In their latest batch of subway car advertisements, a sign clearly illustrates that it is “the right thing to do” when you get up and give your seat to a person with diabilities.  Plus, IT IS THE LAW.  Oooooo the law.

I think SUBWAYblogger’s policy on the whole seat issue has been well established.  However, to sum it up, if you are spry enough to drag your ass down the stairs from street level, stand in the 100 degree heat on the platform waiting for the train, and navigate the flood of people getting on/off the train, you’re good enough to stand.  If you failed any part of that scenario, you probably didn’t make it on the train alive.

There’s a very rare group of exceptions to this rule, so chances are you won’t see me giving up a seat.

But that’s not my point.

Back to the signs.

Is it not a bit presumptive that every person with disabilities wants a seat on the train?  If you’re sitting in once of those specially noted seats, you’re obligated to get up by L-A-W.  Doesn’t that cause a certain level of indignity to be bestowed upon these people?

It’s like asking the woman in line at the grocery store when the baby is due only to find out that she’s not at all pregnant.  Oops.

Isn’t getting up to let the guy with the cane sit down the same thing.

“Hey you with the gimpy leg, come take my seat so I don’t get a ticket from the humanity police.”

You actually see it happen a lot with old people.  A guy sees and old lady get on the train and dives out of the way so she can have his seat.  She is totally ok with standing, but now you’ve just pointed out to her that she clearly looks to ancient and frail to stand there on her own.

It’s all just a lot of politically correct bullshit.  If someone truly can’t manage to stand, all they need to do is ask for someone’s seat.

This app is freaking awesome.  Just another reason I have to get an iPhone.  I’ll have to steal my buddies phone and install it on there so I can play with it.

According to the website, it doesn’t look like it is out just yet.  It seems they are waiting for Apple to approve it.

You’ve got to watch the video to see how it works.

So now that we have a $2.25 fare, your pants just got heavier.  How so?  Well, if you buy a single ride with a $5 bill, you’re going to get back two dollar coins plus 3 quarters.  Awesome.

God help you if you paid for it with a $20.  That’s 17 dollar coins plus 3 quarters.

$20 bill goes in, 20 coins come out.

Granted, even a few days ago, it still would have been 18 dollar coins…but still.  It’s pretty insane.

The bigger problem is going to be the little old ladies that have to break out their coin purse full of nickels to get up to the 25 cents.  You know there ain’t no damn way grandma is going to break another dollar if she doesn’t have to.

At least the machines don’t take pennies!

For the first ever SUBWAY Monthly newsletter, I’m thinking of creating the greatest list of subway riding tips ever.  I’m not sure how I’m going to aggregate it just yet.  Or even how it will be arranged.  Luckily, I have a lot of ideas.

For one, I’m going to reach out to as many transit experts as I can to see what they have to say.  I’m hoping I can get some pretty big names.

Secondly, I’m thinking of aggregating great tips from riders like you.  If you’ve got a good tip, let me know using this form.  It will send an email directly to the SUBWAYblogger team for review.  If we like your tip, you’ll get full credit in the newsletter.

These transit tips can include things like maximizing your MetroCard usage and bonuses.  How to time the perfect ride and hit all of your transferrs.   Where’s the best place to wait on the platform for the train?  Are there such things as “free rides.”?  Etc.

Use this form to submit your tips for SUBWAY Monthly. If you’d like your name or website linked to with your tip, be sure to include your info.

If you’ve got the scoop, we’ll make it known and give you full credit.

Anyway, that’s just one of the ideas we’re working on.  I think it could turn out to be pretty awesome.  Of course, only subscribers (free) will get a copy!

I’m predicting that we get our first sustained heat not this week but next week.  This week will be the last week of the nice mild weather.   I’m just going on a hunch that next week is going to be the official beginning of the balls hot weather.

Of course, I have absolutely no scientific data to back that up.  It’s just a feeling.

As with everything on the subway, I get really jumpy when things go too well for too long.

