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Early Addition
The Straphangers have released their latest "Subway Schmutz" survey, and the verdict is the subways are dirtier for the first time in five years. The drop in cleanliness (currently 61%, down from last year's 66%) is attributed to MTA cuts in subway cleaning crews. The recommendations the Straphangers make are for the MTA to:
(1) set a high goal for cleanliness (95% or more cars having no or "light" dirt);The Straphangers also note that the MTA's internal audits of the system show a decline in cleanliness; the MTA said they were unhappy with the Straphangers' and their own results and hope they can make improvements. Gothamist wonders if the MTA would be interested in giving people plastic gloves and bags in train cars, because when we see newspapers strewn on the floor, we're tempted to pick them up and throw them out...but we don't want to touch them. Also, if the NYPD is really increasing its presence in the subways, why aren't they ticketing people for littering?
(2) produce more timely information on cleanliness (use hand-held computers to do the surveys, whose information could be updated in "real time"); and
(3) post the results of its surveys where riders can see them (give line by line information).
Anyway, the dirtiest trains are the 1/9 trains (14% clean) and the cleanest is the N train (86% clean). Here's the PDF of subway car cleanliness, plus another table of dirtiest to cleanest subway lines, and the always enjoyable methodology for the survey ("light dirt" is "Occasional “ground-in” spots but generally clean" and "heavy" means "Heavy dirt; any opened or spilled food, hazardous (e.g. rolling bottles), or malodorous conditions, sticky wet spots, any seats unusable due to unclean condition"). Here are stories NY Times and
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I just have to know: who came up with that headline? I'm smiling and groaning all at the same time!
That's a picture of the N, isn't it? The 1/9 is narrower than that. Mmmm, nice clean N train. Makes me proud to live in Astoria.
Actually, it's a picture of a V train, but those train cars are interchangeable.
And, Jason, sadly I am the one who came up with the headline. We were discussing a variation of "You're a dirty, dirty subway... you need a spanking" but it was getting complicated.
Perhaps if commuters would take it upon themselves not to throw their (literal and figurative) crap around the trains, we could stem half the problem. I know, I know, the CHUTZPAH of asking New Yorkers to give up their sovereign right to trash their own city. I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to risk the inevitable injury after I ask that heat-packing princess if she REALLY can't walk five feet to the trash can outside the train to throw out her sandwich wrapper.
just this morning, i saw some guy throw his deliwrap paper on the floor and kick it under the seats on the F train. i stared at him for a bit but, really, who wants to risk an altercation over someone being a litterbug? it's gross and pisses me off but i'm not willing to lose my life over it.
by the way, i was on the F train coming in from brooklyn today when it was diverted over the G line because a woman was in labor at b'way/lafayette. any news on that? that's one diversion i'm not pissed off about. but i wonder how that mother feels giving birth in the subway. at least the F train is 54% clean.
Man we should do that survey on all commuting trains.
Does Gothamist support leaving your clean and slightly used newspaper (metro, times, amny, post, ...) on the seat for a future sitter to read and reuse?
I do that all the time, both in the leave behind and pick up manner. I don't want to offend, but I also don't want to kill more trees.
I've confronted people who have littered in our city (though not in the subway that I can recall). Possibly dangerous to do, but I wish more people would do it....
The leave-behind-newspaper-for-others-to-read thing is an interesting question.
peter, more often than not, your newspaper ends up on the floor with all the rest of the litter. i think that it's best to put it on top of the trashcan in the station. i know that if there is a newspaper on an empty seat i put it on the floor. i NEVER read the newspaper because i always have a book and i damn well am not going to pick up after all the litterbugs in this city. that would be a fulltime job and thensome.
I leave and take newspapers on commuter(choo-choo)trains but not on the subway.
I saw a guy take his food wrappers, ball them up, and then toss them out the door onto the platform as we pulled away from Pacific street the other day. Cleaner car, dirtier platform.
And I certainly did not confront him in any way; he was big guy!
While I think people should pick up their Crap , I think the MTA might want to rethink where they make cuts...
i once looked at a guy (not a glare, just brief eye contact) who was dropping a pile of peanut shells on the train and as soon as i looked at him he jumped up and threatened to 'cut my head off'. he seemed perfectly willing and capable of doing that. be careful engaging litterbugs... apparently they take the right to litter very seriously.
i see people reading left-behind papers all the time. i think it's good to leave them for the next person but it would be nicer if there were racks for people to leave reading materials in the stations like they do in tokyo. then again, maybe new york isn't responsible enough to be trusted with such a system.
Back in College, this big guy suddenly threw a candy wrapper on the floor right in front of my seat. I blurted out "pig" and he picked it up. The funny thing was: I swear, calling him a pig, it just jumped right out of my mouth!
We just stared at each other for a second (I was just as surprised as he was!). He picked it up without comment and got off a few stops later.
The willingness of New Yorkers to trash their subway system is mystifying.
I grew up in Japan and I always figured dirty subways were an American thing, but I rode the Metro in DC and was just amazed at how spotlessly clean the trains were. Coming back to my East Broadway stop where the tracks double as a trash can/rat colony was like night and day.
I agree that there's probably a New Yorker mentality. I'm not surprised that N trains were the cleanest - I used to ride the N from Ditmars Blvd, where trains get mopped before turning around. I don't miss the commute but I miss the clean trains.
Yeap us New Yorkers are sloppy bastards aren’t we.
The amazing thing with Japan is that there are no trashcans, anywhere, on most of their subway systems, yet its the cleanest system there is. But can’t they put just 1 Trashcan, for us foreigners? I never litter there but it would make life alot easier.
I'm amazed they didn't say anything about the stations, which have also gotten noticeably filthier of late.
I'm not sure leaving a paper on the train is ever a good idea, given how easily they fall apart. I'll leave a fresh paper in the deli or bagel shop, but usually not the train.
Does anyone think there's a variation of the "broken window" theory regarding train cleanliness? In other words, the train's already dirty, who cares if I throw my Egg McMuffin wrapper on the floor? Not that it's right, but it shows that the problem is two-sided; one, people need to be neater, and two, the MTA needs to make keeping the system clean a higher priority.
wow, the G train did so well! it's a big day for that line...
As for why Japanese trains are cleaner, a part of it is the culture - it's rude to eat while you're walking or on the train, so food wrappers don't make it there in the first place. They have vending machines on platforms but most people use the recycling bins next to the machines.
These idiots who go around looking for sleeping clerks at 2:30 in the morning could instead take pictures of subway high-trash spots and submit it to the MTA. Or to the press. I think this would be more useful.
Thx Toyo. They never cease to amaze and impress me.
Oh but taking pictures of trash is not as fun as taking pictures of Sleeping Clerks on the job, Especially when they wake up mid-pic and become enraged.
I just came back from a family trip in DC too, and my mother can't stop commenting on how clean the DC subways were, why can't we keep them clean, etc.. and I guess it's because it's just not that important to enough people. I'll keep doing my part to keep trash off the ground, and that's all I can do (because i'm not up for getting cut over a gum wrapper).