new york subway research

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (F31GM111053), the Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center, the Pinkerton Foundation, the Vallee Foundation, the WorldQuant Foundation, the Epigenomics Core Facility at Weill Cornell, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Illumina, Qiagen, and Indiegogo (for crowdfunding and crowdsourcing support).

Study co-authors include, from Weill Cornell Medical College, Shanin Chowdhury, Cem Meydan, Dyala Jaroudi, Collin Boyer, Nick Bernstein, Darryl Reeves, Jorge Gandara, Sagar Chhangawala, Sofia Ahsanuddin, Nell Kirchberger, Isaac Garcia, David Gandara, Amber Simmons, Yogesh Saletore, Noah Alexander, Priyanka Vijay, Elizabeth M. Hénaff, Paul Zumbo; Timothy Nessel, Bharathi Sundaresh, and Elizabeth Pereira from Cornell University; Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis from Fordham University; Sean Dhanraj, Tanzina Nawrin, Theodore Muth, Elizabeth Alter and Gregory O'Mullan from City University of New York; Ellen Jorgensen from Genspace Community Laboratory; Julia Maritz, Katie Schneider, and Jane Carlton from New York University; Michael Walsh from the State University of New York, Downstate; Scott Tighe from the University of Vermont; Joel T. Dudley and Eric E. Schadt from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Anya Dunaif and Jeanne Garbarino from Rockefeller University; Sean Ennis, Eoghan Ohalloran and Tiago R Magalhaes from the University of Ireland; Braden Boone, Angela L. Jones, and Shawn Levy from HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology; and Robert J. Prill from the IBM Almaden Research Center.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar,  Cornell University is the first in the U.S. to offer a M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances — including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu .

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The Subway: Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Social Life (In-Person)

When the New York City subway opened in 1904, police had to call in reserves to tame the million-strong crowds clamoring to enter the tunnels. Within weeks, hurtling beneath the earth at speeds never before realized in a dense urban environment had become an utterly ordinary experience. For 120 years, the NYC subway, running 24 hours a day and ranking among the world’s largest, has maintained this blend of the quotidian and the extraordinary. When it was constructed, most New Yorkers lived on Manhattan Island while large swaths of the outer boroughs remained farmland. Within a decade, the subway, in making mobility accessible on a completely new scale, had exploded the old boundaries of settlement in New York, helping to trigger the spasm of urbanization that created modern New York City. Seemingly everything—the city’s size, politics, economics, and the singular texture of its everyday life—relies inextricably on this piece of infrastructure. Yet it often remains invisible, not just to our eyes but sometimes to our theories. How can we understand the subway in its full historical, sociological, and economic dimensions?

In this course, we will investigate these links between mobility and urbanization, social life and infrastructure, as exemplified by the New York City subway. What is mobility and what is it for? How and why was the subway built? What does it do to and for working people, their employers, real estate developers, the state? What was New York like before—and after—the subway? How did rapid transit enable the creation of a distinct urban environment, one that sets New York apart from most American cities? What did the emergence of the private automobile do to New York and New Yorkers? Why were no new subways built between 1940 and 2017? Does the subway encourage not just a particular urban form but a particular urban personality or subjectivity? Finally, students will discuss and consider the politics of the subway and urban mobility: Who should pay for the subway? What kind of life does the subway enable? What kind of life could it enable? To ask and maybe even answer these questions, we will rely on a variety of texts from authors like Clifton Hood, Joshua Freeman, Ann Norton Greene, Kafui Attoh, Hart Crane, Henri Lefebvre, Karl Marx, Cindi Katz, Robert Caro, Mike Wallace, Sunny Stalter-Pace, and more. We will also consider representations of the subway in film— The Warriors , Daybreak Express , The Taking of Pelham 123 , Born in Flames , and more—and in the visual arts, whether through the painters of the Ashcan School, the photography of Bruce Davidson, and myriad other artists who have found in the subway a vehicle for expressing the kinds of lives we live and imagining the kinds of lives we want to live.

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February 23, 2015

Mapping the Microbes in New York City’s Subway System

At a glance.

• Researchers created a detailed map of bacterial diversity throughout New York City.
• The findings serve as a baseline that could aid surveillance of disease, bioterrorism threats, and health management in city environments.  