Being able to leave home without a jacket and not sweat my ass off on the platform is delightful.  But I’m used to only being able to do that for a few days a year.

Now, remember SUBWAYblogger’s three day theory.  It takes a full three days for the temperature underground to totally catch up to the outside temp.  One day of 98 degree weather won’t do anything down below.  We need three back to back days in the mid eighties for it to become totally unbearable underground.

I’m really not looking forward to the heat in the subway this year, not that I would any year.  This year particularly though.  There’s a really distinct smell of urine ripening at my stop that just gets worse by the day.  I can only imagine what the heat is going to bring.

There’s clearly some homeless guy that keeps making a daily deposit there because there’s no way that one quick piss could be persistent this long.  That ammonia smell is getting pretty ridiculous.  It’s almost to the point where you can taste it.  I’m considering walking all the way to the other end of the platform from now on.

Anyway, mark my words.  Heat’s a comin’.

This morning’s snow really pisses me off.  I was totally getting into the thought of it becoming spring.  Even on Friday, it was really nice.  You barely needed a jacket.  Then, wham!  All this snow.

It’s total bull.

So it should make this morning’s commute a gem.  Actually, what will really be interesting is when it all starts to melt and flood the tracks.  That will be really pretty.

In the immediate sense, all we have to deal with is falling down the stairs as you enter the subway.  No biggie.

Unfortunately, the subway stairs have these metal plates on them that have diamond patters cut into them.  They also have a somewhat abrasive texture to them.

In wet conditions, they work pretty well.  It adds a little traction to what are otherwise tile (freaking stupid) stairs.  However, when it snows, the metal plates tend to cling to the snow.  Under foot traffic, snow gets tracked onto the stairs and then gets packed into the textured plates.  It builds up over time and then gets really slick. 

Since the plate itself is metal, it gets really cold really quick so it tends to hold the packed snow very well.  Makes for a joyous time getting in and out of the subway.

We’d love to hear more about YOUR adventures this morning.  Hit up the comments.

It’s sort of Rubik’s cube like.  Maybe not.  It’s sort of hard to describe, but I will try.

Basically, you have to move your “train” from one end of the puzzle board to the destination.  Along the way, you can only travel on your own line (color).  Meanwhile, there are other trains in front of you that must be moved out of the way for you to pass.

So on each board, it gets more and more tricky.  Eventually, you have to start thinking multiple moves ahead of time.  The app is just $2.99.  Personally, I’ve bought many games for my iTouch.  A lot of them I play for a while and then never go back to.  There’s a few, like Tetris, that I play all the time because they never get old.  Subway Shuffle is another one, and not just because I’m riding the subway while playing.

There’s 84 levels which I have come nowhere near finishing.

How many levels have you beaten?

Welcome to Monday boys and girls.  Get back to work!

It’s going to be cold later this week.  With the exception of a quick spike to 42 degrees on Tuesday, it is going to gradually get colder.  Friday, we could be looking at a high of only 13.

I for one say GOOD!  I’d like to go at least one winter this week where I don’t regret my choice of outerwear.  The temperature lately jumps and falls more sporadically than the stock market.  It makes planning your clothes for the day difficult.

You’ve got to factor in that the subway platform and train is going to be warmer than the plain outside air, right?  So you try to do your best.

You don’t want to have a heavy coat on only to get down to the platform and need to peel all that off before you stroke out.

You go outside expecting it to be cold only to find out it’s not quite as cold as you thought.  Then you’re standing there sweating your behind off.  And you know, you never want to be that a-hole with the giant parka on, taking up all the extra space.  People can’t get by you because you’re trying to stash away your mittens without dropping your coffee.

So outside it will gradually get colder and so will the platform/trains.  Don’t forget your hat!

Photo Credit

Times Square Wishing Wall

Shockingly, the Times Square subway station was not really crowded at all today around 3pm when the area was being closed down for tonight’s festivities.

