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No _____ on the Subway!

0109signsubway.jpg

A reader sent us the above photo today, saying "a friend snapped this on the new E train this morning, and no one can figure out what it means. do you guys know?" We asked the MTA and they told us: "A quick check says this is not an icon we use. Looks like the sign was vandalized. And I won’t even hazard a guess as to what it is meant to represent." So what do you guys think this vandal is trying to get fellow straphangers to stop doing?

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Comments [rss]

  • jmegraw

    The warning seems clear: "Do not gamble against the closing doors. The dice will ricochet in a perfectly perpendicular trajectory and embed themselves into your person."

  • NannyState

    No being the second branch of the Madoff Family.

  • ugh

    No "evil eye" to your reflected image in the subway window/door.

  • dough

    No Calder Kinetic Sculptures



    Duh.

  • steuben

    There's a more glaring error: the typeface isn't Helvetica Bold, the MTA standard. Helvetica Regular has a slight serif whose downward stroke of the "a" ends as a stroke to the right. The "[Pl]ease" shows the 'bad' "a."

  • nooyawka

    No quadrilaterals.

  • Bongo23

    Oops, see below Comment Below

  • Bongo23

    I know, it really bugged me too. So much that I had to take a picture. Here you go: DoNotLeanOnDoor.jpg

  • sodapop

    No preaching triangles and squares.

  • setox

    my wife got it... No Brainiac



    GO SUPERMAN!

  • HughGass

    No reinsertion into the Matrix.

  • RevWaldo

    No mental hopscotch.

  • NannyState

    No being the fourth Residence Inn in a six block area.

  • ryansdayjob

    No nucleotide abstractions

  • chopp3r

    No vomiting on self.

  • dbc

    I think it is "no spitting"...I saw this on an E train home tonight, and walked through to a second car and saw the same signs there, in the same spots--pretty sure these are legit MTA-issued signs. The old E trains have signs that read "No smoking, no spitting, no radio playing," so it makes sense to offer a visual representation of those rules. However, this graphic could use some work!

  • cucarachita

    Hey, on that subject (of bad printers), has anyone noticed on the N, R line at least, that the "do not lean on the doors" sign has mismatched fonts on it? I just saw that yesterday, on my way to 49th street station.

  • missmissmiss

    yes! I saw that last night on the Q train. All the 'o's where sideways* and one of the 'a's was bigger than the rest, it was insanely strange.



    *I'm a graphic designer, I know when an o is sideways.

  • jibbly

    Photos please!

  • cucarachita

    It's definitely the no littering sign, with extra lines. It's a mistake! someone messed up at the printer. That's why they look so legit. Because nobody checked before printing a zillion of them!

    Ha! Some lazy ass is gonna get fired.

  • siccer

    It's "Don't Even THINK of Littering."

  • snoopydog

    No using your left hand to point to all the discrepancies in the proposed fare hike financial planning flow chart.

  • Think2wice

    No microchip implanting.

  • bittinho

    No kite flying

  • Future Taliban

    It means;



    "NO CONNECTING ELECTRICAL WIRES TO INNOCENT PEOPLE THEN PUTTING A HOOD OVER THEIR HEADS AND FORCING THEM TO MASTURBATE STANDING ON A BOX WHILE YOU SICK AMERICAN F*CKS TAKE PICTURES TO SEND BACK HOME TO YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER"



    Hmmm, I thought they weren't coming out with these signs til next year..

  • La Leone

    No Spitting. And no littering. And don't even think about that idea of making spitballs, wiseass.

  • CitiesFromSpace

    no six sigma

  • slappy

    What goes around, comes around.

  • Barbj8

    No thinking about littering.

  • endsim

    By the by,

    Reminded me of this: Please... No Windstorming.

    Which was a sticker I saw on the F train in like 1996. I found a pic of it here

  • valeriob

    No boobs on an etch-a-sketch



    this isn't news, kids. This is just a reminder.

  • Spongeworthy

    No hitchhiking across the galaxy.

  • endsim

    No using telekinesis to kill your self with Rubik's cubes.

  • Jen S

    No talkin geometry.

  • feelandtriple

    do not judge or compartmentalize fellow passengers. or at least not out loud. they're just trying to get where they're going, why you gonna be a hater?

  • smitty

    No sending out three-pronged laser beams from your eyes.

  • Kevin Walsh

    Do not put metal in the Time Travel chamber with the bunny rabbit or the island will move.



    www.forgotten-ny.com

  • McNally

    No biting the style of Mayor Mitchell Hundred.