The human body is host to trillions of microbes that include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. They influence our health and disease and are, in turn, influenced by the environment. At the same time, the environment itself—everything that surrounds us—hosts an extensive assortment of bacteria, which we’re exposed to every day.

To learn more about environmental microbes and the DNA that surrounds us, a team of researchers led by Dr. Christopher E. Mason at Weill Cornell Medical College tracked and characterized the genetic material of microorganisms in New York City, particularly in its subway system. Used by 1.7 billion people a year, it’s the largest mass-transit system in the world.

The scientists used sterile swabs to collect 1,457 samples across 468 subway stations, covering 24 lines in 5 boroughs. The team sampled turnstiles, wooden and metal benches, stairway handrails, trashcans, emergency exits, and card kiosks. On trains, they sampled doors, poles, handrails, and seats. They also sampled railway stations and public parks in the city. They developed a mobile app to map the exact location and time of each sample.

The team extracted DNA from each sample, sequenced it, then classified and characterized it, using several existing databases. The study was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Results appeared online on February 5, 2015, in Cell Systems.

The researchers found that almost half of the DNA analyzed (48%) did not match any known organism, hinting at how many species remain to be identified. They determined that 47% of the DNA came from bacteria, 0.03% came from viruses, and the rest from fungi and other organisms.

Bacterial signatures could reveal a station’s history. Marine-associated bacteria were found in the closed station that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy. The Bronx stations showed the greatest bacterial diversity, while Staten Island had the lowest diversity. By comparing their data with data from the 2010 U.S. Census, the researchers found that the predicted ancestry of human DNA left on subway surfaces echoed the U.S. Census demographic data. The team also found shifts in microbes during the course of the day after collecting samples from Penn Station every hour during a weekday.

The group detected some DNA fragments associated with known pathogens, including bubonic plague and anthrax, but didn’t find strong evidence that those organisms were present. The researchers also detected bacteria that are resistant to standard antibiotics.

“Our data show evidence that most bacteria in these densely populated, highly trafficked transit areas are neutral to human health, and much of it is commonly found on the skin or in the gastrointestinal tract,” Mason says. “These bacteria may even be helpful, since they can out-compete any dangerous bacteria.”

The team has created “PathoMap,” an interactive heatmap of their data. “We can now monitor for changes and potential threats to this balanced microbial ecosystem,” Mason says.

—by Carol Torgan, Ph.D.

References:  Geospatial Resolution of Human and Bacterial Diversity with City-Scale Metagenomics Cell Systems , 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2015.01.001 . Erratum DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2015.07.006

Funding:  NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS); Pinkerton Foundation; Vallee Foundation; New York University; and Indiegogo for crowdfunding and crowdsourcing support.

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Analysis of the New York Subway System using an Adaptive Network Model

• Zachary Carino W.T. Clarke High School

Through the use of a Physarum Polycephalum organism and a scaled-down model of the New York Subway System, this study created and analyzed a system of "maximum efficiency". By taking advantage of the capabilities of a Physarum organism, a system reminiscent of the existing subway system was created, with deviations analyzed to find differences in both track usage and overall costs. Previous research regarding Physarum Polycephalum and infrastructure development were relatively separate. This study holds similarities to research done by Atsushi Tero of Kyoto University, but while his team sought perfect replication, this study sought to use the growth patterns of Physarum to create a more efficient system. Using a geographically accurate mapping of the New York Subway System, a scaled-down model of the Subway System was created, with major subway stations represented as oat nodes atop an agar solution in a sterile petri dish. The Physarum was placed within and allowed to grow for roughly 6 days. Following the full connection of all oat nodes, an analysis of the Physarum system was conducted using a ModaCam system. This analyzed system was then scaled up to that of the existing Subway System, and a comparison of the two was conducted. This study concluded that the Physarum system was significantly more efficient than the existing system, using fewer subway tracks and consequentially a lower maintenance cost.

