New MTA Rules to Encourage Running on the Platform

The MTA announced a new batch of rules yesterday, including a ban on moving between cars. Notably absent: a ban on photography (woo hoo!). The Times explains what’s new:

Subway riders afflicted by broken air-conditioning, foul odors, children selling candy bars for occasionally dubious causes and even the random groper have long sought relief by quickly switching cars.

No more.

Moving between cars – as well as resting one’s feet on the seats, sipping from an open container (even a cup of coffee) and straddling a bicycle while riding the subway – will be prohibited under a new set of passenger rules adopted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s transit committee yesterday, the first such rule changes since 1994.

While riding between cars is already forbidden, managers at the authority said they wanted to make clear that even quickly darting from one car to another while the train is in motion is dangerous.

There is only one way, they said, to move safely to another car – exiting the train at the next station and then quickly re-entering it, even if passengers making a such a dash could face other perils, like tripping, smashing a finger or losing a purse between rapidly shutting doors.

Ha. Exactly.

The MTA’s full board now must vote on the changes. Apparently there is some dissension about the proposed moving-between-cars rule:

Mark Page, the city’s budget director, who represents Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on the board, observed: “It is, from time to time, convenient to absent oneself from a car or from a particular group of people.”

Let’s put it this way — it is from time to time convenient to absent oneself from a car or from a particular group of people when, say, a big J.O. party is underway on the 3 train:

Riders like Beatrice McCants, 30, said they had faced many such occasions. Ms. McCants, who works as a newspaper distributor in Midtown, said she was riding a Brooklyn-bound No. 3 train Wednesday when a man began masturbating in plain sight. “I thought, ‘I’ve got to get off this train,'” she recalled. “Now I’m going to get a fine for that, for running from a flasher? I won’t pay it!”

Now that’s a quote! (Nice job, Sewell!)

This quote, however, doesn’t help:

“Let’s say you get on the train in the front, but you’re in a hurry, and you need to exit in the back,” offered Manny Guzman, a 15-year-old high school student from East New York, who was observed yesterday moving between two cars on an uptown No. 2 train. “It is unsafe, but I do it all the time.” Banning this practice, he added, “makes no sense.”

No, no, no! Don’t say it’s unsafe! That doesn’t make sense! (Bad job, Sewell!)

The final vote is set to take place tomorrow.