AMNY Subway Tracker

Port Authority scare: Man causes bomb scare -- and pandemonium -- at the Port Authority today. [amNY]

Deadly day: Two dead in scaffolding accidents in city, including one at Queensboro Bridge. [amNY]

As good a time as any: MTA starts planning ahead for the needs of New York in 2030. [amNY]

Map this: Gothamist starts rolling out interesting subway maps; the first looks at links between trains and development in the city. [Gothamist]

We have nothing to fear but hype: Good comments on yesterday's FDR post here and here.

-- Rolando Pujol

Dr. Robyn Gershon, the lead author of a deafening new report that subway rising is bad for hearing, recommends people wear ear plugs.

When asked what she does, she said, she used to wear ear plugs all the time, but stopped last year. Why? She authored a study on violence and accidents in the subway and was very disturbed by all the incidents of people being pushed off the platform by psychos.

Subways also present a special concern with respect to crime, although public perceptions about crime are often out of line with actual crime rates, which generally have been dropping. Observes Dr. Gershon, “There are some crimes, unique to subways, such as pushing or attempted pushing onto subway tracks, that loom large in some riders minds [sic].” In fact, one study showed that over 75% of randomly selected New York City passengers were afraid of being pushed onto the tracks, despite the fact that this type of violent event is fortunately very rare for the millions of subway riders. The most frightening aspect of this type of crime, when it does occur, is its utter randomness. [Association of Schools of Public Health]

So, if riders eschew ear plugs to keep alert for psychos, Gershon said standing at the front of the platform wear the front car pulls in has less noise than the middle. Also, simply stinking one’s fingers “well into the ear canal” can cut 20 decibels.

And, speaking of subway psychos, Andrew Goldstein, the nut that pushed the aspiring writer to her death seven years ago, finally pleaded guilty.

Read the complete reply by NYC Transit to Gershon's report after the jump

Photo from Doug Jaeger via Flickr

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

Another interesting tidbit to come out of the Rodriguez subway assault case is the damaging effect subway riding has on the knees.

Charles Johnson claimed Rodriguez beat him so severely that he’d been unable to return to work since.

Johnson is suffering, according to Dr. Howard Schwartz, a doctor retained by the defense, but not from an alleged beating.

Instead, Schwartz, who was paid $2,500 to examine Johnson’s medical records for the defense, said Johnson had “chronic degenerative osteoarthritis” in the knees caused by working as a conductor for 14 years.

“The knees are subject to trauma linked to the motion of side to side and front to back on the subway,” Schwartz testified. The pain Johnson, 59, is experiencing is “coming from arthritis.”

It does make sense that years of rocking back and forth on the trains would cause some damage over the years to a conductor. But, what about regular straphangers? Even if the combined time on the train every day is 30 minutes, does it add up? Are we all too going to face arthritis in the knees?

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

State Sen. John Sabini (D/WFP-Jackson Heights) touted his legislation today that compels the MTA use “lung-safe cleaning agents in order to reduce the risk of asthma and other respiratory diseases for the transit system’s employees and riders.”

Basically, all those industrial strength bleach and ammonia-based cleaning solvents are bad for the lungs. The Straphangers Campaign supports the bill. Gene Russianoff’s seven-year-old daughter suffers from asthma, according to Sabini’s press release.

But the question is really about how powerful to the chemicals have to be clean up some nasty, funky stuff found in the trains. Vomit, excrement, blood, and all manners of bodily fluids are found every day, along with spilled beverages and the ever present mold and mildew. You’d think you’d want the most powerful chemicals known to man for some of that stuff.

“We are not claiming to be experts and don't want to endorse specific products, but we know from a lay perspective that there are alternatives. We understand that vinegar, for example, is an alternative to ammonia. Plain soap and water at higher pressures might also be used in lieu of more harsh chemical solutions,” a Sabini aide emails. He also suggested this list.

Tim O’Brien, an MTA  spokesman, said it is the cleaning products “have to be strong enough to get the job done. It’s a balancing act.”

Last year, Gov. Pataki signed an executive order mandating all state agencies use “green” cleaning products. The MTA had already complied with the guidelines, according to MTA spokesman Tim O’Brien.

“Every cleaning product goes through a [toxicological] screening  process before being used to ensure it is not harmful to our workers or the environment,” O’Brien said. “We do have to ensure our products are strong enough to eliminate any health threats to our riders.”

The Tracker sympathizes with asthma suffers, but firmly believes the MTA ought to use the most powerful cleaning agents known to man. Sometimes, the trains can outright gross.

Photo of Sabini, from Sabini

-- Chuck Bennett

The $800 milllion Fulton Street Transit Center is overbudget.

Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA’s capital construction committee, said he has got to figure out how to cut $40 million from the project’s budget to keep it on track.

“We are looking at all options,” he told reporters at MTA headquartrs.

The culprit for the projected overrun is stricter rules for demolishing surrounding buildings that may contain absetos or World Trade Center dust. Last month the MTA halted demoliton of 189 Broadway because of concerns of toxic WTC dust.

Skyrocketing real estate values for the properties didn’t help either, Nagaraja said.

Too early to tell if the glass dome that would allow natural light down onto the subway platforms could
scrapped or severly rejiggered.

The project is scheduled to be completed in June 2009.

-- Chuck Bennett

The weekly Downtown Express has an interesting 2,087 word piece on the Spring Street subway station — apparently one of the loudest in the system.

The Transit Authority said it didn’t have decibel data for the station. So the creative reporter took a Radio Shack sound meter into the station and found trains there regularly pull in and out of the station at 99 to 105 decibels — exposure to just 85 decibels can cause

“At this rate, for the everyday commuter who listens to a 105-decibel noise one or two minutes each day, the noise can do permanent hearing damage over time, according to Dean Mascuso, an audiologist and manager of aural rehabilitation at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.”
Mancuso further said that when transit workers at station starting saying they are “used to the noise” it can mean “They’re losing their hearing.”

The TA said it has received complaints about noise at the station and “was looking into the problem.”
Already, rubber pads were installed under the rails and special wheels to calm vibrations. The TA could even spray water on the tracks to lower the decibel count — but that would cause the tracks to rust faster.

And who knew that there used to a state law — the Rapid Transit Noise Code Act — which compelled the Transit Authority to monitor and reduce noise levels. That law, which passed in 1982, expired in 1994 and was never reviewed.

But, under the city’s new noise code, the local Department of Environmental Protection, to study noise abatement in the subway.

Perhaps some relief at last. It makes you wonder if all those people blasting their ears out with their iPods are already deaf from years waiting on the subway platforms.

-- Chuck Bennett