References or Bibliography

King, David. “Developing Densely: Estimating the Effect of Subway Growth on New York City Land Uses.” Journal of Transport and Land Use, vol. 4, no. 2, 2011, pp. 19–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26201668 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Reid, Chris R., et al. “Slime Mold Uses an Externalized Spatial ‘Memory’ to Navigate in Complex Environments.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 109, no. 43, 2012, pp. 17490–94. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41829697 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

González-Rivera, Christian. DESTINATION NEW YORK: Spurred by 30 Million More Tourists over the Past Two Decades, Tourism Is Now Driving NYC’s Economic Future. Edited by Eli Dvorkin and Jonathan Bowles, Center for an Urban Future, 2018. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep21708 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Cohen, James K. “Structural versus Functional Determinants of New York’s Fiscal Policies Towards Metropolitan Transportation, 1904-1990.” Social Science History, vol. 15, no. 2, 1991, pp. 177–98. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1171413 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Chi-Hong (Patrick) Tsai, et al. “Measuring the Cost Efficiency of Urban Rail Systems: An International Comparison Using DEA and Tobit Models.” Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, vol. 49, no. 1, 2015, pp. 17–34. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/jtranseconpoli.49.1.0017 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Larkin, Brian. “The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure.” Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 42, 2013, pp. 327–43. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43049305 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Crain, W. Mark, and Lisa K. Oakley. “The Politics of Infrastructure.” The Journal of Law & Economics, vol. 38, no. 1, 1995, pp. 1–17. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/725815 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Westphal, Joseph W. “The Politics of Infrastructure.” Social Research, vol. 75, no. 3, 2008, pp. 793–804. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40972090 . Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Harris, C. (2020). Five Cheap Ways to Improve Nyc Subway Operations. Manhattan Institute, Issue Brief.

Tero, A., Takagi, S., & Ito, K. (2010). Rules for biologically inspired adaptive network design - researchgate. researchgate.net. Retrieved April 27, 2023, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41111573_Rules_for_Biologically_Inspired_Adaptive_Network_Design

MTA. (2020). Division of the budget. Metropolitan Transportation Authority | Agency Appropriations | FY 2021 Executive Budget. Retrieved April 27, 2023, from https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy21/exec/agencies/appropdata/MetropolitanTransportationAuthority

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Piliavin (1969) Subway Study

Julia Russel

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Julia Russell has over 25 years experience as a Psychology teacher. She is currently Head of Psychology at The Queen’s School, Chester. She is Principal Examiner for two major awarding bodies, visiting tutor at Wrexham Glyndŵr University and an established author.

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Piliavin I. M., Rodin, J., & Piliavin, J. A. (1969). Good samaritanism: an underground phenomenon?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13 (4), 289.

This study was designed to investigate how a group of people would react if they saw a person who collapsed on a train.

Specifically, they wanted to investigate the following:

• Would an ill person get more help than a drunk person? (the type of victim)?
• Would people help others of the same race before helping those of different races?
• If a model person started helping the victim, would that encourage others to also help?
• Would the number of bystanders who saw the victim influence how much help was given?

This study was a field experiment on a 7 ½ minute non-stop journey on a New York underground train, using various coaches along the train. Participants were passengers who were on board.

Using teams of 4 university students (male victim, male model, 2 female observers), a situation was created on the train to see how passengers would react.

A ‘victim’ staged an ‘emergency’ by collapsing (in the designated ‘critical area’).

After collapsing, the victim lay on his back on the floor. If not helped earlier in the journey by a participant or model, the model assisted the victim at the end of the journey.

Participants’ reactions were then watched by covert observers.

Participants

The victims were: males aged 26 -35; three white, one black; identically dressed in a US army-style jacket, old trousers, and no tie.

The ‘drunk’ smelled of alcohol and carried a spirits bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag (38 trials). The ‘ill ‘victim appeared sober and carried a black cane (65 trials).

The  models were males aged 24 – 29, wore casual but not identical clothes, and helped by raising the victim to a sitting position and staying with him.

Independent Variables

• Type of victim (drunk or appearing ill and would hold a walking cane).
• Race of victim (black or white).
• Effect of the model (a researcher in disguise): stood near the victim and helped after about 70 seconds (critical area – early), stood in the same place but helped after 150 seconds (critical area – late), or stood further away and helped quickly or slowly (‘adjacent – early’ and ‘adjacent – late’), or no model at all. The trials were determined randomly.
• Size of the witnessing group (a naturally occurring independent variable). The sample consisted of the 4450 American passengers using that particular train, 45% of which were black and 55% white.

