The new MTA proposals also call for a ban on all open containers (including candy bars), but hey, photographs are okay now!

and police insist they won't issue tickets if you've got a good reason for breaking the rules.

Oh, yeah, because transit cops are known for being reasonable.

Fight the man!

So if you take a picture of someone walking between cars, is that bad?

As long as you can still walk between cars on Metro-North.

that's why they allow photos - so they can document people moving between cars and use it as evidence in court.

Look, I walk between cars all the time. Why? Because late at night, it is safer to get off the train with the other ten people who get out at my stop, especially since evryone I know who has been mugged in this neighborhood got off the wrong end of the train and was alone. You'd say, oh, cops will understand that, but I don't know--I certainly know people who've gotten tickets for riding bikes on the sidewalk (empty sidewalks) because the road was too dangerous, but unavoidable. They told the cops that and the cops told them to go to hell. Yeah, the cops are way concerned about my safety and I'm just pretending to be tough.

That is a sobering assessment, dame. Good point about safety re: mugging.

It's another sign of the committee's lack of understanding peak hour patterns. Tourists and casual travellers may be more flexible in taking the next train or finding an alternate route (the MTA does have a hand in managing busses, after all), but it'll be devestating for anyone who actually has to work or attend courses. The time lost in fighting for an open car will result in more crowding (enough to exceed safety capacity, in too many cases), but on the upside, it'll inspire more people to plan in advance, boosting Metrocard sales and rail traffic package program offers.

The "security measures" may encourage photography as a move to install closed-circuit systems in a (very) limited number of places, the better to raise fares again in the next two years. In that time, we'll be following Japan's model of subway traffic chaos, rather than borrowing a page from Philadelphia's system.

The city's looking to scoop up extra moula and trots out a ridiculous excuse to do it. Nothing new. Expect even more stuff like this now that dreams of the Westside Stadium and the 2012 Olympics, with all the expected earnings, went up in smoke.

Okay, so considering the way most people use the subway, wouldn't it make more sense to focus on making it safer to pass between cars?

Okay, so considering the way most people use the subway, wouldn't it make more sense to focus on making it safer to pass between cars?

On most of the newer trains, you can't even pass between cars anymore - the doors are locked or just not set to open at all... So I think this is policy for older trains. I only ever walk between cars on the J, I think, because that's the only train I regularly take that lets you...

as mentiond above, dame speaks wise words

On most of the newer trains, you can't even pass between cars anymore - the doors are locked or just not set to open at all...

That's not true, mdn. The L and all the IRT trains have the newer cars (creepy robot voices/blue seats/drive temselves) and you can walk between them all day long. The cars that are locked are the ones with the yellow and orange seats in the T-patterns, which tend to run on the IND lines (NQRW/FVBD/G--I think those are all IND?) and the A.

Over the last 10 years, they say, 117 people have been injured, and 13 have died after falling to the tracks from between cars.

This is also really dumb. So 11.7 people a year get hurt and 1.3 die. How many millions of times do people walk between cars? Totally an acceptable risk, and even better, no one makes you do it. You get to decide the risk you're willing to incur.

It's like when they decided the 18th St stop on the 1/9 didn't need any booth clerks at all, and then some guy got shot and bled to death while the EMTs watched, because they couldn't get in--none of them had a Metrocard. Anyone with half a brain could have told the MTA it was dangerous, but they didn't care. Your safety is not the MTA's chief concern.

I'm tempted to say I'm glad I got out in time, but I simply don't believe this is going to be enforced -- who exactly is going to see and ticket you as you go through the forbidden door? Have they added transit cops to every car since I left? I suspect this is mainly so when people do get hurt or killed doing it the city can say "We told them not to do it, it's not our fault, we're not liable."