Generally speaking the Times Square subway station is always crowded in the middle of the way.  It gets even more so when there’s a major event going on up on street level.  It actually can get a little overwhelming.  If feels like a flowing river almost.  You get stuck in a mass of people moving one way, and you have to strategically move into the proper flow to get where you’re going.

But as always, even the worst weather never keeps the insane revelers away.  Even complete downpours won’t scare them off.  So a little cold and snow certainly won’t.

Sometimes I think how much money you could make selling flasks to people as they come out of the subway on New Year’s Eve.  Think about it.  You could probably get $20 per flask of rum or whiskey easily.  Just buy boxes of $5.00 flasks and cheap booze, and go to town selling.

Ehhh…I’ll stay in this year.

If you can think of any others, please drop them in the comments.

I think cellphone reception might be my first choice.  Then again, the simplicity of everything being nice and clean would be a great change of pace.

Of course, most of these are just pipe dreams.  Maybe there’s still hope.

Turns out it’s not just the homeless guys that pick up the tossed Metrocards to try and to use the leftover values.

The Post reports that Georgette DiFini, an F line resident of Brooklyn, regularly picks up discarded Metrocards.  She claims that roughly 40% of all tossed cards have at least some money left on them.  Not enough for a ride though.

You might be asking yourself how on earth would anyone be left with anything less than a whole dollar on their Metrocard.  Well, it’s that tricky 15% bonus you get on any fare purchase over $7.00.  If you get a $7 card, you’re going to get bonused $1.05.  That damn $0.05 is going to carry over.

The MTA says simply refill your card to use the leftover bonus.  So in this case, you’d have to add another $0.95 to cover the remaining balance of a $2.00 fare.  It’s like the MTA is getting their ideas from the crack dealer’s handbook.  Get just a little taste extra to keep them coming back.  The $1.05 isn’t worth a damn thing.  They’ll need to spend another $0.95 to be able to use it.

Anyway, this woman finds these cards everyday. How many you ask?  Try around 45 a day!

The then takes her loot up to the tokenbooth to rollover the balance onto her card.  She’s making about $10 a week she says.

Not a bad idea if you don’t mind fighting the bums for their finds.

What happens to all the “change” that never gets used?  The MTA keeps it of course.  That change adds up to about $4 million a year.  That’s a $4 million donation New Yorkers make to the MTA a few cents at a time.

Without further adieu, we believe it is time for our annual public service announcement for tourists visiting our fair city for the holidays.  Here goes:

Get Out of the Way.  Thank you.

To harsh?  I think it is short and too the point.

First, you must wait for passengers to get off the train before you try to get on with all your shopping bags.  Yes, you will see other people doing it, but those are experienced New Yorkers that know when they can jump on a train early.  Do not attempt it yourself.

Stopping at the top or bottom of an escalator is not ok.  Take at least 10 steps off the escalator before you try to turn around and look for your friends/family.  Stopping at the top to put your mittens on will guarantee that you get mowed down.

Yes, he’s touching you.  Those other people on the train are going to be in your personal space and probably touching you.  Get over it.  Or take a cab instead.

Ask for directions ahead of time.  Waiting until the last minute to jump out of your seat and run for the door is not cool.  Pay attention to the stops, and don’t be afraid to ask someone.

If your 20 blocks or less away from your destination, just walk.  I know…exercise is not what you are used to.  Trust me, it’s not that far.  No need to pay the $2.00 for a ride and crowd the trains even more.

Last but not least, keep moving or get out of the way.  There’s very little area in the city (approximately 13 square feet) where it is ok to just stop and stand still.  So always keep moving.

Good luck.

Where the hell did all these cars come from?  There’s no room in the garages, and there’s no room to park on the streets.  I drove around for an hour before I found a space.  It’s insane.

Makes me glad I don’t actually own a car in the city.  I don’t know what I would do if I had to deal with this crap everyday.

Now if only we could get the subway to run up state, I’d be in much better shape.  Instead, I’ll be battling the girdlock alert day.

