Hey Asshole! Stop Holding The Doors! - Another Glorious Non-Journey With The MTA

Today I got on the B train at West 4th after waiting a good 20 minutes for it to arrive.

I boarded the train and we went two stops downtown. At Grand Street I heard the notorious jarring sound of the train doors attempting to close, but they were stuck.

"Please stand clear of the closing doors!" The train conductor shouted. I don't know why he bothered to say "please" since he was shouting.

The doors open and shut again. I could hear that same unpleasant sound as if something or somebody was stuck in them.

"Please STEP AWAY from doors so the TRAIN can LEAVE the station!" Shouted the conductor.

Clearly, the person who was holding the doors was not giving up so easily. A moment passed, and there it was once again, the sound of the train doors opening abruptly and attempting to shut.

"PLEASE LET GO OF THE DOORS!" Shouted the angry conductor.

The passengers that were near the aforementioned doors leaned in closer to see if they could see through the window down to the end of the train car and locate the individual who was holding up the B train from moving.

There was silence for 10 minutes. The doors were shut and the passengers on the B train sat there angry, probably hungry, and ready to just go home. I don't know about them, but I was two stops from home at this point.

All of a sudden out of absolutely nowhere (remember it had been silent for 10 minutes) the conductor got on the loud speaker and said to the entire train:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a door problem!"

I wanted to reply "NO SHIT!"

The entire train started hysterically laughing. Way to bring New Yorkers together with some broken ass doors!

The train then sat there for another 10 minutes before the conductor came on the loudspeaker one more time:

"This B train is now out of service! Please exit the train!"

The entire train sighed and a fair number of people started cursing loudly as well as under their breaths.
We all got off the platform at Grand Street to wait for the next train. As the "theoretically broken B train" exited the station every single door on that train was closed.

I have no idea what to think.

Did the asshole who was holding the doors break the train temporarily?
Did that really just happen?
How were the doors working miraculously two seconds after we all exited the train?

Who can solve this mystery?

Thanks MTA for another ridiculous non-journey home.

Dear MTA Closing the Doors on a Stroller is Not Okay

Dear MTA,

This is probably the worst thing you've ever done. It was at the Atlantic Avenue station during rush hour. Exactly 8:24am on Friday 7/12/13. Copious amounts of folks were exiting the train. Just as the people were done exiting I started to push my stroller (which is enormous) on to the D train. As I was doing this, the train conductor decided this would be an appropriate moment to close all the train doors. Are you fucking kidding me?

Do you realize how dangerous that was?
Do you understand that you could have broken my children's fingers?

You really need to get it together!

All Right MTA No Air Conditioning Was Bad But You Really Did it ThisTime

Dear MTA,

I have been on the D train sitting on the Manhattan bridge for exactly 23 minutes. There has been no explanation as to why we're delayed. I have my two children in a double stroller going completely insane on an unmoving train car.

This is completely ridiculous.

I am now 30 minutes late for work thanks to you.

Once again, why am I paying for a service that is faulty?

I have lived in New York City my entire life
and the train functioned better in the 1980s when it cost $1.00.

Please get it together.

Thank You,
Sara gū

Dear MTA Please Fix the Air Conditioning

Dear MTA,

Today it was 100 degrees outside. I was so excited to get on the D train and potentially get a seat. I had my two children with me in the double stroller. As the doors opened, I got ready to embrace the air conditioned subway car. I was excited, even though it was rush hour.

To my dismay, the subway car was crowded and hot. There was no air conditioning. I was devastated and dripping with sweat.

I don't believe it's too much to ask for the subway to be air conditioned when it's 100 degrees outside. I understand that shit happens and things break. I get it. The air conditioning was probably broken on that car.

The thing is, we're all paying $2.50 per ride. A ride on the train should be comfortable at the very least. I don't want to feel tortured while I'm waiting to arrive at my destination. I'm already cranky. I just want to go home.

Please fix the air conditioning on the broken cars.

Thanks,
Sarah

My Response to The MTA Answered by a Human BEING!

Well folks, the MTA finally provided me with real human response. Check it out:

Response (Doug Sussman) - 01/24/2010 07:21 PM
Dear Ms. Fader:

I'm sorry that you continue to find MTA email responses to be impersonal and "canned". I do not think the previous response is too generic, and the answer is correct.

