space age

By anders pearson 04 Jul 2001

i went out to a party in Astoria (that’s in Queens for the non-new yorkers) where the street names are designed to cause confusion (all within a quarter mile of each other are 24th ave, 24th st, 24th rd, and 24th Drv. and the streets go from 21st to 18th in a single block. made trying to find the corner of 19th st and 24th ave fun.)

on the way home, i got to ride on one of the brand new subway cars. i was very impressed. the MTA has finally started to catch up with the rest of the world. aside from being a little cleaner (give it a few weeks and that will change), it looks pretty much like the older cars. but they’ve made a few usability enhancements that were long overdue. on the front of the train, the line number was big and neon so you can see it clearly from farther down the tunnel. inside, there were several LED displays by the ceiling that showed the current and next stop. mostly though, i was impressed with the big display on the wall showing the entire line as a series of labelled lights that would turn off when the train had passed that stop. it allows you to tell at a glance where you are and how many stops you have till you arrive at your destination. the text was large and easy to read from pretty much anywhere in the train (no more stooping and squinting to find yourself on the wall maps that other trains have) and showed what transfers were available at each stop. i’d seen this system before on the subways in Hong Kong and i remember being impressed at how easily i had been able to navigate them my first time. for people who live in new york and know the lines, these are probably pretty minor improvements but they should definately help out people new to the city or who have just never been on a particular line before (i’ve lived in nyc for two years now and there are still plenty of places i haven’t been).

i also noticed that the intercom messages at each stop (you know, “this is the bronx bound number 2 express train. next stop 72nd street. please stand clear of the closing doors.”) had been pre-recorded. it always amazed me that some poor schmucks had the job of mumbling out the same damn thing at every stop for 40 hours a week (usually so quickly and muffled that you couldn’t understand what they were saying anyway) and i’d never heard of them going insane and commiting mass-murder after a week on the job.