I did see bleachers set up along the parade route already.  They have a bunch right outside my work subway entrance.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

These are apps that you will find yourself using on a pretty regular basis, especially if you spend a lot of time traveling around New York City.

These links will open up iTunes on your computer automatically.  From within iTunes, you can see what the apps look like, and see all their features.

Now when you’re out in the Village on the weekend, you can easily navigate your way back home!

Tube New York is a superb interactive guide to New York’s Subway, Path, Staten Island railway & Air Train services along with an informative central New York street map.

With no need for a Internet connection Tube will display a clear scrollable detailed map of these transport systems uniquely overlaid onto an informative central New York street map.

Tube can calculate the quickest routes for all your journeys on these public transport systems and show a fantastic animated display of your route on the map.

Full details of your routes are provided including line changes, platform directions, direction of travel, number of stops and accurate journey times. The New York subway services change dependent on time of day and the user can select from 6 different schedules (Rush AM, Midday, Rush PM, Evening, Night and Weekend).

When an Internet connection is available “Live Information” on the current state of the transport systems can be viewed (and automatically saved for future reference) allowing you to plan your journeys in advance and avoid any potential delays.

Quick station search and station information such as disabled access and fare zones are just a few taps away.

A wealth of other information on places of interest, hotels & restaurants, museums & galleries, entertainment etc is also provided along with details on the nearest stations and the quickest route to get there.

With the iPhone’s inbuilt GPS system you can find your position on the central New York street map and easily locate the nearest station or place of interest.   A must have for anyone traveling in New York.

$9.99

The Kick Map is designed is to get more people to ride New York City’s subway system. Created with clarity and ease of use, it allows riders to navigate this vast system easily and without uncertainty. The subway map is the key to understanding this most complex subway in the world, which has 26 separate lines and 468 stations.

A well-designed map not only welcomes and empowers novices to use the subway but also encourages additional use for regular “home-to-work-only” commuters to use the subway for recreational destinations where they might otherwise take a car. For this reason the design of the subway map can directly influence ridership numbers and can indirectly have an effect on New York’s traffic congestion and pollution. In short, a better-designed subway map will make our subway system more open and accessible.

$1.99

The iPhone game Subway Shuffle is a collection of puzzles set in a subway system. You have boarded a car on the Red Line, and your task is to reach your destination. The problem is, there are other subway cars in your way! Each subway car can move only on its own color line: the red cars on the Red Line, the blue cars on the Blue Line, etc. Can you shuffle the cars from station to station, eventually moving your own car to your exit station?

Subway Shuffle comes with 70 different layouts, of increasing difficulty. The early levels are fairly easy. They help you learn the techniques you will need to solve the later levels — which, though simple looking, are surprisingly challenging.

$2.99

iTrans NYC Subway – Tell us From and To, and we’ll get you there.
Using a sophisticated algorithm, iTrans finds the fastest route between any two stations taking the current schedules into account, then guides you step by step. It even works when you’re offline underground.

Search – Find any station with a few taps.
Search is easy and instantaneous. iTrans shows you the lines that service each station, as well as the borough the station is in (New York City only). Select a station and iTrans scrolls right to it on the map.

Schedules – Tap on a station to see the next trains.
If you tap on a station, the Stop Info Pane shows the next departures for each line. Leave the office at just the right time to catch your train, or see which lines are running right now.

Maps – Beautiful offline high-res maps
Scroll around the interactive system map in stunning high resolution. Pinch or double tap to quickly zoom in or out—graphics are always sharp. It’s by far the best way to view the system map on iPhone.
Maps and Location Integration.

Go to a station in Maps; find nearest stations.
Tap “Show in Google Maps” to go directly to that station in Maps; it’s great for getting from your final stop to the destination. iTrans also has a Location button; it’ll find the nearest stop and scroll to it on the map.

Advisories
Info about delays and service changes.