But here are some additional specific answers that I trust you will find acceptable.

Given the lack of any recurring source to fund our capital program, it is not at all possible to give you a time frame to make all 468 subway stations accessible for our customers with disabilities. Indeed, I cannot imagine that every station will ever be made fully accessible. We require about $25 billion for the next five years for All basic capital improvements within our 5,000 square mile service area. As of now, no such plan has been approved by the approved by our funding partners.

Elevator maintenance and cleaning is on a regular schedule. If defacing or vandalism of any elevator is experienced, if reported to the elevator/escalator section of our website, it will indeed be inestigated and corrected as soon as possible.

I trust that these responses are more on target and specific. Your comments are duly noted and appreciated.

Sincerely,

Douglas R. Sussman
Director
Community Affairs

The MTA Continues to Blow OS/NS Mom Off!

For those of you that have been following my blog, you know how I feel about the NYC MTA and it's lack of accessibility to mothers with strollers. I forwarded my previous post to the MTA, where I indicated that they sent me a generic response.

Here is the latest response they sent me:

Response (Antonio Ligonde) - 01/21/2010 02:45 PM
This is in response to your recent e-mail message to MTA New York City Transit requesting travel information.

We regret that you are not satisfied with your previous response. Please be assured that New York City Transit shares your concern regarding the accessibility of the subway system for all passengers. We have established a long-term plan that provides for upgrades at key stations throughout the subway system to make these stations accessible in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Please be assured that we will continue our efforts to make the system comfortable and reliable for all of our customers.

We suggest you visit http://mta.info/accessibility/

, for information regarding accessibility in the transit system. Please note that bus and subway service information along with travel itineraries within New York City may also be obtained by calling our Travel Information Center at (718) 330-1234, from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., 7 days a week, where customer service representatives are available. Please have a pen and paper ready, provide each starting point, destination and the approximate time you will be traveling.

Thank you for having taken the time to contact us.

Robbin Gust
Associate Transit Customer Service Specialist II

I still want to know the following information:

1. When will all stations in New York City be accessible to the disabled population as well as mothers with strollers?

2. Is there a long term plan for this to occur? If so, what is the specific plan?

3. Can the MTA please make sure that the elevators that do exist are clean? I have stepped in human urine one too many times in these elevators.

Hopefully the MTA will reply with some specific answers to this post.

The MTA Responds to OS/NS Mom!

I sent the post I wrote about my dissatisfaction with the MTA and it's lack of accessibility to mothers and the disabled. Here's what I said:

Dear MTA,

I wrote a blog concerning your lack of concern for mothers. Please read and respond:

http://www.oldschoolnewschoolmom.com/2010/01/ride-to-discrimination.html

Thanks
Sarah Fader
www.oldschoolnewschoolmom.com

Here's what they said:

Response (Andrea Popp) - 01/15/2010 02:21 PM
This is in response to your recent e-mail to MTA New York City Transit concerning the accessibility of the more subway stations.

We appreciate your interest in improving mass transit. Please be assured that New York City Transit is committed to ensuring that its facilities are easily accessible, and we have worked hard to upgrade the subway system over the last several years for the benefit of our customers. We have a long-term plan to make 100 subway stations accessible in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Our key station plan will create a network of stations which, when combined with our fully-accessible bus fleet, will make almost all of NYC Transit’s service area accessible to senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Stations are selected for inclusion in the key station plan in connection with federal guidelines and ADA advocacy organizations based on a number of complex
factors, including station design and customer usage. After the rehabilitation of our key stations is completed, however, additional stations will be reviewed for inclusion using the same selection process for ADA compliance, and your e-mail has been referred to supervision in our Departments of Subways for review.

If you have further station-related questions or concerns, you may also call Customer Services at (718) 330-3322, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., 7 days a week or write, to NYCT Customer Services, New York City Transit, 2 Broadway, Room A11.146, New York, NY 10004, regarding this type of issue.

We hope that this information is helpful to you and thank you for your interest in our transportation system.

Andrea Popp
Staff Analyst II

This is a vague canned response. There is no exact time line indicated for when all stations will be ADA compliant. The MTA is acknowledging that there is a problem, but there is no concrete action plan for a solution.

A Ride to Discrimination

I have to meet a friend in Manhattan today, which means I have to take the subway. My subway ride from Brooklyn to most points of interest in Manhattan ranges from a 1/2 hour to one hour trip. Objectively this doesn't sound too bad, but I am dreading it.

