cell-phone fixation. It truly unnerves me. Here's hoping this new breed of humans somehow evolves to once again pay attention to & acknowledge the other humans around them!
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@Chrislav
Nice, but if your soulmate really is on the train and one of you so much as says 'hello' to the other, you'll probably be accused of an unwelcome sexually inappropriate act and will never be able to sit on the Supreme Court when it is brought up 40 years later.
Your parents did well meeting on the subway. Mine met at a skating rink, and the only thing they produced was me, but that was more than enough according to most people who know me. Trouble is, I'm not sure how they mean that. Still, while I don't love subways, I do love ice, so there is a lesson here, even if no one can explain to me just what it is.
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@Joe Pearce It means that the soul mate connection happens at random times in your life and you never know.
Friday the 13th of December was our 20+ year anniversary of meeting my wife in Thailand. It was my love of the comic book character Tintin that ultimately led to me running into my wife (long story) and then us getting married, etc. A single bit of that story out of place and we'd not have met (it involves a bootleg Tintin in Thailand, purchased for me by one of my friends who knew my love of Tintin, which I promptly lost that night, so I had to go back to the place where it was purchased for me buy another copy the next night which is when I ran into my wife).
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runs 24/7 (the trains just never stop!); local and express service; separate local and express tracks so trains can be re-routed around problems in real time... you just don't realize how good the system really is till you move away and use mass transit somewhere else.
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Right you are, from a former NY’er, now DC resident. Our metro doesn’t run until 7 am on weekends.
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@Sane citizen
Or TRY to use mass transit elsewhere, especially in the US. And discover it doesn't really exist, certainly not at night.
Between the subways and buses, I wonder how many thousands of lives are saved every year because people drink and take a train or bus.
15
The qualifier for Ms Higgins’ article and for many I’ve read scrutinizing the MTA expenditures, is the phrase “when I first moved to NY”.
The “I don’t mind the lady selling churros for a dollar” begets the rats waiting in the shadows minding the crumbs and refuse left behind.
Many more recent riders lack the historical “subway memory” of the 70s when crime, rodents and graffiti filled almost empty cars once rush hour was over.
Certainly, racial profiling can’t be condoned but let’s not “throw the baby out with the bath water.”
There’s good policy behind prohibition of food vendors and enforcement of fare evaders which discourage joy rides.
Unlike Ms Higgins’, some riders have been riding the subway for a lifetime. I have some endearing stories too but I remember when no one wanted to ride the subway.
Be careful where you think the MTA should be putting its money. Repairs. Riders. Resources for the homeless. Yes.
Returning to an unregulated system of yesteryear? Unfortunately, lifetime New Yorkers can’t opt to move back home and out of here, and most of us aren’t those rich people who Ms Higgins thinks don’t ride the subway.
12
On uptown 4, 5 and 6 trains, do all the white people still get off at 86th or 96th street (unless there is a home Yankee game starting), with the occasional dozing white person waking up past his stop with a look of panic when he realizes where he is?
Just wondering if that has changed since 1990? Thanks
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@Jake
Ha, ha, ha! I remember that. I don’t ride the 5 or 6 trains a lot so I don’t know the answer to your question but I would guess that it’s not the same because of gentrification.
1
@Jake it has changed - white people live beyond the 80s and 90s now and anyway there were always students going back and forth from Columbia etc not that much of a demarcation, just lots of expensive real estate on the upper east side only white people could afford or get into to
1
I love the subway!! It's so us. Are you really a New Yorker if you ride share?
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I like the subway. I usually take the local to enjoy less crowding and time to read a book. What drives me crazy is the lack of manners, specifically, people without earphones watching video or music or playing games so we're all forced to listen. It's a public space, not a private living room. I've often dreamed of a civility corps whose job it would be to enforce manners. I don't care about fare beaters, I care about riding in peace.
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As an Iowan who rides the Q and F for a week or two each summer visiting in-laws, this was a perfect description of my experiences and feelings!
9
The current New York subway and buses, not the service itself, but the crowdness and people's behavior, is shortening my, and many others, life span.
1
This reminded me of living in San Francisco as a 19 year old and feeling so mesmerized by public transportation. It opened up my perspective towards community and how to feel connected in just a 5 minute trip. I lost the observer perspective after my 5th year, when the day to day hustle and bustle became a routine. After all these years I will always remember romanticizing about taking a seat on the 47 to Russian or the N Judah to the sunset. This post made me feel like I was relieving my experience. Yaaaaas to that, and thank you.