Dependent Variables

The dependent variables were covertly recorded (from behind newspapers) by two female observers seated in the adjacent area (during 103 victim trials):

• Number of bystanders
• Frequency of witness help
• Latency (time) to help
• Race of helper (45% black, 55% white)
• Sex of helper
• Number of helpers
• Movement out of the critical area
• Any verbal comments made by bystanders

There were 6-8 trials per day, on journeys in alternating directions, all the same victim type on any day.

• Models were rarely needed; the public usually helped quickly on their own.
• Apparently, ill victims are more likely to be helped than apparently drunk ones (62/65 trials compared to 19/38) and are more likely to be helped quickly.
• Males are more likely to help than females (60% of travelers were male, but 90% of first helpers were male).
• Race has little effect on helping, although a drunk victim is less likely to receive opposite-race help.
• The longer no help is offered, the less important modeling becomes and the more likely someone is to leave the area, and more so with drunk victims.
• Spontaneous comments were more common in the drunk condition.

One of the surprising findings in this study was that there was no diffusion of responsibility. The size of the group made no difference in how much help a victim received. Piliavin et al. offered several explanations for this:

• Passengers were trapped on the train and could not really leave the situation. On the street, the results may have been different.
• It was less effort for passengers to help. If they were sitting on the train anyway and were waiting for the next stop, they may as well help.
• Unlike the situation with Kitty Genovese , it was clear what the problem was for the bystanders who were sitting next to the victim.

Piliavin et al. (1969) put forward the cost–reward arousal model as a major alternative to the decision model and state it represents a ‘fine tuning’ of the earlier model.

In a similar fashion to Latané and Darley’s decision-helping model , it has two stages that occur before we either help or don’t help.

The first stage is physiological arousal. Arousal in response to the need or distress of others is an emotional response and provides the basic motivational construct of the model.

When we see someone in distress, we become physiologically aroused. The greater the arousal in emergencies, the more likely it is that a bystander will help since they wish to reduce it.

The cost–reward component stage involves evaluating the consequences of helping or not helping. Whether one helps or not depends on the outcome of weighing up both the costs and rewards of helping.

The costs of helping include effort, time, loss of resources, risk of harm, and negative emotional response. The rewards of helping include fame, gratitude from the victim and relatives, and self-satisfaction derived from the act of helping.

The costs of not helping include guilt, disapproval, damaged self-esteem, and also negative emotional responses. It is recognized that costs may be different for different people and may even differ from one occasion to another for the same person.

Helping is more likely: with ill than drunk victims; to be offered by males (as perceived costs are higher and social role reduces self-blame), and with same-race victims if they appear drunk (as perceived risk is higher, social role reduces self-blame and there may be same-race empathy and trust).

The longer an emergency continues, the less important the role of a model (because arousal has been reduced by other means) and the more likely people are to leave the area.

Critical Evaluation

The data gathered was both qualitative and quantitative . The quantitative data included the number and type of passengers who helped as well as the time taken to offer assistance.

The qualitative data came from the spontaneous comments made by the passengers. Both types of data are valuable in building up a full picture of what happened and why.

The quantitative data allowed for comparisons and statistical analysis, and the qualitative data provided some of the thoughts and feelings of the people involved, including perhaps providing explanations for why they did or did not help.

Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure and one aspect of reliability relevant to studies involving observations is how consistent different observers are when recording information on the same event, i.e., inter-rater reliability.

The reliability of this study was increased by the fact that there were two independent researchers observing and recording data. Hence they were able to measure inter-rater reliability.

Some people argue that the cost–reward arousal model is overly calculating. We do not weigh up the pros and cons of helping in as much detail as they suggest. Whilst arousal and helping are often only correlated, the model clearly sees the former as causing the latter.

According to Dovidio et al. (1991), evidence indicates that emotional reactions to other people’s distress play an important role in motivating helping. The model proposes that bystanders will choose the response that most rapidly and completely reduces the arousal, incurring as few costs as possible.

