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Have Commuting Questions? <br>Join 'We The Commuters'!

By

Patricia Willens

and

Jen Chung

Published Nov 6, 2019

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A crowded L train car during the slowdown in April 2019

David 'Dee' Delgado / Gothamist

By

Patricia Willens

and

Jen Chung

Published Nov 6, 2019

Share

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We know traveling around the city can be rough--the mere act of going from place to place is often the most stressful thing about our day.  But then there are those rare moments when the stars align and everything works. The highs and lows, the horrors and the glory of commuting. We know how it feels.

Tell us what you want to know about commuting in the New York region--and we’ll help answer your questions and illuminate your concerns along the way. Share your commuter stories, questions, and ideas. Here’s how:

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Thank you! And what, you ask, do you get for sharing your thoughts and feelings about commuting? 

Here’s our promise: we will help you better understand the region’s massive transit system and its challenges—and offer tips and tactics to improve it. And we hope we’ll make you feel less alone. In the crush of the commute, it’s easy to feel small and powerless but we, the commuters, have a voice and can be heard, if we work together.

The journalists at WNYC and Gothamist are digging into a long list of stories about our transit systems, what works and what doesn’t, and how we might do things differently. But we are a small group and this is a huge issue. We know you have questions, too, and probably some good ideas about how to make things better.

We’ve already done so much as a team. Thanks to your responses to a survey we sent last spring, you shaped our coverage. And we got some answers, made some news, on a few of your top concerns. 

We started in July with bicycling in the city.  We looked at the issue from a variety of angles on-air and online, culminating in a live event in The Greene Space (which you can see here), where NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan agreed it's "absolutely insensitive" to ticket bicyclists after cyclists are killed. Since then, the policy has changed.

Then, in September, we focused on homelessness in the subways. We explored what commuters, who see homeless people and others in need on a daily basis, might do differently. We told the world first about the influx of police in the subways, assigned to focus on “quality of life” issues, and we continue to press for more answers from those in power. 

Our current focus is accessibility. Sure, we’ll look at the MTA’s plans to build more elevators. But we also want to share your hacks and strategies for getting around an older city not designed for modern needs. It’s a wide open topic--and we’d love your help deciding what to focus on. Be in touch! 

Tagged

we the commuters

taxis

pedestrian

subway

accessibility

buses

driving

Patricia Willens

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Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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