Just how dangerous is the subway?

Plus: station bathrooms will open soon [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] Subway safety is an election issue and a problem for the MTA's finances. But just how dangerous is it to ride the train? Plus: Unarmed guards have begun stopping turnstile jumpers. A handful of subway station bathrooms will reopen next year. And a very cool, very foul-mouthed 60-year-old woman has become the go-to driving instructor for rich Manhattan teens. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [two cops on a subway platform] Courtesy of MTA With crime emerging as one of the most dominant issues [in the upcoming midterms]( nationwide, politicians in New York have given particular attention to violence — and the perception of violent threats — in the city's subway system. Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul last weekend ordered 1,200 [additional NYPD officers to patrol]( the subway system — after already [adding hundreds more in January]( — and over the next three years, the MTA plans to [install security cameras]( on every single subway car to help solve crimes and make riders feel safer. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, has seized on riders' fear as a key issue in his campaign. “People who have changed their behavior – they're not riding the subway at the same hours. Maybe they're Jewish, they take their yarmulke off because they're afraid of being attacked,” Zeldin said during a [debate with Hochul on Tuesday night](. But just how dangerous is it to ride the subway? Here are the crime stats: Overall, major felony crimes of murder, burglary, grand larceny, assault, rape and robbery show a 42% increase this year, compared to 2021. But if you compare those same stats to 2019, there has been a 4% decrease. There were 3,534 crimes — including misdemeanors — aboard transit between January and September, according to the NYPD. In 2019, when the subways were full of people, there were 3,495 crimes in the same time period. That represents a 1% increase in crime. By one measurement, playgrounds are actually more dangerous than the subways. There have been 27 shootings on playgrounds so far this year, while there have been 14 in the transit system. Walking could be considered more dangerous than riding the rails. There have been 88 pedestrians killed by vehicles so far this year, according to the Department of Transportation. That’s roughly one person killed every three days on city streets. Didn’t the NYPD say the subways were safe? Just last month, NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey, the police department's top uniformed officer, said straphangers had experienced a remarkably safe summer, noting that crime in transit made up less than 2% of all crime in the city. "That is at or near an all-time low for crime in transit," Corey said on September 19th. "What I’m seeing right now is measurable sustained progress in addressing these conditions." But the rosy rhetoric came to an end after a rash of violence on the subways that shook the NYPD and MTA. On September 30th, an argument on an L train ended with a man [stabbed to death](. And in October, a Citi Field worker was randomly stabbed in a Bronx subway station and a 15-year-old was [shot to death]( on an A train in Rockaway. "Last month when I sat here at this meeting and I spoke of how we came out of the summer months, May through Labor Day, with overall crime reductions when compared to pre-pandemic reporting years, and that was true," NYPD Transit Chief Jason Wilcox said at Monday’s MTA committee meeting. "We have now experienced a number of significant acts of violence on our subways." Why is safety so critical to the MTA? An MTA survey released in August found that only 54% of customers felt safe or very safe on trains, and nearly 70% of those surveyed said there weren't enough police in the subway system. "It’s scary because my kids and family members ride it, so it’s scary. So I really hope they do something about it, so people feel safe while they’re traveling," Jemma Parris told Gothamist at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station last week. That fear represents a major problem for the MTA. A new analysis of MTA finances by the state comptroller predicts a $4.6 billion budget gap in four years if current ridership trends continue. But a perceived lack of safety is only one reason ridership remains low. Office occupancy in Manhattan is projected to surpass 50% by the end of this year, according to one analysis. And the tourism industry expects there to be 56.3 million people visiting the city by the end of the year, which is about 85% of 2019 levels. The MTA is already saying it will need a new revenue stream to make up for the projected shortfall from lack of fares. The MTA hopes to get back to 1.3 billion riders a year in 2026 — a far cry from 2015, when subway ridership hit an all-time high of 1.8 billion riders a year. — [Reporting by Stephen Nessen, Rebecca Redelmeier and Samantha Max]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Some business corridors participating in the Open Streets program did better than before the pandemic [outdoor dining setup in a street in Chinatown] Gwynne Hogan/Gothamist [A report out this week from the city's Department of Transportation]( found that four Open Street corridors — in Astoria, Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Manhattan's Koreatown — outperformed their pre-pandemic business in the first 18 months after the arrival of COVID-19. A fifth stretch in Chinatown was the only one of the five car-free corridors that saw a decrease in sales during that period: 8%. But the report notes that it saw a smaller decline than the rest of the borough, with Manhattan seeing a 22% decline on average and a 31% dip for establishments along a "control corridor," or a nearby location without vehicle restrictions. "Cars don’t shop or dine out. People do," said Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez at a Tuesday press conference in Chinatown, adding that the Open Streets program is here to stay. Some city residents deem the Open Streets program essential to ensuring their neighborhoods’ futures. Chinatown resident Edward Ma, who sits on the local community board, shouted down Rodriguez after he'd finished speaking, asking him to expand the program from Doyers Street to Mott Street around the corner. "It would be more people coming here, more business, more chi, more prosperity," Ma said. — [Reporting by Michelle Bocanegra and Gwynne Hogan]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's what else is happening A haundful of subway station bathrooms, which have all been closed since the start of the pandemic, will reopen next year. The MTA said 16 of its 163 public toilets would reopen with security guards posted outside to ensure people weren't using the restrooms to do anything illegal. ([Gothamist]( The City Council is expected to pass a bill today that would mandate the construction of a citywide greenway system. If approved, the parks department will have to come up with a plan for the network of pedestrian and bike paths by December of 2024. ([Gothamist]( The MTA said it hired a private security firm to stop turnstile jumpers. MTA Chair Janno Lieber confirmed that unarmed guards have been placed in six subway stations as part of a pilot program, and said that those stations have already seen "a dramatic increase" in fare payments. ([New York Post]( The Cross Bay Bridge, which spans from Broad Channel to the Rockaway Peninsula, is the first of the seven MTA-run bridges to open a bike path (though everyone rode on it anyway). The agency also plans to open a bike lane on the Henry Hudson Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Manhattan, in 2025. ([AM New York]( New York City's Fair Fares program, which provides half-priced MetroCards for low-income riders, will transition to the OMNY system next year. So far, officials said that only about a third of eligible New Yorkers have signed up for the program, despite a concerted outreach effort. ([Streetsblog]( Meet Shanti Gooljar, the spunky 60-year-old Guyanese woman who has long been the go-to driving instructor for ultra-wealthy Manhattan teens. "You will get into an accident," she told the writer of this piece, who was learning to drive. "You will hit your fucking car for no reason." ([Curbed]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: Happy 118th! [a image of the first subway station entrance at City Hall in 1904]( [@NYTransitMuseum/twitter]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential election coverage and more. [DONATE]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [WNYC]( [WQXR]( [NJPR]( [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 All rights reserved. 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