$4.99

CityTransit is a comprehensive guide to traveling through New York City. It includes official subway maps licensed from NYC’s MTA, line data, a GPS-based station finder and live service advisories. An expandable architecture will allow the future download of bus maps, commuter rail lines and more.

-Integrates with the Maps Application to show nearest stations
-Live service advisories from the MTA website

$2.99

NYC Subway Maps – You ride the subway and want to be able to check a map from time to time. Being able to check the MTA website on your iPhone/iPod Touch is great, but if you are already underground with no signal you are out of luck.

Mapped New York’s underground with original illustrations, and many users feel they are easier to ready than the MTA’s own.

$2.99

Since our last post about NYC Subway maps (back in 2006), there’s been a lot of new ones, and some improvements to the old ones.

• Gypsy Maps – A Google Maps mashup of the subway lines.  Nicely color coded and information about each station.
• On NY Turf – Similar to Gypsy Maps, but is actually the original Google Map mashup.  Also includes the PATH trains.  Available in many languages because the people that need the maps most are often from outside the US.
• MTA Trip Planner – The MTA finally got off their butts and put together a route planner.  They also teamed up with Google to get it done.  They also offer a widget for you to put the planner on your own website.
• Public Routes – A Hop Stop like site that offers routes and maps for transit systems all over the country, including NYC.
• Hop Stop – One of the more commercialized subway and transit mapping systems on the web.  Put in your location and destination, and Hop Stop gives you the detailed directions of how to get their including subways, buses, and good old walking.
• iPhone Map – One of a couple iPhone subway maps.  This is one of the better ones, and it is free.
• iSubway – Another iPhone subway maps.  A bit more simple.  Just an image you can download and save to your phone.
• DadNab – An SMS based subway direction service.  Text your location and destination to get directions txt to your phone.
• Trips123 – Subway and transit maps from around the country, including NYC.  Also has up to date information about on going construction and incidents for each subway line.

Do you have one to add to the list? Let us know!

At Columbus Circle, they had a bunch of them printed up and set up at the main entrance.

In case you don’t know already, the MTA has set up a Metrocard that automatically refills itself when the balance gets low.  It’s kind of like an EasyPass for your car.  Once your MetroCard balance gets down to $30, it will aautomatically refill itself with $40 more.

For the pay-as-you-go crowd, this is probably a great idea.  It will certainly save you time, and you’ll never really have to worry about refilling your card again.  I only wish they did the same thing for the monthly unlimited cards.  They should have one that automatically renews itself each month.

Anyway, this is the first time I’ve seen the MTA set up these little sign boards to promote a new program.  Wonder if it will make a difference.

I can only imagine how long the lines are going to be tomorrow.  There’s going to be way more people than anyone expected voting tomorrow, so I thought this idea might be good for 2012.

Just like the report cards, have people pick up their official ballots on their way in to the subway.  You can still have it be official where you have to be registered to get a ballot.

Then you take your ballot with you on the train.  While you’re waiting on the platform or riding, you should have plenty of time to fill it out.  All you need is a No. 2 pencil, and you’re all set.  Then simply deposit your ballot when you get off the train.  Maybe that’s too open to fraud?

Ok, so instead checking in at the registration table before you get a ballot, you do it after.  So everyone who gets in the subway gets handed a blank ballot.  Then when you get to your destination, you take your completed ballot to the registration table.  If you’re on the roll and your info checks out, you can deposit your ballot in the box.

Or if all else fails, put big blue and red dots on the subway turnstiles.  Swipe through the blue turnstiles to vote for Obama.  Swipe through the red turnstiles to vote for McCain.  (Something tells me there’d be a log jam in the blue lanes.)

When was the last time you were waiting on the platform for what seemed like an eternity only to have the next train blow right past you?

I’ve witnessed it a lot lately.  At least 3 times in the last 5 days actually. Luckily for me, I was already on board the train doing the bypassing.  So my local train got to run express for a few stops.  Honestly, it feels awesome.

It totally sucks though if you’re the one on the platform.