4
I've ridden the subway for as long as I can remember myself. How can I not love it? It's family.
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The NYC subway is great. Could you imagine the mess NYC would be without it? 5 million riders in cars and buses?
My other hometowns of Denver and Minneapolis would be so much more livable, vibrant, and environmentally friendly if they had followed NYC's lead with public transportation--starting over 100 years ago.
Both cities are trying to catch up now, but it's far more expensive, difficult, and less user friendly to shoehorn a rail system into a built-out city.
That being said, the maintenance and upgrade costs for the NYC subway are eyepopping. Figure out a way to get this done cost-effectively and protect this wonderful asset.
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@Brian
This rarely stops those who would profit from the extortionate and process of building out and maintaining such systems from trying to shoehorn them in to already built up areas.
The Economist had a piece about a city planner visiting the Burning Man festival. He noted that they mapped out the (temporary) roads before anything else is built for the festival, and once they defined the roads they left them alone and did not try to change or add to them...and this works.
This should be the goal of urban planners in established cities - preserve and maximize the value of what you have, rather than seek to add more and more.
1
Yes, wonderful tribute to the BEST behavior of New Yorkers & their indispensable subway. BUT--the author's been riding the rails here for a scant 6 years. I've been living here & doing so for 45 years and have seen & tolerated more than one could ever imagine. And while I still grant the system enormous credit for working most of the time for most of us 5M (!) daily riders, I have to also agree with other writer/riders here that we need the cops--or even more ideally--some type of non-lethal, non-police, social-worker types to deal with the heartbreaking growing homelessness evident both on subway cars & platforms. People are LIVING on cars & platforms. And though the MTA seems to have completely handed off any responsibility & outsourced homeless outreach to nonprofit org BRC ( = Bowery Resident's Committee), all these folks seem to be able to do is try to encourage the helpless, too often angry homeless to leave the premises. NO one ever forces them to do so. A true dilemma for all of us--those who need & deserve shelter & assistance...& us valued passengers the MTA long ago re-labeled as "customers," who need & deserve a safe, clean transit system. If new subway beat cops can improve this situation, bless 'em. Otherwise, what's your plan?
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I realize the NYT has a large local and regional readership. However, her humor is largely lost on the many millions of us who live west of the Mississippi. Folks out here have only movies and TV knowledge of New York subways. They are always portrayed as crime and grime on wheels.
Based on my experience using the New York's and Moscow's underground transit, the latter's is infinitely superior. Yet more proof that just maybe socialism has some redeeming qualities.
1
@Ricardo Chavira yeah forget media portrayals of almost anything: it’s always inaccurate and sensationalized.
The thing about fare beating is that has become completely common place among people who can pay. I see people who don’t look terribly poor jumping turn styles and going through rear doors of buses all the time. And who pays for this loss of revenue —everyone including the poor people who choose to pay so cut this nonsense about it being an attack on the poor.
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@straighttalk Through the back door? It is commonplace now for riders to walk on via the front door and take a seat without paying. According to the NYT, 20% of riders don't pay: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/nyregion/mta-bus-riders-fare-beaters.html.
1
My gift to myself when I retired in 2011 was to nevernevernever ride the NYC subway again. 50 years of unhealthy, extremely unsafe, unreliable travel, with and without children, in and out of rush hour, throughout the 5 boroughs was more than enough of this disgusting mode of travel. The small random acts of kindness never made up for the rats, muggings, floods, gangs, skipped stops, broken escalators/elevators and much much more of inhumane conditions in all weather and at all times of day and night.
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@Zarda
My 50 years of riding the subway and retirement came earlier than yours.
But I held fast to my enjoyment of people and situations.
7
I haven't ridden on a subway or bus since 2015. I prefer Uber or Lyft. I am old enough to remember when the fare was 15 cents and fare evasion was rare. For senior citizens like me, mass transit is to be avoided when possible. But mass transit is a necessity for NYC. The problem is how pay for a fast efficient system, when fares and tolls only account for half of the MTA's $16 billion dollar budget. see https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/nyregion/mta-fares-hike.html
5
@tmonk677 it's people like you not using the subway - that's the problem
9
The subway is essential and reasonably efficient -- but it's also miserable. Overcrowded, overrun with the homeless, dirty, smelly, noisy, and far too hot in the summer. Also unusable by the mobility challenged (how many stations don't have elevators and how many of the elevators we do have don't work).
