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Subway Platform Survey Finds Just ONE Overflowing Garbage Can
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 2, 2012
Modified Feb 2, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 2, 2012
Modified Feb 2, 2012
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The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign today issued its first-ever “State of the Station Platforms” survey, which looked at 250 subway platforms at 120 randomly-selected stations in the transit system. (You can see which ones in the full report below, but they account for 28% of the entire system.) The survey, conducted by interns and staff last summer, homed in on 12 subway platform conditions, such as rats, graffiti, water damage, missing tiles, and overflowing garbage cans. But it's what they didn't find that may shock you: just ONE overflowing garbage can was observed during the survey! At press time, it was unclear how many of the interns performing the inspections were legally blind.
Asked about the extraordinary absence of overflowing garbage cans, a spokesman for the campaign tells us, "We surveyed between morning and evening rush hours, which may not reflect every rider's experience. We can only report what we find." Perhaps we expect too little from the MTA, but other survey results also seem surprisingly flattering: rats were only observed at 11% of underground station platforms, staircases or handrails were in disrepair at just 15% of the stations, and no graffiti was found at 80% of the subway platforms.
Less flattering: substantial floor cracks at 33% of all the platforms observed. "We found the good, the bad and the ugly, from no subway station platforms having overflowing garbage cans to clearly unacceptable conditions, such as peeling paint at three quarters of the platforms observed," said Jason Chin-Fatt, the Straphanger Campaign organizer who oversaw the survey. But hey, what do you expect—this isn't Sweden.
Asked about the survey results, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz tells us, "Improving the appearance and cleanliness of the system’s 468 stations is among our top priorities and our efforts have been enhanced with the early success of the FASTRACK maintenance and cleaning program along the Lexington Avenue Line. In the coming weeks, this program is being expanded to the Seventh, Sixth and Eighth Avenue Lines. In addition, we have deployed more personnel and resources to remove trash from stations in a timely manner while we continue the station component program, which targets specific repairs and improvements at more stations around the system."
State of the Station Platforms 2012
Tagged
MTA
straphangers campaign
subway
subway cleanliness
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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