$disanpoter

art or artifact?

there is a profusion of little tan tags hanging from the pipes in columbus circle station this morning. is this some existential installation piece a la the bold deflationary statements on the cross beams of the 42nd St tunnel? or are they merely evidence of the overlap in two trasit workers jobs, messages left in a public space because out of necessity or insignificance? i'm intrigued.

also, looking at the massive blank advertising space on the subways this morning, i returned again to the idea that as a monopoly so integral to the livelihood of every less than affluent worker in this metro area, the MTA has a moral obligation to minimize the costs incured by each rider. Consequently, their failure to fully utilize alternative revenue sources is gross negligence.

furthermore, all this construction under the auspices of "digging for the next century" or whatever it is is ridiculous. there's nothing at all effecient in long term development where any new extension requires the removal of and accomodation for such substantial physical barriers as solid earth and rock. The subterranian system is bad in so many ways. It traps heat. It channels noise, jeopardizing the hearing of every person forced to rely upon the system. It's more vulnerable to weather conditions. It vastly increases the surface area of the infrastructure requiring regular maintenance. and it makes it nearly impossible to modify the system to more effectively handle the flow of passengers.

which brings me to economics. i did well in what economics classes i took. it was all fairly simple. cause, effect. variable, constant, ratio, scarcity, yada, yada, yoda. i'm not so sure this monopoly principle still stands in information economies. in fact, i'm not so sure it's all that great in the physical space of information economies. i think bloomberg should reevaluate the longstanding belief that monopolies are the best business model for utilities and the like. the MTA needs some competition. why? because i said so. that's why. 

ug.

when the bane of one's existence is the perpetual inefficiencies of the transit system, one must recognize that one's life must be pretty good - but still, the transit system is the bane of my existence. it took me over an hour to get into work today. in the middle of the day when it's at its smoothest, it takes just over 30 minutes. At high rush hour it's 40-45. 70 minutes is ridiculous.

aren't we intelligent

Between 7th avenue and Smith & 9th, I resisted the urge to comment about the deplorable indifference of train passengers. At Smith & 9th and Carroll, I attempted to politely nudge the people next to me around the pole so that people could get in the doors. After witnessing a man get caught in the doors at Carroll with out a single person nearby bothering to move while just beyond the pole vast patches of floor were visible, at Bergen I asked to the inner car, "Could you please move into the center of the car so that people at the door can get in? The ten feet of available space in the middle is ridiculous." They moved in. Everyone had room to get on comfortably. The train moved forward.

Then the snipey chick next to me turned and said "You could have asked nicely." This was the girl who minutes ago, unperturbed by the squashed masses beside her, was smirking with her boyfriend over the possibility that everyone on the train must thing they're assholes by daring to have a conversation on the train. So confident were they in the superior quality of their post-modern banter.

Saying "move the fuck in you self-absorbed clueless assholes. There are people trying to get through the door." That would have been not asking nicely. I shouldn't have had to ask at all.  It's common sense and common courtesy and the fact that we no longer expect even that small level of awareness from our fellow citizens disgusts me.

i know i should just stop caring or trying, but they're such simple things. 5 people got where they had to go 10-15 minutes sooner and if i'd spoken up at 4th Ave, 10 or 15 people would have, and if i hadn't had to speak up, who knows how many people would benefit from an easier commute every morning?

cardio-commuting

My collegue R. was commenting today about the impact of rush hour on his gym schedule. It reminded me that communting is ultimately lost time. you can't avoid the drain, you can only try to minimize the net wastage...i've had various regiments to acheive this end over the course of my brief commuter existence: audio news in a.m., reading in the evening; sleeping in the a.m., doing one of the previous two in the evening; taking mental notes on advertising trends and their societal implications in the morning, trying to fix the universe in the evening. you know, standard issue time passers. yet, i'm always left frustrated by the latent ineffieciencies of the system. There's no systematic effort to make those cattle cars of people more useful, only faster, less problematic, safer. All efforts of improvement center on the mechanics of the process of moving thousands upon thousands of people from one point to another. It's not that that isn't important - that the purpose of the transit system, afterall - but meanwhile inside those mobile boxes vast numbers of sentient organisms are taking up space, consuming oxygen, hamstrung to what few passtimes or industries can be executed in the unpredictable positioning and space they happen to have in that particular car.

It's sad to me that the furthest we've advanced in making use of that captive space and time is sidewall advertising and a managerie of panhandlers. and so, here's my list of transportation enhancements:

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