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Closed Token Booths = Safer Subways, MTA Says
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 22, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 22, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Some day, people will marvel at how insane the MTA is. Some day as in today. For instance, after a couple subway incidents (like Saturday's murder at the West 18th Street station), the NYC Transit, a divison of the MTA, says that the subways are safer than ever, even the ones with closed token booths. That's because the stations will have "several measures to ensure straphanger safety, including intercoms and closed-circuit cameras and the continued presence of roving NYC Transit workers able to open service gates." The only way Gothamist can figure that actually being the case is if there were apathetic token booth clerks. Sure, there may be roving NYCT workers and cameras, but we would think that a continuous human presence would be a strong deterrant. Anyway, since there has been some confusion about the police's response to the West 18th Street subway station murder and how one officer couldn't get there in a timely manner because he went to a turnstile and didn't have a Metrocard, the NYPD, FDNY and MTA are looking at procedures on how to disseminate keys to the subway gates and Metrocards. You would think that the NYPD would have some kind of special all-access unlimited Metrocard...but then we wonder about those turnstiles where you swipe swipe swipe and nothing happens because it's dirty.
And a couple was attacked at the Union Square subway station over the weekend. They had bumped into a group of people on the stairs at East 14th Street, and it turned ugly. This happened at 8PM - which is prime time for Union Square. Gothamist doesn't know what this really means about the state of our subways, but self-defense classes are always a good idea. And sneakers, to run away quickly.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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