Therefore the emotional component provides the motivation to do something, whilst the cognitive component determines what the most effective response will be.

Piliavin et al.’s original model was subsequently elaborated to take account of the role played by other factors.

Many of the variables interact and contribute to how aroused the bystander is and the perceived costs and rewards for direct intervention.

A strength of the sample is that it is fairly big and, therefore, would be representative of people who used the subway in NYC; e.g., 4450 participants were estimated to have been involved.

One ethical issue is the lack of informed consent within this study – participants were not aware that they were involved in an experiment.

Another ethical issue in Piliavin et al.’s study is that the participants could not be debriefed at the end of the experiment.

Thus, not allowing the participants to know that they were involved in an experiment and that all incidences that occurred on that Subway journey were controlled.

Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., Gaertner, S. L., Schroeder, D. A., & Clark III, R. D. (1991). The arousal: Cost-reward model and the process of intervention: A review of the evidence.

Piliavin, I. M., Rodin, J., & Piliavin, J. A. (1969). Good samaritanism: an underground phenomenon ?  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13 (4), 289.

Unlike New York’s Subway, DC’s Metro perpetually must justify its existence. Why?

October 3, 2018

New York’s Subway and Washington, DC’s Metro are two of the United States’ busiest rapid-transit systems. But people in the two cities use transit differently.

In New York, multimodal transportation is integral to every aspect of city living – both culturally and practically. In DC, the Metro lines – built over 60 years after New York’s system – are primarily used for commuting to work.

I recently wrote about one clear aspect of this contrast: the differing angles from which the New York Times and Washington Post cover transit. But news coverage is just one of many cultural and political factors that underlie New York and DC’s contrasting mobility cultures – cultures that stem largely from how their transportation systems developed.

The New York region grew up around its urban subway and suburban commuter rail systems, making the city dependent on them by design. Meanwhile, DC-area jurisdictions constructed the Metro largely to serve auto-oriented residents traveling into the city, with the rail system substituting for proposed urban interstates that never got built.

Metro must simultaneously serve car-oriented suburbs and walkable city neighborhoods 

Like many American cities, DC’s extensive streetcar system was chopped up in the mid-twentieth century. In their wake, highways paved the way to increasingly sprawling suburbs, and it seemed only a matter of time before the highways carved up the urban core of the nation’s capital as well.

However, unlike similar cities that lacked rapid transit systems at the time, DC fought back. Residents successfully stopped construction of the Three Sisters Bridge, which would have opened the highway expansion floodgates, and funding was diverted to transit expansion. As a result, Metro – initially an afterthought to the proposed freeways – became a focal point of the region’s vision for transportation.

Since Metro was built to fulfill the same needs as the canceled urban interstates, it still had to cater to the region’s auto-oriented suburban population. As a result, many Metro stations are surrounded not by dense, vibrant, mixed-use communities, but instead by asphalt on which drivers can store their cars when they ride the train into town. The low-density suburbs those isolated park-and-ride stations serve were planned primarily around the automobile, so multimodal first- and last-mile solutions at outlying stations are limited.

Only 5 percent of households in the DC region are car-free. Meanwhile, 20 percent of New York-area households do not own cars. 

This might explain why only around 5 percent of DC-area households get by without cars , overshadowing the relatively high proportion of car-free households in Washington itself. For comparison, over 20 percent of New York-area households – including nearly half in New York City – are car-free. Car-owning residents are likely to attribute their ability to participate in many enjoyable activities – such as family gatherings, little league games, and dinner outings – to perceived freedom that their automobiles allow them.

WMATA’s cuts to night and weekend rail service in recent years, which took effect as car-based alternatives such as ride-hailing expanded, have helped bring these problems into DC’s urban core. City-dwelling millennials, despite comprising a plurality of Metro’s riders and shunning car ownership, are using the system somewhat less at all times. But when it comes to millennials’ weekend ridership, which has dropped more than 40 percent since 2016, the bottom has utterly fallen out.

Greater Greater Washington President David Alpert, for example, who lives in DC’s centrally located Dupont Circle neighborhood, pointed out that he is particularly likely to use ride-hailing for night and weekend activities, when he finds transit currently “ just isn’t very dependable .”

