The Most Inconvenient Commute Contest!

Not so much a commute as run for the hills but, booked Carmel LAST week to JFK online and then when the strike hit, spent a total of 2 hours on the phone trying to confirm only to get busy signals or their cloyingly polite message which I can now recite by heart. "WELCOME to Carmel..." Got through six hours before the car was due (at 5AM), confimed with the nice man about a dozen times and had a nap. Peeked outdoors with my luggage at the go hour, saw that 96th street was a parking lot of taxis looking for fares, called some more then was informed "We have no car for you".

I hung up, without cursing them out (which I much regret) sprang outside, two cabs swerved away from me when they saw my bags, the third came and we had a spirited shouting match/banter about what the actual flat fare to the airport was, but as the clock was ticking, I took his "offer" of 100 bucks. Which he had to take me to an ATM on 125th to get. In the cab I called my family and told them they better have eggnog and a foot rub waiting. They didn't. Ingrates!

I wouldn't call my commute horrible, but it was definitely tiring and far. I walked from southeast Park Slope to Manhattan, ran into some friends with a car at Grand and Bowery, rode with them up to 21st. Walked from 21st to return some library books at 40th and 5th. Then went down to Kinko's at 20th and Park Ave South and class (the whole point of all of this walking) at 14th and 6th. Spent the night in the village and walked home from 11th and B today (got a little lost and ended up going down Smith Street until President).

my commute has only been about a mile and a half across brooklyn, which is nice, but what is not nice is the state of work for the past 3 days. i work as a high school teacher in the public schools, and since the strike began, i've had a TOTAL of 6 students (i usually see 125+ a day). my school is not a neighborhood one, so students usually make a long treck there from the rockaways, bushwick, bed stuy, etc. the schools are empty and it's ridiculous that the city even held school in many instances. what a waste of time and now kids are going to be screwed for the regents seeing they lost a week of instruction at a crucial point in the school year. not to mention i've been close to stabbing myself in the temple for days because i've been sitting in an empty room for hours on end!

Stayed at work an hour and 45 minutes late to catch a ride with a coworker from MoMA back to Brooklyn. Began Operation Exit Manhattan, which lasted an hour and a half and included, but is not limited to: ten minute wait at Central Parking on 54th; multiple utter traffic standstills surpassing five minutes; angry cabbies laying on horns for extended periods; being cutoff several times, blocking our car and all the cars behind us from an empty street; being sideswiped by cab #2C94 (fucker); stalled car in leftmost lane at 59th. Sailed over Queensboro Bridge. Got lost in LIC several times, took roundabout back roads to Bushwick, arrived home in a cool two hours.

I love the MTA.

A coworker left his house at 4AM to WALK the 15 miles to the warehouse. He made it on time.

I worked from home.

I'm self-employed & work from home. I got up, ate breakfast, and walked up one flight of stairs to my 3rd floor office. Hey! No muss, no fuss, no bus.

I left the city tuesday morning via nj transit. i am sitting in new jersey for the holidays now, and if the strike is still on when i get back... i'm not going to be happy.

I guess this really isn't a work commute, but this is what I did for the girlfriend last night: I walked from lafayette and canal to 26th and 6th to meet up with her at a bar she was at. From there we took a cab to 70 something and madison at which point i watched a large portion of the small amount of money i recieved from selling overpriced textbooks back to NYU disappear. Then from there to where she lives in the 90's (How a rich girl decides to date someone as poor as me i'll never know), more of my very small sum of money gone. I left her place about midnight to go back home to lafayette and canal, by the time the cab had gotten into the 20's i just told him to stop because I couldn't afford to have him go any further, and then i enjoyed my lovely walk in the cold home. I love you mta. Now get the subways running or I have no idea how I will make it to JFK for my flight on friday.

I walked from Greenpoint across the Queensboro bridge to Midtown, a 4-or-so mile walk that took from 10 to 11:30. But when I got to the office, it was closed. I grabbed lunch and walked back home, maligned.

clinton hill, brooklyn to 77nd and Madison. on foot. it was fun once, but to do it again would get old quite quickly.

The TWU needs to end this illegal strike as soon as possible. The MTA
actually GAVE UP the 55 year retirement requirement. They GAVE UP
the 1% contribution to health care. They were willing to give the workers 11.5%
over three years. The deal was so good that the TWU's parent organization
advocated taking the deal!