Sometimes, the trains get so backed up that there are massive gaps between trains.  So, the train dispatchers instruct the trains to skip stops in order to catch up and spread the load out.  It will slow down as it approaches the station and beep the horn in two short bursts.  That’s the sound of you getting screwed.

In most cases, there’s another train a minute behind the one that just blew past you (like they say in the announcements).

Have you witnessed it a lot lately?

PHOTO CREDIT

Anyone have the new automatically refilling MetroCards that the MTA released a few weeks ago?

It works like an EZPass almost.  You fill it up with $40, then when the balance gets low, it automatically refills itself (aka charges your credit card).

Sounds convenient if you are a pay-as-you-go rider.

As you know, SUBWAYblogger is a monthly unlimited user.  Unfortunately, this program doesn’t work for those cards.  I wish it did.  Just bill me the $81 and call it a day.  Then again,  I guess that’s sort of how TransitChek works.

I didn’t stick around long.

Shockingly, the subway was not at all busy.  This morning, I asked a transit cop if the entrances would be closed.  He said yes, but they were all open when I got there.

I didn’t stick around for Usher’s performance, so maybe it got more crowded then.  Overall, wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

It’s all for the “NFL Kickoff” celebration tomorrow featuring performances by Usher, Keith Urban, and Natasha Bedingfield.

There’s an enormous stage taking up the width of Central Park South.  The stage is set up on Columbus Circle facing down CPS toward 5th Avenue.

However, all of the Circle will be closed to traffic and much of it to foot traffic tomorrow.  Streets all the way up to the 60′s on Broadway and Central Park West. And all of Central Park South from Columbus Circle to 5th Avenue.  Insane!

It’s going to make subway traffic in that area interesting.

The Columbus Circle subway is a complete disaster as it is right now from the never ending construction.  So I don’t know how they plan to handle all of the afternoon commute traffic.  The concert starts at about 3PM and ends by 6:45p.  So the rush should be fun.

Getting in and out of the half open stairways, half width platforms, etc is going to be epic.

Remember back in June when we were talking about how cool it would be to have train cars without seats (aka standing room only)?  Yeah, guess what?

They’re doing it!  (Read Here)

In about 6 months, retrofitted cars will hit the rails as part of a pilot program.  Among the trains involved in the pilot program, 4 out of 10 cars will be the standing room only cars.

These cars will have all flip-up seats.  Back in June, one of SUBWAYblogger’s commenters suggested that the seats lock in the upright position during rush hour.  Then, at other times, they could unlock, and people can sit down.  Well, that’s exactly what they are going to do!

Apparently, the Straphangers Campaign thinks that the public will oppose the seatless cars, but I couldn’t disagree more.

The seatless cars allow 18% more riders during rush hour.  There will be less jockeying for position as well because certain people (you know who you are) won’t be battling for seats.

Can’t wait to find out what lines are involved.

I like to stand right on the very end of the train by the door that leads from one train car to another. I find that you can get lean on the door a little and the door to the little conductor cab. You know?

It’s a nice area because rarely (if ever) is there any passenger traffic to contend with. You can lean there in relative peace and quite without having to constantly shuffle while people get in and out.

Of course, I rarely bother getting a seat because when I do I get the hairy eyeball from the old ladies. So I always stand unless the train is very empty. So good standing space is hard to come by.

Unfortunately, this spot is often taken, and it can be hard to reach on a crowded train. Also, this is not a spot to stand if you only have a few stops to go. You don’t want to be that a-hole that has to climb over everyone to get off the train. So it is best for longer rides.

You should also be a little careful if you choose to try it. Sharp turns and jolts in the track are magnified on the ends. The ends of the trains have the most left to right movement for the riders, so you could get slammed into the wall you are leaning on if you aren’t careful.

What’s your favorite ride spot on the train?

There was no waiting whatsoever for me today. I got to work early, and got home ahead of schedule.

I’m always a little afraid when that happens because it usually means that the rest of the week there will be no trains at all.