Thus, while the trials and tribulations of driving are reduced to little more than funny stories to tell friends and family, the hassles of Metro’s aging infrastructure compound into apocalyptic cataclysms.

When stakeholders in multimodal transportation have to spend valuable time justifying Metro’s very existence, the improvements that would both resolve Metro’s infrastructural issues and make transit more useful for non-work activities become virtually impossible.

New York grew up around transit, and the resulting connections remain essential to daily life

While the few remnants of the abandoned streetcar system that shaped much of DC rot away , the century-old subway system that shaped New York carries nearly 6 million riders each day. Commuter rail lines fan out from subway hubs into the suburbs. Even overseas rail systems struggle to match the incredible rate at which the subway – which includes lines constructed by both public and private entities – expanded in the early part of the 20 th century. New York’s level of 24-hour service still remains unmatched anywhere else in the world.

But New York’s subway did not escape the mid-20 th century transportation dark ages unscathed. As rail infrastructure was allowed to decay, reliability and ridership declined steeply. Important lines were abandoned, including the Second Avenue elevated line that has cost billions to just partially replace. And system expansion slowed to a snail’s pace, never to recover.

However, the essence of the city’s transportation culture held strong. Even when the subway hit rock bottom, with its delayed trains covered in graffiti, millions of riders depended on transit – the nerve supporting all aspects of New York life – every day.

Today, the New York subway system – with all its ups and downs – continues to symbolize topsy-turvy life in the fast-paced city. Even as aging infrastructure continues to cause problems and the powers that be have struggled to come up with badly needed funding for transit, there’s never been a question as to whether the general population is committed to the subway’s success – in contrast to DC.

This has helped motivate riders to organize, giving rise to advocacy groups like the NYPIRG Straphangers . These advocacy organizations may not always praise the subway. But instead of just blindly spreading negativity, they try to amplify riders’ voices and legitimately want the system to improve.

Stewart Mader , a New Jersey resident who serves as chair of the PATH Riders’ Council, explained that, though these organizations run the risk of inadvertently repelling would-be riders if they treat transit agencies as their adversaries, they have great potential to build a strong constituency for multimodal transportation.

“Advocacy organizations are most effective when they help the average customer understand how political decisions can support, or undermine, the quality of their everyday transit experience,” Mader said. “This education helps people recognize – and vote for – candidates for elected office who are making transit a priority.”

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Watch CBS News

New York City subways, bridges, tunnels unaffected by earthquake, MTA says

By John Dias

April 5, 2024 / 6:46 PM EDT / CBS New York

NEW YORK -- Moments after Friday's earthquake , New York state and city structural engineers fanned out to inspect infrastructure and transit systems.

There were temporary closures and delays while roads, airports, tunnels and bridges were checked out.

MTA CEO Janno Lieber says it's safe to ride even through a small earthquake, explaining New York City's subway system remained fully functional during the 4.8 magnitude earthquake.

"The service on the transit system, all aspects of the transit system, maintained continuously operating safely throughout," Lieber said.

Lieber went on to tout the Transit Authority's emergency response skills, saying initial inspections show there's no damage to any of its infrastructures and its bridges are built to handle this.

"Seven bridges operated by MTA have been inspected, and I want to emphasis those were designed to withstand much stronger systemic impacts that we experienced today," Lieber said.

Transit officials tell us, they're still monitoring the situation, but besides checking on subway tunnels and bridges, they dispatched emergency inspectors to its vehicle tunnels.

"They were dispatched within about five minutes of the earthquake occurring. All the preliminary results came back negative," said Kathy Sheriden, president of bridges and tunnels. "Tunnels are very resilient for seismic impacts, so they move with the ground."

While the city does a more extensive inspection, experts say an initial visual inspection is a sufficient way to ensure structures are safe.

"They're going to be looking for the pretty obvious visual signs -- cracking, debris, any kind of bending, sagging, change in shape," said Michael Shenoda, assistant professor of civil engineering technology at Farmingdale State College.

Shenoda says bridges and tunnels are designed to a higher standard than most buildings and homes.