I have bitched and complained about the subway before in a previous post here. And in April 2009, I admitted that there are people in New York City, that help with mothers with strollers on the subway in this post. I understand that I talk a lot about the subway, but there are certain ethical principles about this mode of transportation that bother me.

In order for a mother traveling alone with her baby or toddler in a stroller to get from point A to point B on the subway, she will invariably need to ask a stranger for help. Unless she is lucky enough to be traveling to stations that each possess elevators.

Today, I am not so lucky. My home station has elevators, but my destination station, 33rd Street on the 6 train, does not.

When I took the subway the other day, I asked several strangers, all men, to help me with my heavy stroller. Each man I asked helped me, but the more I had to ask people I didn't know for help with my son (who I have known since he was conceived and is more precious to me than anything in the world) I became increasingly angrier.

For every person that is helpful during my subway ride there are hundreds of others that do not help. They are too busy with their own lives, rushing up and down the subway stairs to get to work, a doctor's appointment, or meet a friend, to stop and help little old me and my child make it to our destination.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a sense of entitlement. I don't believe that people are supposed to help me and my child. But what am I to do if there is no stroller accessible option? Should I give up and stay home? Should I not even attempt to take the subway?

As a mother, I continue to have an unpleasant ride. By the time I arrive at my destination, I am pissed off and want to turn around and go back home to Brooklyn.

The MTA continues to raise their fares at random intervals, but what are we paying for exactly? I would like to see the money used for an elevator in every subway station.

The MTA's response to this would most likely be:

"We simply don't have the money to do that."

What I don't understand is: where is the MTA's money going? The fares are continually being raised, what is this money being used for? Why can't this money be used to build elevators in stations that lack them?

The lack of elevators does not only affect mothers, like myself. It also affects disabled individuals. When I was riding the subway the other day, I stepped off the car with a woman who walked with a cane.

The woman asked me where the elevator was in the station and I informed her. We got to talking and the woman told me that she was so exhausted from her subway ride that she could barely continue to walk. I attribute this lethargy to the fact that our subway system is not sufficiently handicapped accessible.

I want to say a few things to the MTA:

--Be mindful of who your passengers are: they are not all able to walk without assistance, which means they need an elevator to ensure a safe ride.
--Understand that mothers ride the subway, and that strollers cannot make it down the subway stairs. Consequently, we need elevators too.
--Use the fare increase money to....build elevators!

All New York City Subway Stations Should Have Elevators!

Yesterday I took a journey to Manhattan from Brooklyn using the MTA New York City Subway.

On this momentous journey I had to ask several strangers to assist me with my stroller down the subway stairs. This is something I am used to doing, see previous post . But each time I ask a random stranger to help me with my heavy stroller load, as it were, I feel more and more resentful.

The reason I need to ask these people to assist me is this: not all subway stations in New York City are handicapped accesible.

I find this to be quite absurd, and often wonder how people in wheelchairs use the subway in New York.

According to the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) of 1990:

"The ADA prohibits dicrimination and ensures equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities."

The fact that not all subway stations have elevators is a clear violation of the ADA.

In the meantime, I will continue to accept the help of kind New York City Strangers with my stroller. But in reality, they shouldn't have to help me, the MTA should be responsible for making their stations not only handicapped accesible but "mommy-accesible."

Now Hear This: New York City Citizens Help Mom With Stroller!

Today my son and I took a journey from Brooklyn to the illustrious Manhattan. Our mode of transportation: the good old fashioned New York City subway system.

I strapped him into his stroller and hit the road.

Thankfully, my subway station is handicapped accessible so we were able to use the elevators to travel from the street level to the subway level with my son securely fastened in his stroller.

The trouble arrived when I made it to my destination stop. There was no elevator to speak of, and I was going to have to do the inevitable: carry my son in his stroller up the subway stairs.

Until a nice gentleman came to my rescue and asked

"You need help with that, miss?"
"Yes!" I replied instantaneously.

And with that he transported my son up the stairs.

During the course of my journey, several other strangers assisted me with my stroller. And I didn't even have to solicit their help. They willingly volunteered their services.

And they say New Yorkers are rude and unhelpful!

It just goes to show you. There are some decent people out there, and some of them live in New York City.