  • PB

    Isn't it "No Littering"

  • javester

    No extra long nose hairs with coagulated boogers on em...



    A stricter interpretation would be:



    No extra long nose hairs with split-ends and coagulated boogers on em...

  • javester

    No extra long nose hairs with coagulated boogers on em...



    A stricter interpretation would be:



    No extra long nose hairs with split-ends and coagulated boogers on em...

  • laker

    This may very well be (**serious suggestion**): No leaning on the doors?

  • zodak

    using telepathy to steal passengers' wallets is prohibited.

  • MrCow

    i like this one

  • NYRefugee

    Best Interpretation Yet Zodak!!! Kuuudosss !!!!

  • I took that photo.



    The stickers were throughout the car and did not looked super legit. Having made a few I know what unofficial signs look like - http://www.instructables.com/id/Look-Like-Your-Enemy-Create-signs-that-confuse-a/



    I'm calling the MTA out on their B.S.

  • agh, I meant "The stickers were throughout the car and looked super legit." Anyway... you know what I mean.

  • myfigurefemale

    but its totally the no littering sign with extra lines.



    http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/citywide/subway/signs/index.htm



    (scroll down)

  • MYSTERY SOLVED! Except, why the lines? but close enough. I can sleep again...

  • barryap

    No Powerpoint presentations.

  • maryjr

    No trash talk

  • RevWaldo

    No SubwayNow ads.

  • Keram2

    No getting tortured on Cloud City.



    (They won't even ask you any questions)

  • SikBug

    No Nazi's?

  • Radtard

    Correction: CYBORG Nazis

  • NYRefugee

    No inflatable priced Metro-Cards !!! Get your Shit together Transit Authority!!!

  • vohrtex

    obviously it is referring to this incident

  • lucyvanpelt

    No three-headed ceti eels.



    (KHHHHAAAAAAAANNNN!)

  • DanielJ

    Looks to me like it means No plugging in to iPod, Game Boy, etc. Basically just pay attention to your surroundings.

  • peanuthead

    no bad/misleading directions.

  • istolethetv

    no using omega beams to vanquish your enemies.

  • The Edge

    Well, someone should have told Batman that last week.

  • Yeah, something along Omega beams, but I was thinking it's like "Don't beam into a mirror and then hit yourself."

  • weenie

    please, no attempting to lick yours or others' armpit.

  • babyhitler

    no fantasizing about eating human flesh and wearing a dress made out of skin.

  • slyseekr

    Please No Projecting Your Geneology

  • Toby von Meistersinger

    No confusing signs.

  • hoodlum

    No projectile vomiting.

  • s-d

    NO READING THE SUBWAY MAP OR POINTING AT IT DURING TRANSIT. OBVIOUSLY.

  • sachalouise

    argh! thank you

  • jchez

    You are correct! Nothing pisses off more riders than having tourists crowd on top of you while they try to read the map on the wall, except smelly winos, of course.

  • gimme

    aw that one is too boring

  • gimme

    no thinking of your next sculpture project because you are just wasting your time and money pursuing your self-indulgent artsy fartsy dreams at art school

  • jackdonaghy

    Don't lean your head against the monitor of the arcade version of Tron?

  • ziggyziggy

    no shitting on people's faces

  • Chilkin Bilskits

    No not having genetalia.

  • s-d

    NO READING THE SUBWAY MAP OR POINTING AT IT DURING TRANSIT. OBVIOUSLY.

  • TK

    No Auxiliary Percussion

  • whitecastlerock

    no snitchin'

  • citizenerased

    No taking photos of other people sleeping you fucking weirdo

  • MFer

    No theremin.

  • lucyvanpelt

    Yes, agreed, but that's one complicated theremin. What's that third antenna for? Time travel? Does it come with a tinfoil hat?

  • TK

    agreed, winner.

  • ganghiscon

    Winner.

  • snoopydog

    If you turn the icon on its side it reads "no ipods."

  • Ronnie Dobbs

    No putting the base of your newborn's baby crib mobile that you just bought at babies r' us in your mouth and then pointing at it as if to say, "look what I'm doing!". Keep it in the box and wait until you get home.

  • ides_of_march

    No self-critical awareness or introspection.

  • mx0

    it means "Please, no visualizing flow charts or org charts"



    or "No presenting"

  • Cybert



    No talking to yourself or invisible partners too loud?

  • ganghiscon

    No plugging the computer chip in the back of your neck into anything on the train?

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