He adds, however, "The design is going to vary based on the likelihood of an earthquake in that area. So bridges in California are going to be designed differently in terms of withstanding an earthquake than here."

Experts say if you were actually driving over a bridge during the earthquake, you may not have even noticed it because bridges are designed to be flexible.

• New York City

John Dias is an Emmy-nominated reporter. He joined CBS2 News in November 2017.

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New York Mets Unveil City Connect Uniforms Inspired by Subways, Bridges, and Concrete

“If you know New York, you know.”

That’s the idea behind the New York Mets ‘ brand new Nike MLB City Connect uniform, which the club unveiled this morning. The Mets are the second of nine teams scheduled to do so during the 2024 season. They’ll debut April 27 and then be worn nine more times, all on Saturday afternoons.

It’s a concrete grey base with subway-line-inspired pinstripes. Traces of purple are throughout. The Queensboro Bridge spans the front of the cap, and a large “NYC” is across the chest.

The grey jersey is based on the idea of New York as the “concrete jungle,” with a concrete style pattern within, “the strength and grit that is the foundation of NYC,” says the release from the club, calling it not only the “fabric of New York,” but also the “fabric of our uniform.”

SHOP: New York Mets new 2024 City Connect jerseys, caps, and more

Black pinstripes run down the jersey; a closer look reveals these stripes are made up of small circle and diamond shapes, a nod to the circle and diamond lines on the New York City subway system. There are plenty of subway themes woven throughout the design. The sleeve patch is based on the old subway tokens. The purple trim on the sleeves, the patch, and the Nike Swoosh reference the purple 7-train that takes fans to CitiField. Another way fans get to the game is by taking the Queensboro Bridge, the trusses of which are on the sleeve striping of the jersey.

The Queensboro Bridge and the subway system are also the main stars of the cap. It is a black cap with the Mets’ usual “NY” logo on the crown in black and white. The Bridge spans from the cap’s left to the right, carrying fans from ear to ear. On the inside sweatband of the cap is a map of the NYC subway system with its multi-coloured lines. The undervisor replicates the concrete pattern from the jersey.

LINK: New York Mets complete all-time logo and uniform history

Arched across the jersey’s chest in the Mets’ road jersey typeface style is an “NYC” in black with white trim. “In bold, black lettering, using our classic road jersey font,” says the release, “we stand as tall as our skyline.” The jock tag reads “The World’s City” in purple.

Here’s a surprise: the pants aren’t concrete grey or even black. In a relatively rare move for a City Connect uniform, the Mets will wear good old-fashioned white pants with this set. Down the side of the pants is a single thick stripe using the same Queensboro Bridge pattern that we see on the sleeve trim.

My thoughts? If we’re going to do purple, let’s go purple. Like the Washington Nationals and their only-a-hint-of-pink cherry blossom uniforms , the Mets have chosen to instead go all in concrete grey. This pairing of dark grey and bright purple certainly helps that purple pop a lot more, but I do wish there was more of it — the lettering across the chest and the cap (aside from the button) both ignore the purple altogether, as do the pinstripes.

The New York Mets will wear their City Connect uniform for the first time next weekend. The debut will be on Saturday, April 27, at home against the St. Louis Cardinals. Fans can purchase the New York Mets’ brand-new City Connect caps, jerseys, and other merchandise right now.

NEW YORK METS 2024 CITY CONNECT UNIFORM SCHEDULE

April 27 vs St Louis May 11 vs Atlanta May 25 vs San Francisco June 15 vs San Diego June 29 vs Houston July 13 vs Colorado July 27 vs Atlanta August 17 vs Miami September 7 vs Cincinnati September 21 vs Philadelphia

New York follows the Philadelphia Phillies as the only two teams to drop their new City Connect sets so far this season. Seven more will follow: the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, and Toronto Blue Jays. The Nike MLB City Connect series was launched in 2021 as a way for teams to step outside their comfort zones and try something new while also paying tribute to the city or region they call home. Thus far, we’ve seen some previously unimaginable team-colour pairings, such as the Boston Red Sox in yellow , the Colorado Rockies wearing green , or the San Diego Padres in pink and teal .

