York City Subway System Research Articles

Subway style: 100 years of architecture & design in the New York City subway

More than 250 extraordinary photographs--including both newly commissioned color photographs and period images from the New York Transit Museum archives--chronicle one hundred years of architectural and design history from the New York City subway system, including everything from the interiors of t

Steel dust in the New York City subway system as a source of manganese, chromium, and iron exposures for transit workers.

The United States Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 reflected increasing concern about potential effects of low-level airborne metal exposure on a wide array of illnesses. Here we summarize results demonstrating that the New York City (NYC) subway system provides an important microenvironment for metal exposures for NYC commuters and subway workers and also describe an ongoing pilot study of NYC transit workers' exposure to steel dust. Results from the TEACH (Toxic Exposure Assessment, a Columbia and Harvard) study in 1999 of 41 high-school students strongly suggest that elevated levels of iron, manganese, and chromium in personal air samples were due to exposure to steel dust in the NYC subway. Airborne concentrations of these three metals associated with fine particulate matter were observed to be more than 100 times greater in the subway environment than in home indoor or outdoor settings in NYC. While there are currently no known health effects at the airborne levels observed in the subway system, the primary aim of the ongoing pilot study is to ascertain whether the levels of these metals in the subway air affect concentrations of these metals or related metabolites in the blood or urine of exposed transit workers, who due to their job activities could plausibly have appreciably higher exposures than typical commuters. The study design involves recruitment of 40 transit workers representing a large range in expected exposures to steel dust, the collection of personal air samples of fine particulate matter, and the collection of blood and urine samples from each monitored transit worker.

History - The power to move a city electrification of the New York City Subway System

Because the subway system is New York's largest single user of electricity, the way it was planned and built were major factors in the city's evolution to electrical power. Ever since, the technology of transit electrification and the general electrification of homes and businesses have worked together. Since the subway opened in October 27, 1904, the system has added hundreds of track miles and stations and thousands of subway cars to serve the needs of a far larger city.

Elevated airborne exposures of teenagers to manganese, chromium, and iron from steel dust and New York City's subway system.

There is increasing interest in potential health effects of airborne exposures to hazardous air pollutants at relatively low levels. This study focuses on sources, levels, and exposure pathways of manganese, chromium, and iron among inner-city high school students in New York City (NYC) and the contribution of subways. Samples of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were collected during winter and summer over 48 h periods in a variety of settings including inside homes, outdoors, and personal samples (i.e., sampling packs carried by subjects). PM2.5 samples were also collected in the NYC subway system. For NYC, personal samples had significantly higher concentrations of iron, manganese, and chromium than did home indoor and ambient samples. The ratios and strong correlations between pairs of elements suggested steel dust as the source of these metals for a large subset of the personal samples. Time-activity data suggested NYC subways as a likely source of these elevated personal metals. In duplicate PM2.5 samples that integrated 8 h of underground subway exposure, iron, manganese, and chromium levels (>2 orders of magnitude above ambient levels) and their ratios were consistent with the elevated personal exposures. Steel dust in the NYC subway system was the dominant source of airborne exposures to iron, manganese, and chromium for many young people enrolled in this study, with the same results expected for other NYC subway riders who do not have occupational exposures to these metals. However, there are currently no known health effects at the exposure levels observed in this study.

Border Management at the Millennium

Introduction On 14 December 1999, with the world focused on the coming millennium, Ahmed Ressam was arrested by U.S. Customs as he attempted to enter the United States from Canada with bomb-making materials. This arrest and the media attention that followed, as U.S. and Canadian agencies made further arrests across the border and unraveled a terrorist network, were the latest examples of the increasing attention being paid to the Canada-United States border. Abu Mezer, who intended to bomb the New York City subway system in 1997, also entered via the U.S.-Canadian border. For many Canadians and Americans, the sudden attention to this long-standing, functional, and peaceful border seemed quite startling. Why has the border, long taken for granted, suddenly become an issue in U.S.-Canadian relations? I argue that it results from the following four factors and their implications. The four factors are: unprecedented levels of cross-border movement of goods and people, security concerns, current political interest in both countries, and enhanced activism by local players. Project Description The analysis and conclusions presented in this article are based on fieldwork conducted from the fall of 1998 through the spring of 1999 as one component of the International Migration Policy Program's project entitled Self-Governance at the Border. This comparative international project undertaken by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace aimed to better understand how communities that straddle an international border, and at times form a single economic and cultural entity, manage migration issues in the context of managing other common cross-border challenges. The Canada-U.S. border was one of five different international border regions in this project. (1) During five extensive visits to three areas along the Canada-U.S. border, I visited over ten ports of entry and two capitals and conducted approximately one hundred interviews in both countries with local government officials, business leaders, federal immigration and customs officials, bridge operators, community-based nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and local residents. (2) The goal was to catalogue existing local initiatives, understand and explain similarities and differences, identify and contextualize best practices, and share these findings with a variety of stakeholders, including federal governments. Key Factors Background The United States and Canada share an 8,895-km border (approximately 5,000 miles), the longest undefended border in the world. The countries also share a language, historical tradition, an emphasis on democratic principles and the rule of law, and global alliances. Similar levels of social and economic development have contributed to the social and economic integration between the countries, particularly between border communities, as well as to the long-established access to each other's countries. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service maintains over one hundred ports of entry staffed by inspectors along the border, while the border also is patrolled by approximately three hundred Border Patrol agents (compared to eight thousand agents along the two thousand-mile U.S.-Mexico border). (3) Legitimate Cross-border Movement Steady volumes of trade and the movement of businessmen, family members, vacationers, and students certainly are nothing new for the Canada-U.S. border. The sheer volume of goods and people today, however--which is higher than ever before and shows no signs of slowing down--is one of the factors contributing to the increased attention to the border. Clearly this tremendous growth in commercial and passenger traffic means that more people are coming into contact with the border, raising its visibility. More importantly, however, it is also an issue because of the degree of economic integration between the countries and the resulting impact on the existing infrastructure, raising questions of border management. …