Look, I respect the transit workers for doing a dirty and sometimes dangerous
job. But sanitation workers do dirtier jobs and get less. Police have more
dangerous jobs and their new hires get a lot less. I'm a teacher and I need to
get a freakin' Masters' Degree to stay in the school system and I get less.



The sad fact is that Toussaint realized that he had to strike or the threat of
striking would cease to be a weapon for Local 100.



The only good thing that could come out of this is that Local 100 is doomed
if they don't stop the strike. Their assets will be gone and if 1980 is any
guide if they ever do go back to work, they will lose dues check-off
(automatic payment of union dues) and will be sunk. And the longer this strike
goes on, the more transit workers will see any potential gain eaten up by the
Taylor Law. So, perhaps 100 will die and I won't ever have to bike over the
bone-freezing Manhattan Bridge ever again.

regular commute: subway from 190 to broadway-lafayette, 45 minutes

today: wait in my house until the guy who is supposed to be driving calls me. He calls 30 minutes after I wanted to leave, and tells me he's not driving. Thanks. Walk out the door (broadway + 196)with my husband and within a block are offered a ride ("we need 2 more!") we keep walking because we are meeting another person from our failed carpool. The three of us walk down broadway until we get to 125th. Another co-worker calls to say that she took metro-north. We turn on 125th and walk the 9 crosstown blocks to the train station. We get in line for tickets. There is a policeman telling us to buy our tickets on the train, so we head up to the platform. A train is pulling up, so we jump on and squeeze in. Nobody comes by to take our money. We get to Grand Central in about 10 minutes. Walk over to Fifth Ave and straight down to 17th, where I say good by to my husband, then I continue down through washington square park and the NYU campus. Finally get to work, total time: 3 hours.

So who wins?

NYPL--pretty smart plan. gotta hand it to them librarians. they're brainy. I personally got the hell out of dodge at 6 this morning. Boy was I lucky.

I walked to work today all the way from 13th Street to Irving Street. Oh, wait, I live in DC now.

i live on water st. and hanover sq. way downtown. i work on 59th and lex. this morning i biked up there, freezing my ass off only to get to my building and have the building management disallow me entrance to the building with my bike. i a) didn't have a lock with me and b) refused to use their unmonitored bike rack to stow my shiny (non city proofed yet) bike all day. after listening to my boss ream the management for twenty minutes i decided to give up the ghost and go home. rode back, got home, only to find an email from my boss saying that after an hour of arguing the management finally agreed to let people bring their bikes up the freight elevator. what crapheads. so basically jack resnick and sons ( http://www.resnicknyc.com/ ) can go f\/[|

best workday ever... library employees from the three systems were instructed to go to their nearest branch to ensure continued service. so i walked about three blocks AND got to come home for lunch and the library users in my neighborhood are pretty nice. thanks, twu!!

walked to flatbush lirr station. waited 1.5 hours in line for a ticket that was never looked at by anyone. took a nap while taking the lirr to jamaica. 1.5 hour wait in the snaking line outside of the lirr station. took lirr to penn station, walked 25 blocks to the office. 4.5 hours total. i'm a chump. should have just walked.

My final exams were postponed until after winter break, too. Thanks for giving me the buttest Christmas ever. Can't wait for vacation so I can start RE-STUDYING for all these goddamned tests that I was planning to take tomorrow.

My personal fav: heard a union rep on the radio this morning attempting to contextualize this strike as the natural expression of what Rosa Parks stood for and that it was, in effect, the only reasonable way to honor her legacy and recent passing.

The net effect was a particularly fumbling example of ideological piratetry reminiscent of the Bush administration. I hope the TWU's efforts to position this strike within the context of the evolution of the noble workers struggle succeeds beyond their wildest dreams and accelerates the conversation to it's inevitable conclusion: this is not the 19th or 20th centuries and they are not fighting for basic human rights. The unions today are little more than sedentary bastions of protectionism & cronyism. Damn, retire at 52?!?

1.5 hrs to work.

bmici, could explain that again in your first language? It might make more sense!

What??? Didn't ANYONE use their TomTom device???

