Clueless Councilman Koppell

I know that several subway lines run up to the Bronx, but it seems one of their representatives in the City Council has never ridden on one before. As talk about providing cell service in subway stations seems to be turning into action, one of our City Councilmen prove that he has no idea what he is talking about.

From The Daily News:

City Council members urged the MTA Thursday to create "quiet cars" on subways so riders can avoid listening to other straphangers yammer on cell phones after stations are wired.

Councilman Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) noted "long-haul" rail lines already use the "quiet cars."

"You may say, 'People won't listen.' But there's a tendency for self-policing in that system," Koppell said at a Council hearing.

Koppell said straphangers would have to make sure the rules are enforced on the "quiet cars."

"So, if you have a quiet car ... and someone gets on and starts talking on the cell phone, other passengers will say, 'This is a quiet car, please turn off the cell phone,'" Koppell said. "Generally, that works."

I question if Koppell has ever been a straphanger before. Unless you ride the subway in the middle of the night, there is no such thing as a "quiet car." Cars that get jammed pack are full of noisy riders, which is why I keep my iPod handy when transversing the city. No one is going to "self-enforce" these rules either, as the Gothamist notes, people do not show too much courtesy when it comes to giving seats up for women with children or the elderly.

If people started using their phones while riding, it would barely add to the decibel noise down there. Of course, if he had actually read about the proposal, he would have noticed that cell service is only being talked about in stations, not in the tunnels. Therefore, there is no way to enforce a "quiet car" if you do not get reception anyways. As for riding above ground out in the boroughs, people use their phones whenever and wherever they please, no one cares if someone is talking on the phone, as people talk amongst themselves while riding.

Councilman Koppell seriously needs to get a clue about how things work down underground.

On NYC's Subways, You Can See Something, But Who Can You Say Something To?

Our subway system is one of the most extensive in the world and definitely in the United States. Millions of passengers travel every day on local and the world's only express tracks. And on a sunny day that doesn't include the weekends, they tend to work rather well. Its only when we get some rain, like Wednesday that there can be total shutdowns and a non-existent communication system gets brutally exposed.

Being in Chicago last week, it was great to be able to use my cellphone on the L, and locals that have U.S. Cellular can use their phones anywhere. That means the Chicago Transit Authority can tell commuters if there are problems on the lines and what you can do about it so one isn't stranded in hot and humid stations (like I was last Wednesday waiting for a C train that never came at Penn Station). Local politicians are speaking out for cell service, so that we can hear updated information and even report on things that are suspect, like all those ads and loudspeakers keep saying on the trains.

From AM New York:

Straphangers were left with white dry-erase boards and bullhorns to tell them about subway service during the floods last week.

With spotty platform pay phone service, the MTA could have used wireless service to get the word out about outages, in text messages or emails to devices like BlackBerries, the officials said.

The MTA doesn't have a text or email alert system for New York City Transit outages, except for a weekly weekend service advisory e-mail, but could consider such a program with cell phone access, said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens).

"There's a mantra they repeat over at the MTA: If you see something, say something," Weiner said. "The problem is that without cell phone service, there's really no way to tell anyone."

Weiner said a cell phone service surcharge is already in place that could fund underground service. The MTA is considering subway cell phone access and companies bid for the work in January 2006, but none has been chosen.

Thats the MTA for you, slow in doing....anything really. Meanwhile customers suffer and despite a billion dollar surplus, their concern is to raise fares and drop untold gobs of cash into a Second Avenue subway line that was started nearly eighty years ago. They could have left the old elevated line in place until an underground tunnel was completed...but that might be considered common sense, and why would we want something like that to be a trait of the MTA?