Structural Equation Model of Customer Satisfaction for the New York City Subway System

A more complex model in content and design than previously applied to the measurement of customer satisfaction within the transportation industry is used in this study. Drawing from the results of previous studies that had a narrower focus, a network of 10 potentially important factors that affect customer satisfaction within the New York City subway system was postulated and tested using data collected from a cross section of adult residents. Results indicate that several factors have a direct influence on satisfaction, whereas others have an effect through intermediary variables. Path coefficients for the posited model are statistically significant, although several factors have notably more impact than others. Using model diagnostics, minor revisions and improvements to the initial model have been made while adhering closely to the principles of the original theory. Future developments are discussed, as is the model’s application for planning and resource allocation.

Token Versus Stored Value Card Use in New York City Subway System: Observational Study Over Two Time Periods

As transportation systems search for ways to improve service and reduce costs, new systems for fare payment are becoming more common. The human throughput at turnstiles of a large number of token and stored value card users was observed in the New York City subway system for 1 week and then for another week after a 6-month interval. The results suggest that magnetic card swipe read/write technologies for fare payment may, at least initially, slow down access to subway platforms and increase entry problems for users. Stored value card users took longer, on average, and showed more variability in throughput than token users. Stored value card users also experienced a fair amount of difficulty in swiping their cards through turnstile readers, although the difficulties decreased after 6 months. Users of cards also differed from token users on a number of demographic variables. With about 50 percent of the ridership served by the new system at the time of the study, the most consistent finding across both stud...

Token versus Stored Value Card use in New York City Subway System: Observational Study over Two Time Periods

As transportation systems search for ways to improve service and reduce costs, new systems for fare payment are becoming more common. The human throughput at turnstiles of a large number of token and stored value card users was observed in the New York City subway system for 1 week and then for another week after a 6-month interval. The results suggest that magnetic card swipe read/write technologies for fare payment may, at least initially, slow down access to subway platforms and increase entry problems for users. Stored value card users took longer, on average, and showed more variability in throughput than token users. Stored value card users also experienced a fair amount of difficulty in swiping their cards through turnstile readers, although the difficulties decreased after 6 months. Users of cards also differed from token users on a number of demographic variables. With about 50 percent of the ridership served by the new system at the time of the study, the most consistent finding across both study phases was a tendency for males to use the new card-based system more often than females and for Spanish riders to use cards less often than other riders. Possible problems with the voluntary adoption of cards by riders and the need for marketing efforts are also discussed in light of the inability of cards to offer any improvements in terms of ease of use or turnstile entry speed over that of token systems.

722 miles: the building of the subways and how they transformed New York

When it first opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City subway ran twenty-two miles from City Hall to 145th Street and Lenox Avenue-the longest stretch ever built at one time. From that initial route through the completion of the IND or Independent Subway line in the 1940s, the subway grew to cover 722 miles-long enough to reach from New York to Chicago. In this definitive history, Clifton Hood traces the complex and fascinating story of the New York City subway system, one of the urban engineering marvels of the twentieth century. For the subway's centennial the author supplies a new foreward explaining that now, after a century, we can see more clearly than ever that this rapid transit system is among the twentieth century's greatest urban achievements.