The fundamental problem is that it's a 100-year old system and even the MTA's grand capital improvement program is just a band-aid (though better than nothing). We tolerate it because we have no choice -- for most of us there is no other way to get around the City -- but we deserve better (e.g., transportation that's clean, comfortable, safe and efficient).
And, yes, the 500 new police officers are a small step in the right direction.
16
Awaiting random acts of kindness is not the best way to restore faith in mankind or the subways. The best moments on the subways come when everyone is headed to the same destination. A Yankees game. The Macy's Parade. The theater District on Saturday evening. July 4th. Halloween. Comic con. The marathon. Rockefeller Center during the Holidays. A concert at Central Park. And on and on.
When everyone in the subway i headed to the same place, it's a melting pot asa things get friendly and the City gets small. That's when the subways are at their best.
9
Having a metro system that is clean, quiet, and reliable doesn't mean it lacks humanity. In fact I've seen more people helping each other out on the subway since moving to Hamburg, a city with a stellar public transit system, than I did in New York City. While there is no doubt that the subways in New York have character, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go away with better service. I miss some things about NYC but the subway is not among them.
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@John Pressman
You moved to a place with better transit. Most relocations within the States would be to worse or none.
1
I see acts of kindness on our subway all the time. People going out of their way to give up their seats or helping others carry suitcases or strollers up the stairs. All from people of different races, religions and ethnic groups. On the NYC subway, people are using Donald Trump as their moral beacon: They are asking themselves "How would Trump treat other travelers?" and without hesitation, DOING EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what Donald Trump would do. These small acts of kindness on the subway give me hope for 2020.
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@Son Of Liberty
The start of a new religion - Trumpism, except the actions of the man who started is an example of all the Don't s, not the Do s.
2
@Jose Pieste not remotely the intention, but that it doesn’t matter, people will help anyone who appears to need or want assistance
2
@Son Of Liberty I love this so much
I use the subway when in NYC several times a year and it's great. Not perfect but one of the few world class public transportation systems in the US.
13
And then my C train goes express once more and the mushy feelings disappear and I want to strangle the anthropomorphized version of the entire system. And it's raining!
13
RIde the subway in Stockholm. The subway in NYC is straight out of a DIcken's story.
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But Dickens stories are so interesting.
13
@Jerry Howe Exactly.
@Jerry Howe and, like dickens, brilliant
3
The New York subway is what I believe the ultimate definition of Americana - the working chaos of multicultural American exceptionalism.
11
It’s a great system. Carries 5,000,000 each day. Nuff said!
20
Nice essay. Only please don’t eat churros or anything else on the subway. Not everyone wants to smell your food and eating on the train attracts vermin.
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This column confirms for me why Maeve Higgins should be a panelist on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" every week. She's quick and funny and says what we're all feeling in the most sensible way possible. Keep it up, Maeve.
18
we come into the city a few times a month and ride the subway most of the time. having public transportation that can take you to places you want to go is so convenient and saves the aggravation of the traffic above ground. yes, public transportation needs investment to improve, but that's the way to go, we need to support it. I think the subway has improved a lot over the years with good signage inside the cars and around the station and the safety enhancement with more officers visible. For a large and densely populated city like NYC, it makes NYC so much more accessible and vibrant. don't take it for granted, riders.
18
A decided relief from Dowd's column.
29
Maeve, this is just the kind of story we need that heals and shows our common humanity. The NYC subway is a social equalizer regardless of one's background. I have always held that most people are decent people and your story proves this. Each of us needs to err on the side of decency in our conduct towards others to make our world better on all fronts. Your story is particularly pertinent in our time of divisiveness and difference. I always love riding the subway on my visits to the City. Continue writing and sharing positivity.
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@Rcoch
is a social equalizer
this is not the aim of any efficient public transportation system.
4
@S.G.
It’s not the aim but it should be one of the positive effects of an efficient public transportation system.
Having the subway be a social equalizer is a good thing.