There are so many jabs from bikers to pedestrians, and back and forth. The MTA should use the surplus to build bike lanes in the city, so that people aren't so dependent on projected budgetary deficits. The city would have to seize this surplus in order to provide a public service. Ultimately,bike lanes would be the start to subsidized education because there would be fewer jobs for people with GEDs and less money would be spent on energy from the grid.

I can't say whether there would be fewer or more pricks in the city, but they would at least be subsidized pricks.

I had to get from Rockaway Park to the Maiden Lane. Had three cab companies tell me some insane price and reminded them that they were only able to charge me $10 and they hung up on me. Green Buses were operating and took one to Ozone Park to catch another one to another one to get to the LIRR station in Jamaica. When I got to Manhattan, I had to wait for an NYPD bus that was provided by my agency (I'm a DoITT employee), and had to ride down to 1 Police Plaza and walk to Maiden Lane. Total Time: 4 Hours.

to the tool who wrote about universal health care. Look at our government ... do you honestly think they can effectively manage a health care system too??? As an example, go to the UK, look at everyone's nice smile and ask yourself if you prefer to have teeth like that?

I live on 14th and work on Wall Street... I MapQuested it and thought it would take me well over an hour. Ended up only being about 45 minutes, longer than the train but not a big deal. My co-workers from Astoria, Williamsburg, Park Slope, Midtown, West Chester, UES, UWS, Cherry Hill, NJ and BOSTON all made it in no problem.. which leads me to believe that TWU should take what MTA offered them becasue their strike isn't as crippling as anticipated... besides, picketting is very similuar to their day to day, they are just going around in circles so they might as well get paid for it

Won't go into details of my commute (pretty hellish, but it was partially my fault for bad decision-making) or who's right/who's wrong in the labor dispute (c'mon, do any of us REALLY know what's going on behind the scenes?) but I will say this:

Eryximachus, if you hate this city and its people so much you would do well to go back to whatever barnyard/kennel/freakshow you came from, you racist scumbag.

(...Damn! Wy must I always feed those trolls!?)

Telecommute? Do you realize how few companies actually have that ability? How does the restaurant worker telecommute? how does the bank teller telecommute? etc... etc...

Wow. Thanks to the Water Taxi folks for NOT doing anything.

No stopping at Fulton Ferry?!

They couldn't change their winter schedule?

From a business POV, it seems like they could make a nice chunk of change on an event like this.

I live in the East Village, work in midtown, best commute is to walk down to Houston to take the F from 2d avenue. 15 mintutes on the F if there's no delays, half-hour if it's delayed, which tends to be two days out of five.

Walked to work today. Took half an hour.

My god, I can walk to work in less time it takes the F close to a third of the time.

For this kind of service the MTA wants more money?

I was sympathetic to the strikers until I realized this.

Normal Commute: M60 from LGA to 116 & Broadway - 60 minutes

Today: walked down Astoria Blvd to the Triborough Bridge, crossed the bridge on foot (no press, no crowds; great sunrise), walked around Randalls Island for a bit - had to ask for directions; they hadn't yet posted signs on how to access the bridge to get OFF of the island - crossed that bridge to 125th street. Walked to 125th & Madison. Tried to wait for company shuttle. Realized other people had already waited 40 minutes, kept walking. 125th to Amsterdam to 120th to Broadway. - 2 hr 45 minutes

I made better time than the folks in my office who carpooled.

It was weird; I was hot from the walk - I kept having to remove layers - but the bottle of water in my coat pocket froze.

Bicycle from Crown Heights to Hell's Kitchen via Brooklyn Bridge: one hour and fifteen minutes.

Pedestrians walking three abreast in the bike lane: priceless!

I think I'll take the advice read here and use the Manhattan Bridge on the way home.

Fact Checker.. Are you suggesting we structure our retirement plans to benefit certain races over others? While your point is noted, and lower income families without access to health care do have lower life expectancies, the MTA is an equal opp employer. Also, it's fairly evident that their health care is at least decent. So the facts you're trying to use to support your case don't apply.

Structuring a benefits package geared towards certain members over others (on any factor, race, salary, ...) is illegal in most cases..