Clouds of secrecy: the army's germ warfare tests over populated areas

Chapter 1 Foreword by Senator Alan Cranston Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Clouds of Secrecy: Introduction Chapter 4 Infecting the Enemy: Biological Warfare in the Past, and the Road to Testing Chapter 5 Living Near Gruinard Island Chapter 6 Fort Detrick's Mysteries Chapter 7 The Army's Germ Warfare Simulants: How Dangerous Are They? Chapter 8 Airborne in the U.S.A.: Open Air Vulnerability Tests in Minneapolis, St. Louis, and the New York City Subway System Chapter 9 Edward Nevin and the Spraying of San Francisco Chapter 10 The Trial Chapter 11 Terror or Error: The Yellow Rain Puzzle Chapter 12 Engineering Genes for Defense: Recombinant DNA Technology and Biological Warfare Chapter 13 Return to Testing: Field Experiments, the Dugway Issue, and Ethical Questions Chapter 14 Worries and Ambiguities Chapter 15 Appendices Chapter 16 Index

Capital Investment and the Decline of Mass Transit in New York City, 1945-1981

Most published research suggests that the decline of urban mass transportation after World War II resulted from the growth of private automobile use, which diverted ridership and financial resources from transit systems. This interpretation is challenged by findings from a case study of the New York City subway system, which shows a significant relationship between the amount and composition of capital investment and service outcomes. The study demonstrates that efficient and effective mass transit service is possible within metropolitan transportation markets, even when private automobile use is more prevalent.

Ecological and Negotiation Processes in New York Subways.

Most investigations of subway behavior fall into either of two theoretical approaches. The first is the ethological approach which seeks to explain human behavior as the result of environmental stimuli; the second is the dramaturgical approach which lodges its explanations in interpersonal and situational processes. Both approaches, however, assume that subway systems are of a heterogeneous composition that is essentially formless. Data relevant to this assumption were collected through direct observations of 455 racial and sexual seating relationships on the IRT and IND lines of the New York City subway system. Statistically significant differences were found which demonstrate the existence of patterned seating behavior. It is concluded that the physical environment of subway cars does indeed structure conduct, but that these settings are situationally transformed as well. These results inform a theoretical discussion of environmental constraint and situational transformations in terms of the ethological and dramaturgical approaches. Negotiation theory, which emphasizes the interplay between structure and process, is suggested as an alternative theoretical formulation.

Energy conservation in subway systems by controlled acceleration and deceleration

The 1975 electric bill for propulsion in the New York City subway system was close to 90 million dollars. This paper addresses the question of how a subway motorman should run his train in order to minimize this energy consumption. It is shown that using maximum acceleration followed at the appropriate time by coasting, and then braking at the maximum acceptable rate, gives a particularly low energy consumption for typical subway trains (although slightly different velocity profiles can be better under appropriate circumstances). This velocity profile is relatively easy to implement, and has now been proved effective in experimental tests. As a result of recommendations reported here, the New York City Transit Authority ran idealized tests of the profile, followed by recently completed tests in revenue service which demonstrated an 18.4 per cent decrease in energy consumption using a daily weighted increase of 4.25 per cent in trip time. This paper also evaluates the energy saved using an alternative method involving equipment modification for field shunting in the series mode.

Spatial Orientation in a Subway System

The absence of a clear structural legibility within the New York City subway system tends to make its users dependent on other informational aids about its structural design and operations-such as signs, announcements, and especially the official New York City subway map and guide. The effectiveness of the New York City subway guide was tested by assigning 20 Ss a travel route which consisted of four trip-segments of varying difficulty. Of the total 80 trip segments, only 37 were traveled via acceptable (as determined by authors) solutions, with subjects having more difficulty planning acceptable solutions for more complex trip-segments. Interviews revealed that subjects felt insecure traveling the subway because the graphics in the system did not serve to reinforce their train selections. The findings suggest that the New York City subway system needs an improved map to guide its passengers as well as better systemwide graphics.

The impact of police activity on crime: Robberies on the New York City subway system : by Jan M. Chaiken, Michael W. Lawless, and Keith A. Stevenson New York City Rand Institute (545 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022), 1974, 74 pp., paperback—$3.00

The impact of police activity on crime: Robberies on the New York City subway system : by Jan M. Chaiken, Michael W. Lawless, and Keith A. Stevenson New York City Rand Institute (545 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022), 1974, 74 pp., paperback—$3.00

Two Cases of Corrosion in Suburban New York Disguised as Galvanic —Their Cause and Mitigation

Abstract Two cases are reported in which stray current potentials were mistaken for galvanic potentials from underground lead-sheathed telephone cables to ground. Lack of suitable meters prevented assessment of the true potentials of the cables which suffered severe corrosion damage. Case 1 pertains to a relatively high stray current area adjacent to both the New York City subway system and the electrified New York Central Railroad. First tests showed steady positive potentials similar to those which might result from a galvanic source. When the fixed potential was blocked out by an opposite fixed potential, a marked fluctuation of potentials to earth was observed. Bonding reduced the cable-to-earth potential to a range of —0.1 to —0.4 volt. Case 2 pertains to a section of cable where an average of 8.9 failures per 100 sheath miles per year occurred over an extended period of time. The damage began to occur shortly after discontinuance of a trolley system. A rectifier-powered cathodic protection system, i...

Modern Car Equipment for New York City's Subway System

Modern Car Equipment for New York City's Subway System