3
@S.G. But is an important and appreciated effect
1
I hope this article will come to the rescue of the Subway. We read a lot about civility but the system can't be fixed by manners, it needs a lot of billions of dollars. A famous article before this one in the New York Times said: New York was made by the Subway now New York owes the subway its due: disburse that money, rewrite the laws to prohibit the use of transportaion money for anything else, and do it now.
20
Developers of large real estate projects need to do their share monetarily to expand and improve the surrounding infrastructure, as they will be bringing in more people to the area and making good money on their investment. Public transportation is part of that. They need to make a commitment to local infrastructure especially if most of the apartments are market-rate or luxury.
3
What a beautiful article. Finally somebody writes something positive about New York
21
What a great article. My brother from the Midwest visited me recently. We were taking the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan after having walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to lunch in the DUMBO area. This conservative Midwesterner (my brother) and I stood in the packed subway car, with its amazingly colorful artwork on the ceiling. I looked over at my brother, standing there quietly looking about, while the subway car clacked on loudly, and no one in the car speaking, all minding their own business. My brother looked happy and pleased to be in that moment, in this packed subway car, full of a diverse, wonderful group of people. My brother fell in love with NYC during his visit that weekend. NYC and its people are amazing.
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Last Christmas, I packed up some food in my house upstate and took a big shopping bagful on a visit to my son in the city. On Christmas day, I boarded a subway headed uptown. The train gave a lurch and I fell flat on the subway car floor. Everyone in the car got up to help me. Even after I insisted that I was fine, people kept asking whether they could help somehow.
39
Many of the people I know refuse to take the subway.
This system is literally beneath the dignity of New York.
14
The "dignity of New York" - you mean the dignity of those who won't deign to sully themselves by riding the subway?? It's less comfortable than regular life on the subway and chances are you will see many people who have skin that isn't the same color as your own. Maybe that's sufficient to keep the dignified away but the subway is NYC and NYC is the subway.
9
Not being either a subway rider nor an Instagram (or whatever...) user, I don't know which is more amazing, subway civility in today's world or the reach of person-to-person Internet communication...
4
This made my day, what great writing. Thank you!!
27
I'm a disabled 66-year-old New Yorker. I can walk and get myself onto a subway, but one look and you know I'm at a disadvantage. Several months ago, the MTA offered my cohort 'Disabled - please give up your seat' stickers which I refused.
I've never needed them.
Without fail, when I board (slowly) a subway car, another rider stands from his (or her) seat and offers it to me. I never ask because I don't have to.
The unfailing courtesy of New Yorkers of all ages and colors has humbled me.
This is the greatest city in the world.
NOT my president
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@Ninbus My elderly MIL comes home to visit every year and then I am faced with the fact that MTA network is not disabled friendly at all. Being in Europe and now being in NYC shows me how little the city cares about its disabled compared to the red carpet treatment which greets a similarly abled person in lets say Germany. Most public infrastructure takes care about accessibility, all public transport is available to be easily used via ramps and othe rmeans. Elevators work. Is this the greatest city in the world? For whom? For having the most dysfunctional MTA system in the modern world? For having the most unclean Subway system in the modern world? For just not caring about its elderly and the disabled and how they go about travelling? Just stick them in them buses? Man our standards have to be higher.
22
@Ninbus Nice to hear that. I was born and raised in Manhattan, and spent many hours in/on the subway. But I moved away decades ago, and every time I return (for a short visit) the subway seems dirtier, smellier, shabbier. Does it really have to be that way? Things might be different if Andrew Cuomo had to ride the NYC subway.
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@J
I do have to dispute your fairly romantic view of accommodation in European transit systems. I was in Paris in September 2018 and watched in dismay and fear as an elderly woman with a walker struggled to descend the stairs to the train level. At the time I was suffering considerable knee pain (since alleviated by surgery) but even I could manage the stairs up and down.
I use a rapid transit system frequently where I live (not NYC) and am grateful to have both elevator and escalator services.
6
As I read 'mushy', it reminded me of a friend whose dog's name is 'Mushy'. And if a dog, man's best friend, may be called mushy, all goes. You see, the 'subway' is, even if you pay for it's use, akin to a public library, where we all mix in the pushing and pulling and, foremost, an excellent view of what we are made of, and demanding tolerance or, at least, look the other way when uncomfortable. Mushy indeed, however sentimental or cheesy, an equalizer in such an unequitable society.
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