My point simply is that the facts of the day 40+ years ago when pensions like this were first created and those of today are not the same. An employee entering the workforce now (aka "the future" that the political shysters want to protect) should know better than to expect the same coverage as our grandparents did pre ww2. Huge companies are going out of business and/or defaulting on their pensions, and to think the MTA is protected from this by a measly 1 bil in surplus is pure ignorance.

Has anyone mentioned the MTA is 22 billion in debt? Or that pension benefits are for life and the projections for "the future" have to go out 60-100 years?

The politicians are trying to make this into a simple "you have a billion that you should give to us" game. and it's not. Go spend 10+ years and get a PhD in economics, so you’ll know what you’re talking about before you try to throw facts at us again.. please

Sleigh, flying reindeer, 5 seconds. 'Nuff said.

peter:

Although the average life expentancy has lengthened, it is significantly lower for people of color and those who have grown up in low-income families without access to decent health care and nutritious food. The average life expetency for black men in the U.S. is 65-68 (depending on what state you look at). Do these men deserve 10-15 years of retirement, especially if they have been doing manual labor for 20+ years? Yes!

I walked less than 60 seconds outside in the cold b/c I live next door to where I live.

You live next door to where you live? That's so...meta :)

I live in Jersey and the commute to work at the corner of Houston and Broadway usually takes 1.5 hours. Today, completely forgetting about the strike, I tried to take the usual route (drive to the GWB, take the shuttle across, take subway from 175th street to work). First of all, there was a 1 hour delay getting to the bridge. When I finally realized that the subways weren't running I had to drive to the nearest NJ Rail station and take it to Penn Station. From there I had to walk 30 blocks to work. Total travel time: 4.5 hours. Sweet.

I walked less than 60 seconds outside in the cold b/c I live next door to where I live. the longest part of my commute is the elevator ride. Thank god the elevator unions never strike.

Did anyone get the Water Taxi at Long Island City? I'm wondering if that's an option for me tomorrow...

I just drove for four hours. Brooklyn was murder. Don't go near Ocean Parkway. Once we hit the expressway, it was pretty easy. Manhattan Bridge had a lot of traffic, but it was all moving well. Once in Manhattan, it was like any other day. So a long, boring commute, but not exactly hard. If it means busting the union, I'll deal with it just fine. TWU is just as corrupt as the MTA, and I don't fancy doing all this just because the TWU leadership is in the middle of a bunch of pissy in-fighting.

Brooklyn is home, Hoboken is the office. I packed my bag and got on my bike, rolled to the Brooklyn bridge where our Borough President Marty Markowitz was cheering people on through his bullhorn, "Goodmorning, Brooklyn we'll get through this, Happy Holidays". The bridge was half filled with commuters, the other half photographers and camera men. Manhattan was free of cars!! Woo hoo. I got booted from not one but two PATH stations for having my bike with me, and caught a ferry to Nojoken Hoboken; and nobody is here.

Brooklyn is home, Hoboken is the office. I packed my bag and got on my bike, rolled to the Brooklyn bridge where our Borough President Marty Markowitz was cheering people on through his bullhorn, "Goodmorning, Brooklyn we'll get through this, Happy Holidays". The bridge was half filled with commuters, the other half photographers and camera men. Manhattan was free of cars!! Woo hoo. I got booted from not one but two PATH stations for having my bike with me, and caught a ferry to Nojoken Hoboken; and nobody is here.

Anonymous1: yes, it is running from WTC to 33rd -- but you have to go through two stops in Jersey first, presumably because there is no direct PATH track between the two locales.

At least that's what the PATH website is saying.

Today is probably the only day that Hoboken may inspire a little jealousy - I hopped on the Path and walked a few short blocks to work. No biggie.

Seriously though, the Path has some good options. In case there are folks downtown walking up, I think the Path is running from the WTC to 33rd - it may not be your entire commute but it's cold and shorten the walk some.

(We live in a country where 40 million people have no health insurange and the TWU is whining about a 1% contribution for new employees. Gimme a break, they should decertify the union and hire all the workers back with wages commensurate with private sector employees"

Actually we should switch to a system of universal health insurance. Not only should everyone be entitled to this but, then, we would never have to worry about that issue effecting labor discussions, and causing a strike.)

