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The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

nytimes.com

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Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#221

Post by olau »

majewsky wrote: post #219
CalRobert wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say "strangely" but if you spend enough time cycling you'll start thinking that the idea any other mode of transport is faster through a city is strange. It's incredibly frustrating to see governments spend literally 100 times as much money on a rail system as they could on a decent bike network that moves just as many people more equitably.

If a city invests heavily in a bike network instead of a rail system, what happens on rainy days? I imagine that most people would be reluctant to bike to work through rain, and would thus try to fall back to car or rail, thus drastically overloading those modes.

You could put a roof on top of the bike network?

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#222

Post by s3nnyy »

mpweiher wrote: post #220
majewsky wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whenever I travelled back to Berlin, I wanted to hug the BVG employees. #weilwirdichlieben ;) And of course, everything is relative. German trains are fairly punctual (although there is this famous saying, "the German railway has four enemies: spring, summer, autumn and winter"), but Swiss trains are even more punctual. Not sure if it's true, but I've been told that when the trains depart at Zurich Central at the t…

Absolutely. Public transport in Switzerland is awesome . Not just because of how well it works, but how it is accepted by all . Bankers in Zürich hop on the tram just like everyone else.

Also, millionaires and politicians use the public transport. But it is unfair to compare Switzerland with other countries due to neutrality, history etc.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#223

Post by frabcus »

majewsky wrote: post #219
CalRobert wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say "strangely" but if you spend enough time cycling you'll start thinking that the idea any other mode of transport is faster through a city is strange. It's incredibly frustrating to see governments spend literally 100 times as much money on a rail system as they could on a decent bike network that moves just as many people more equitably.

If a city invests heavily in a bike network instead of a rail system, what happens on rainy days? I imagine that most people would be reluctant to bike to work through rain, and would thus try to fall back to car or rail, thus drastically overloading those modes.

Gortex is very good these days...

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#224

Post by eanzenberg »

s3nnyy wrote: post #222
mpweiher wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Public transport in Switzerland is awesome . Not just because of how well it works, but how it is accepted by all . Bankers in Zürich hop on the tram just like everyone else.

Also, millionaires and politicians use the public transport. But it is unfair to compare Switzerland with other countries due to neutrality, history etc.

Also strict immigration policies.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#225

Post by s3nnyy »

eanzenberg wrote: post #224
s3nnyy wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, millionaires and politicians use the public transport. But it is unfair to compare Switzerland with other countries due to neutrality, history etc.

Also strict immigration policies.

It depends. Immigration for passport-holders from EU-countries is hassle-free and takes around 20 minutes. (The Swiss are very efficient.) Switzerland has agreements with the EU and can't just deviate from them. In exchange Switzerland can export stuff cheaply. I moved here four years ago, started working as a programmer and now I run a tech recruitment agency. So, I bring people into the country for a living. If you need help with moving here, please reach out to iwan@coderfit.com. Read more in my Medium.com post here: "Eight reasons why I moved to Switzerland to work in tech" https://bit.ly/2JxSQPt

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#226

Post by vvillena »

majewsky wrote: post #219
CalRobert wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say "strangely" but if you spend enough time cycling you'll start thinking that the idea any other mode of transport is faster through a city is strange. It's incredibly frustrating to see governments spend literally 100 times as much money on a rail system as they could on a decent bike network that moves just as many people more equitably.

If a city invests heavily in a bike network instead of a rail system, what happens on rainy days? I imagine that most people would be reluctant to bike to work through rain, and would thus try to fall back to car or rail, thus drastically overloading those modes.

Bikes still work on the rain, you only need to dress up a bit. Extreme heat is way more problematic.

As you said, it's more of a cultural problem, that can be solved. If we accept that motorbikers need lots of specialized equipment to ride, we can accept that cyclists need a couple bits of extra clothing every now and then.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#227

Post by cylinder »

eanzenberg wrote: post #224
s3nnyy wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, millionaires and politicians use the public transport. But it is unfair to compare Switzerland with other countries due to neutrality, history etc.

Also strict immigration policies.

Way to subtly blame immigrants for shitty transport.

I assure you it’s not immigrants running NY subway and the MTA. they’re not the corrupt politicians pilfering funds away from it either. It’s not immigrants who think they’re too good for the subway so they grab Uber everywhere and have no vested interest in public transport.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#228

Post by lr4444lr »

slededit wrote: post #173
lr4444lr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get out of bed with such pessimism? Rome faced existential threats from German and Persian invaders, as well as multiple imperial assassinations and civil wars. At the core of it, New York City simply has too many people on an old, straining infrastructure. And yes, though there are a few people who grow ever richer and a bloated City and State bureaucracy which are problematic, but there is also an enormo…

New York has almost the same number of people as it did in the 1950s. You can't blame this on population growth.

https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/New-York-City-...

And the 2020 estmate has already been exceeded. Please check and cite your sources before making claims.

Also, I never said raw population size was the cause, but that it was the combination of a larger than ever population on an aging infrastructure. Lots of what is still crucial to daily life in NY, in particular the subways, had 60 years more usable life in the 1950s.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#229

Post by piva00 »

somberi wrote: post #189

Many readers have quoted the superiority (rightfully so), of Moscow and Tokyo subway systems. Both these systems operate from around 5am till midnight (approx). NYC Subway operates 24 hours. These few hours downtime, make a huge difference with respect to maintainability and upkeep. These 4 hours each day adds up to ~60 full days of maintenance window. Maybe NYC can stop the late-night services for a year or so and I…

What stops NYC to do what any other city in the world does and just run a replacement bus line for the lines under maintenance? Even more if it's during the night, run a replacement bus close to the same stops as the stations and shut down the line.

Or isn't NYC Metro card integrated between different modes of transportation?

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#230

Post by piva00 »

dx034 wrote: post #213
tokyoguy wrote: post #143

it's frustrating to read this thread and watch people make excuses for NYC . NYC is not special. Tokyo has old subways 3-4x the stations and 10x the riders. They manage to rebuild , change tracks, build new ones and generally do the maintainence and upkeep required to keep it running well and on time. NYC's issues are entirely about politics and leadership and nothing to do with anything unique to NYC que more excuse…

NYC is unique in that they are one of the few systems running non-stop. Any maintenance results in delays. Other large systems (Tokyo, Moscow, London) shut down most nights. Those 4-5 hour windows can make a lot of difference.

As I mentioned in another comment: what stops NYC from running replacement busses while one of the lines is under maintenance during the night? A bunch of cities do that, for example Berlin, I don't see what stops NYC from doing the same...
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