Related stories:

NYC subway thieves now targeting sleeping riders to steal cellphones, jewelry and more

By marc santia • published april 18, 2024 • updated on april 19, 2024 at 8:01 am.

The sound. The sensation. The subway sleepiness.

No doubt you've been there after a long day at work or school, or any long day. Grabbing a seat on the train, you start scrolling through your phone, and as the subway rumbles forward, your eyes grow heavier and heavier. 

Suddenly, you’re awake. Your phone is gone. Your apps, your pictures, your contacts, your personal information all gone as well.

Sadly, you would not be alone in having this happen to you — and the NYPD is sounding the alarm on the trend. 

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“It’s one of the lowest levels of theft. If you think about like it’s just somebody is innocent sleeping. They can’t even defend themself and you’re just taking stuff from them,” said Sgt. Jason Bernfeld, one of the leaders of NYPD’s Transit District 20 plainclothes team. 

The team has been riding trains throughout Queens at night, where the sleepy crime trend is spiking, looking for the thieves and delivering a wake up call to riders. 

“It’s more than just enforcement too, there’s outreach. We aren’t only there to stop people and ticket them. We are also here to help people, educate people. And watch over people,” explained Bernfeld. 

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News 4's I-Team followed along with the law enforcement team on patrol in the subways. We saw the team wake up more than 10 riders across several subway lines in Queens in less than an hour. The team will approach a resting passenger, start recording the interaction on their body camera, and then wake the sleeping straphanger. 

Bernfeld approached a slumbering straphanger to warn about what could happen.

“Hey, how are you doing? Sorry to bother you. NYPD. Just so you know, I’m recording, OK?" Bernfeld told the passenger. "Just be careful sleeping in the train alright. You got your bag out. We got a lot of thefts of people sleeping."

The thieves have a specific subway shopping list they’re after, according to police.

"Cellphones are huge. I mean cellphones are just they’re taking them a dime a dozen. And then wallets containing cash or credit cards. Jewelry," said Bernfeld. "Something easily accessible with jewelry, they’re not taking a ring that’s gonna be hard to get off someone sleeping — but if it’s a loose necklace, gold chain or something like that."

The team also stressed the choice of seating makes a difference. Those sitting next to a subway door need to be even more alert: Thieves will quickly grab a phone and dash off the train before the rider even realizes what happened. 

“The doors open, the doors close. If I’m sitting here, my phone is in my hand, my laptop is on my lap and I’m sitting by the door. It’s quite easy for someone to jump in. Grab it and run. Before I even realize something happened, the door closed and I can’t even get after that person,” said. Bernfeld. 

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Pass or Fail: The New York Mets' 2024 City Connect uniforms

The mets are one of eight teams debuting city connect uniforms this season.

The New York Mets unveiled their City Connect uniforms on Friday. The team will wear them for Saturday home games beginning April 27 .

According to the team, the design process took more than two years of planning before they reached the final result. The Mets' traditional colors of blue, orange and white are replaced on these uniforms by gray and purple.

“It’s all about connecting to New York,” said Mets chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg. “A lot of detail, a lot of focus on this idea that yeah, it’s not orange and blue by design. It’s meant to connect to New York. It’s meant to not just be an alternate Mets uniform. It’s our City Connect. It is how Met fans can represent across the world.”

The uniforms pay tribute to the trains that connect Mets fans, the bridges that bring their boroughs together, and the concrete that serves as the city's drumbeat. pic.twitter.com/2AwfY7iSIy — MLB (@MLB) April 19, 2024

According to the Mets, the gray symbolizes the "concrete jungle of New York City," and the purple represents the 7 Line train that runs to Citi Field.

The pinstripes on the jersey and pants are made up of circles and diamonds, representing the local and express subway lines of New York City. And the right arm sleeve patch is designed like a New York City subway token.

On the hats is a cross-section of steelwork on the Queensboro Bridge. Inside the hats there is an artist's rendering of the city's subway map.

Player names on the back of the jerseys are in a font the Mets have traditionally used on the front of away jerseys.

Eight MLB teams will debut City Connect uniforms during the 2024 season. Only the New York Yankees and Oakland A's do not have City Connect uniforms.

What do you think? Would you give these new Mets uniforms a pass or a fail?

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