Here's someone who understands. Understand this -- the TWU benefits from the uninsured, because its members would have to pay higher prices or higher taxes if the uninsured were covered by their employer/the government. That's why the unions don't push universal coverage -- why pay for others to have something they already have? And why the union movement has split -- into unions with health coverage and rich pensions and those without.

I woke up at 430 am checked the news, looked at the temp. at 17 degrees, called into work, and changed my voicemail then went back to bed. My bike has two flats, and there is no way in i was HOOF'n from red hook to columbus circle. did it once during the black out won't ever again...

what's the deal with water taxis and Fulton landing ???

(Really, picture yourself, working at 62, underground, going up and down the dusty subway system?)

You bet I picture it. Only half of all private sector workers have any retirement plan at all, and most of those have a 401K will less and less contribution by their employer.

Slavery time? When current TA workers are retired at 55, everyone else will be slaving away to serve them while they kick back.

Since I went to bed around 11am waiting to hear any info I was a little groggy this morning at 3AM when my boyfriend told me that yes there would be a strike. I packed a bag of some clothes and all the christmas presents I had bought and we headed for the car. We drove through brooklyn then staten island and finally ended in Jersey city where I took the path. I got off at 33rd street (Manhattan Mall) and walked to 43rd and lex needless to say I arrived at 6:45am 3 hours early for work.

I can't say i want to work at 62, but I can also see how it's harder for the MTA to pay for benefits when people are living 30+ years beyond retirement age. When this style of retirement system was first put in use, people lived till 60-70 max.. Now 80-90 is normal. How can people expect the same money (2%) to cover 30 years when it was originally for 10?

I had to walk one meeelion miles to work on the mooooon!

Gotta say, biked down 5th Ave today and it was GREAT. Cold, but great.

Why don't they shut down 5th every day? Ambulances were getting through in seconds, so were emergency vehicles, and there were lots of buses. Seriously, during rush 5th Ave should be limited to those vehicles. That'd be a great lesson to take from this.

To HURRAY: the MTA backed off of the 62 retirement age. They had agreed to keep it at 55.

******TODAY HAD TO BE THE WORSEEEEEEEEE DAY EVER TO HAVE A STRIKE FOR THE MOST PART I WOKE UP AND REGRETED THE PATH AHEAD OF ME I COULDT BELIEVE THAT I WAS GOIN HAVE TO MAKE MY WAY TO WORK WITH OUT USING A TRAIN OR BUS,, AFTER A QUICK BONG HIT AND BOWL OF FRUITY PEBBLES I WAS OUT THE DOOR RIDING MY 1978 ROLLER SKATES HANDED DOWN TO ME , I SKATED FROM METROPOLITAN FRESHPOND TO BEDFORD AND METROPOLITAN WHEN IT HIT ME WAIT I DONT HAVE A JOB!!!! =0)

I picked the right week to come New York for the holidays.

Really, picture yourself, working at 62, underground, going up and down the dusty subway system?

Is Bloomberg realistic? Do I want a ride a train conducted by tired ol 62 year olds? We are in the year 2000, not back in the 1950's slavery time...

I always ride my bike so today is like evry day, except at night will miss the movie, and the friend I was supposed to see.

I hope there is a realistic negotiation,. But hey did I get it right? Do these guys have to pay their benefits basically out of their raise?

The MTA surplus should be reinvested in the system. There's not much for employees to do if a fire in a switching room full of 100 year old equipment shuts down an entire line, is there?

walked from yankee stadium to columbus circle in about 1hour and 45 minutes. Pretty much unenventful I don't know how I'll get back home.

I think the workers are going about this wrong. 50 to 60K is alot more than alot of other hard working people make. And frankly the MTA employees I've dealt with have been downright nasty so they should have some displinary oversight. Then again if the MTA is sitting on a billion dollar surplus some of that should be reinvested in their employees.

Rode my bike from the LES to Midtown East, like I always do. Thank goodness it's not going to rain this week.

And as for pedestrians walking in the cycling lanes -- if you want to take things into your own hands and run the risk of getting hit by a bike, that's your problem. Bike lanes exist for a reason, you know.

Could have been worse, could have been better.

At work they arranged a carpool but the poor woman has to drive from all over Brooklyn picking up five people before crossing into Manhattan. Traffic was horrible, but as soon as we got to the bridge then onto FDR it was pretty quick. I was an hour late today so we are getting an early start tommorrow.

