Subway emergency exit alarms, those screeching reminders that people would gladly trample over the elderly if it meant getting out of a subway station 2 seconds faster, have been put out of their misery after nine years. No one is sad.
The MTA has been phasing out the alarms for awhile now after being inundated with complaints from riders—they had already shut off 450 of the exit alarms, those closest to station agents, by last summer. "Our customers have been quite clear in displaying their annoyance and letting us know that the alarms really were the number one annoyance for them as they travel through the system," an MTA spokesperson told WNYC.
A NY Times report earlier this year found that straphangers who regularly took the subway were exposed to around four hours of blaring alarms each year. But thankfully, we can enter 2015 without any fear of subway tinnitus: the vast majority have now been shut off, and the last lingering ones will be gone very soon.
So celebrate tonight by shaking your fist at the turnstiles and heading to the emergency exit. Push the stroller of your imagination through the gateway of a new year. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose hearing.