Toussaint is a tool. All my final exams are rescheduled for the winter intersession. Nice fucken vacation.

20 minutes door to door on bike from 110th to 56th. Faster than when the trains are running! Hmm...

As for the TWU... Those workers make a hell of a lot of money with that GED. Maybe we should all retire at 50. No, that won't cripple every municipal and federal program.

Here's a nominee for stupidest commute of the day, walking 2 miles downtown to take a bus 4 miles uptown:

Yvette Vigo, a Citibank employee, was waiting for a company-run shuttle bus that would bring her from Wall Street to 42nd Street. Her teeth were chattering despite a hooded parka and gloves.

"I'm not happy about this," said Vigo, who had walked a couple of miles downtown from her home on the Lower East Side. "It's too cold to walk this far."

Ha...you mo-fo.s have it way too easy - Battery park to Times Square...Childs Fucking play. I don.t have work today, but it.s my girlfriend.s last day in the city and we we.re supposed to throw a christmas party.....so I.m walking from 200th street all the way down to Fulton. Maybe I.ll catch a car at 96th, but fuck man...I.m going to kill someone.

Cyclists, please use the Manhattan bridge. It is MUCH better for cycling, and there is less pedestrian traffic. The Brooklyn Bridge is TERRIBLE for cycling at any hour. Bikers who complain about pedestrians in the bike lane need to get a clue. No one pays attention, that's just the way it is. I'm a biker, and I hate it too - that's why I stick to the Manhattan bridge.

gabyu - "Every year" in france? Don't you mean "every week"?

Why do American unions never consider the type of one-day muscle-flexing work stoppages you see in Europe all the time, anyway?

Walked from Greenpoint to Wall St over the W'berg bridge. Not too cold if you dress right and keep moving. It took about 1 hr 20 mins. But I think tomorrow I will be "working from home".

What I can say however is the behavior of the people on the BRooklyn Bridge was extremely prototypical of the selfish pricks who inhabit this city. Hundreds of people were walking in the bike lane even though there really weren't many people on the bridge, compared to a typical summer weekend day.

deal with it, Eryximachus...not everyone is accustomed to walking in designated lanes, and people tend to naturally walk to the right. would it KILL you cyclists to walk your bikes across the bridge for a day? I really think pedestrians take precedence today.

Chris Johanesen:

boo fucking hoo.

this union needs to be broken. they do not deserve more money. there would be plenty of others including myself that would be willing to take their job!

We live in a country where 40 million people have no health insurange and the TWU is whining about a 1% contribution for new employees. Gimme a break, they should decertify the union and hire all the workers back with wages commensurate with private sector employees"

Actually we should switch to a system of universal health insurance. Not only should everyone be entitled to this but, then, we would never have to worry about that issue effecting labor discussions, and causing a strike.

6:00--gypsy cab from 207th St. in upstate Manhattan to Penn Station, shared with two people we picked up on the way. $20 a head. Some absolutely silent guy, and a Swiss woman who just spent her first night in the city--welcome to NY!

I'll be taking Metro North home and back and forth as long as they are running. I'm 75% on the side of the MTA workers and 25% on the side of the MTA management--both sides have their points but the people with the crap jobs breathing fumes and soot all day win my vote for most agggrieved. Unfortunately, I think Bloomberg et al. is going to break the back of the union no matter what it takes. I think the union could end up settling for less than they were offered last night, and that's truly unfortunate.

My normal commute is the 9:16 LIRR from Forest Hills to Penn Station; 16 minutes. Today I walked over a little earlier, there was a half empty train waiting that left as soon as I took my seat. I was at work early today.

Bloomberg needs to secede from the state, take control of NYC Transit, fire the workers, and start from scratch. Then we re-instate the commuter tax, and charge Pataki, Bruno, and Silver rent for all the bullshit they drop in NYC.

really easy commute. Just walked from Upper West Side (W74th) to midtown.

No one is saying that the TWU employees work is not valuable and no one is saying that TWU employees should not have decent wages. However, what they are asking for is absurd. We live in a country where 40 million people have no health insurange and the TWU is whining about a 1% contribution for new employees. Gimme a break, they should decertify the union and hire all the workers back with wages commensurate with private sector employees.

Well, today I stayed home, but I can't afford to use all my sick days on this strike. I live in Alphabet City & work in the South Bronx. My NORMAL commute is bus to train to bus and then a five block walk. My options for tomorrow are:

1. Walk to Grand Central, MetroNorth to Yankee Stadium, have a colleague with a car pick me up at Yankee Stadium. Harder, but cheaper.

2. Walk to 23rd, meet another colleague who lives on 18th St., share a cab to 87th to meet two other colleagues who are carpooling. Easier, but more expensive.

I'd like to add that I am very disapointed by the headlines in the papers today. Don't you all think the Post let us down with the lack of creativity? If I am going to walk 97 blocks to work, I want a great headline to great me there.

We have same every year in France. It's not a big deal !

I was looking forward to biking to work (Fort Greene to Penn Station), but since I own a minivan, I became the Brooklyn Shuttle for my coworkers. In two hours I drove from Fort Greene to East Williamsburg to S. Park Slope to Park Slope to Brooklyn Heights. The Manhattan Bridge was empty of traffic - we couldn't believe it.

I am in full support of the TWU. If all this surplus money should either go to fare reductions, infrastructure maintenance, or to the workers. MTA executives are some of the most notoriously crooked fuckers around. I can't stand all of the racist/classist jerks who complain about the strike. The workers provide a valuable service, and they should be able to raise a family with their wages, just as teachers, police officers, city workers, garbagemen, etc. Are some of them lazy, bad workers? Of course! These people exist in every profession. But that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a modest degree of financial security for blue collar workers. Just like in South America, it's time for the working class to take a stand.



Go TWU. I'll keep driving 2 hours each way shuttling my coworkers for as long as it takes.

"The extent of our inconvenience should highlight the value of the service the MTA workers provide."?

That's actually very true, but I must admit, I've never thought of it that way. I suppose the value of Mass transit could be given a Dollar amount based on how much alternative transportaion costs.

2 hour walk from Prospect Lefferts Gardens to Houston and Broadway. Probably could have gotten a ride, but decided to go for it.

Holy fucking shit, it's cold.

Woke at 6. Out the door by 6:30. Walked from Cobble Hill to 42nd and 5th, so about six miles. Got to work five minutes late. Passed Marty Markowitz (put down your bullhorn), saw Bloomberg (I blame the MTA and TWU equally for this), and wrapped my head up in a scarf and fedora to avoid the news crews and the never-ending line of people taking pictures. Met some nice people. (Met some crazy people.) Almost run over by bikes about four times. (I'm sorry I was in the bike lane, but we'll see if I die alone, buddy.) Best of all, got a cute guy's phone number, and we're meeting at a (nearby) bar after work!

The extent of our inconvenience should highlight the value of the service the MTA workers provide.

I started walking from my place in the East 80's going to Bowling Green. Around E. 35th St. some shuckster was yelling "Water Taxi" and for a little $5 fare, I'm in my cube. Sometimes, by subway ride is longer.

Ran from Park Slope to midtown, about 8 miles. Very suprised how few bikes I saw on the Manhattan Bridge at 6:30am. I can handle it for a couple of days, but not sure I'd be able to handle several weeks of this.... 80 miles of running per week? I'd be up there with the Kenyans ! Keep the strike going, and I'm going to the Olympics ! The sweaty pile of clothes in the corner is also stopping people coming over to my cube.... nice.

Living in Brooklyn, 10 minutes from my job, makes for an easy commute. I am sitting at work, with nothing to do, becasue no one is coming here today. However my worry is for the LIRR. I may be taking the train back home for the holidays this thursday, and if it's anything like it is today. That's gonna suck.

i was going from 14th and 8th to 60th and 3rd...so i knew i had a trek. i saw a group of business people standing on the corner of 14th and 8th piling onto a private coach bus provided by their company..so i figured i would try to blend in and pile on with them..but they kicked me off, so i walked across to 3rd and took a cab from E23rd to 60th...i bet if i got ahold of some crutches people would pick my sorry looking ass up...if it's still on tomorrow i'm taking my longboard.

I live a 30 second walk from the 242nd St. station in the Bronx. Normally, I hop on and it's a straight shot down to Midtown West. But today, the station just mocks me.

So, instead, I am walking from 242nd to 225th, passing 3 subway stops along the way (all unwelcome to me), to take the Metro North which will take me to Grand Central, and from there I have to walk to Rockefeller Center. And the elevators in my building are being repaired, so, it's a walk up 50 floors of stairs for me. OK, the last part was a lie, but I'm inconvenienced big time!

FU, TWU!

nothing like some French Chocolate for christmas..

If I ever meet somebody in a bar who says they maintain a photoblog, I'm going to punch them in the throat.

I rode the bike into work today from Park Slope into Midtown. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience. Cold, but not bad.

What I can say however is the behavior of the people on the BRooklyn Bridge was extremely prototypical of the selfish pricks who inhabit this city. Hundreds of people were walking in the bike lane even though there really weren't many people on the bridge, compared to a typical summer weekend day. The huge numbers of media types, the endless parasites that perpetuate and glorify human suffering, was shocking.

I wanted to slap Marty Markijew and his filthy grandstanding.

Yes, this city sucks and most of the people here will live miserable lives and die alone and forgotten.

I suppose Non-drivers in two fare zones have it the worse.

Me, I'm lucky: As long as my Broadband works, I Telecommute while I listen to Corrinne May's "Fly Away" Album. You can hear her latest Album here

Highly recommended...

Try walking 34 blocks and 8 avenues from the UES to Julliard with a cello on your back and a backpack on your stomach... yes... i really wish i played the flute instead right about now.

Maybe not the worst, but challenging. I'm getting ready to walk out the door in Washington Heights (187th) and I have to go to W21st for work. After work I have to walk on down to Chinatown to catch my Bus to DC for Christmas! Total miles walked today....12!

Toussaint and his band of union thugs should be jailed. The workers are barely skilled and are as replaceable as a Bic pen. Eventually they will all be replaced by robots. They are but cogs in the machine. They will be crushed.

Note to TWU members... shoulda paid better attention in school and get a real job.

Telecommunting will make this illegal work action a moot point.

Fine 'em. Jail 'em. Fire 'em.

Homer Fink

Publisher, Altruist, AMERICAN

I actually had a nice easy walk - FROM BATTERY PARK TO TIMES SQUARE! Is the TWU board in jail yet?!?!?

Flaming City - I'm staying home, too (though I'm clothed). I can work from home without a problem and plan to for today, at least. I feel for the people with presence-intensive jobs who had no choice but to show up today.

Ha, some guy being interviewed on channel 7 about his feelings on the strike just said, "this union doesn't take any shit."

IMO, the big story about the citywide "experience" of this strike will undoubtedly be telecommuting.

Ha, I have you all beat. I wrote an email to my boss saying that it was too cold to bike in and then I went back to sleep. I just woke up and walked to my dining room table to "work from home". Now I am emailing away while listening to NPR and drinking nice tea, all of this in my birthday suit.

Under-reported facts about this strike:

1) The TWU has enormous internal dissent, and the need for competing leaders to act tough is one factor that created the strike. Note the head of the national union refusing to back the strike. He and Toussant are from rival factors.

2) The TWU was granted a huge pension enhancement, outside collective bargaining, by the state legislature in 2000, a big factor in the MTA's fiscal problems. As after 1966, the MTA wants to make up for richer benefits for those cashing in and moving out cutting pay and benefits for future workers. This cycle has repeated itself several times.

3) Based on my anectdotal observations, the average TWU memeber would estimate the pay of the average worker, the share with health insurance, and the share with pensions to be much higher than it actually is.

It was kind of a pain, and very cold, to ride my fixed-gear bicycle from SoHo to 72nd and York. The real kicker was I had a 9AM meeting so I had to wear nice clothes. Toussaint can kiss my ass.

Bring in the national guard to drives buses!

Sure, I had to talk from Second and Houston to Houston and Bowery, and wait a couple of minutes for a cab there, but once I was in the cab, traffic flowed freely, and we dropped off and picked up with regularity. Hell, when one of the passengers (willingly) tried to overpay, the cabbie refused, saying "too much!" Sure, it cost me $15 rather than $2 to get to work, but no problem at all.