And just when you were starting to love your 45 minute wait on the L and G lines.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled on Monday four proposals for a scheduled fare increase next March, introducing the possibility of raising the base fare on subways and buses to $2.50 from $2.25 or increasing the cost of a 30-day MetroCard by as much as $21.

Some of the proposals put more burden on travelers who buy their rides one at a time. Others extract more blood from those who buy rides in bulk or spring for an unlimited card. Which do you think is the fairest? Which would you rather see the transit agency implement (which is not necessarily the same question)?

Here are the four proposals.

Image c/o The New York Times

Thursday seven art installations were unveiled at various Brooklyn subway stations along the D line. According to the New York Times,

Almost all of the new works…are laminated glass windscreens that edge subway platforms above ground.”

To see these “laminated glass windscreens”, check out all of the beautiful art exhibitions in this slide show, c/o the New York Times: Beautifying the D Line. Seriously, take a look.

Amongst these installations includes a very cool gate created by Christopher Russell, a Manhattan sculptor:

Mr. Russell was entrusted with designing bronze gates, 7 feet high and 6 feet wide, at the Ninth Avenue Station in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The gates depict honeybees crawling on hives, and the posts of adjacent fences will have honeybees resting on 17 finials shaped like flower heads.

The gates are expected to be presented in the fall after the station, an Arts and Crafts-style copper-roofed structure built in 1916, has been fully renovated. Although the gates are operable, riders will not pass through them, but will simply admire them (or tremble in their presence).”

For more on this story, including the inspiration and process behind Russell’s work, visit the New York Times article in its entirety here: A Sculptor Creates a Stop on the Bee Train.

If you happen to hop on the D train and pass one of these installations, comment below!

Gothamist

As you may have read by now, on Friday night an L train struck and killed a 20-year-old man who had fallen on to the subway tracks during a fight. We’ve posted about subway deaths before, but this one hits close to home as it happened at the Bedford L station.

According to accounts, two men were arguing on the train when things became physical. The altercation eventually moved out to the platform and both men fell on to the tracks. When the Manhattan-bound train approached, one man got out and fled, while the other was hit.

Initial reports seemed to put both men at fault, while later reports claimed the victim, a local college student named Joshua Basin, had been attacked by a drunk man.

Police have released a sketch of the suspect. Here is the description from Gothamist: “The suspect is described as a white male, between 30 and 35 years old, with a thin build, light complexion, dirty blond hair with pock marks on the right side of his face. He was wearing brown pants, black rain jacket and black sneakers.”

Call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or visit NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM with any information.

via flickr

I was waiting for the L train at Bedford Avenue twice in the past three days when I heard announcements involving “a customer injury” and “a police investigation” that resulted in no Manhattan-bound trains. While it is a sad fact that passenger deaths and injuries occur all too frequently, the past few days have been particularly deadly.

The first L train death occurred around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning after a train struck 22-year-old Brian O’Mara of Garden City, Long Island. O’Mara had been standing on the tracks near the 3rd Avenue stop. Service partially resumed three hours later.

A second L train death happened Saturday night when a man became caught on the tracks between an oncoming train and the platform at the 6th Avenue station. There have been several reports of passengers seeing the decapitated head.

Manhattan-bound L trains were delayed again at around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning because of a sick passenger at Union Square, according to an announcement from an MTA employee.

What makes the L train particularly dangerous? While last weekend’s deaths happened to people on the tracks, the line’s overcrowding doesn’t help. According to a study published in October, the L train “has grown at three times the rate of the subway system as a whole.” Morning rush hour trains operate at 116% capacity. The MTA is aware of the overcrowding and has pledged to run more trains beginning this summer.

Can these tragedies be prevented by keeping people off the tracks? Cities like Paris and Tokyo have barriers and safety doors along the platforms at some stations.

Notably, within twenty-four hours of the two L train incidents, two other people died within the subway tunnels and walls. Riders found a man in his 60s dead in an R train station in Queens at 2:01 a.m. on Saturday morning. Reports speculate that he may have fallen down stairs. Later that day, an MTA employee found the body of a man near the Nostrand Avenue A station in Brooklyn.

Leave it to BuzzFeed to be brutally honest (and dead on) on their “Hipster Subway Map.”  Sad but oh so true that it consists of only 4 transit lines: the L, F , JMZ and R trains.   We like the detail at the end of the L that says “You passed out again”… I mean we’ve all been there right?

larger version of the map here

Epic day for transportation: The East River Ferry set sail for the first time today.  This ferry will connect various Brooklyn locations (docks on N. 6th,  Schaefer Landing on the Southside and India St. in Greenpoint!), Long Island City and Midtown Manhattan.  Thank you NY Waterway for saving us from another hellish wait on a subway platform!  Oh and its free until June 24th.   For more info go to the NY Waterway site and play with the interactive map.

Poster Boy dropped a dancing banana on the Greenpoint Ave G platform. Love the shadow effect.

h/t josh morrissey

Yep, the L was closed all frackin’ weekend for service, construction, and repairs.  According to the MTA and many a Williamsburg working class hero, everything is as promised kosher come the start of this work week.  If you’re not already painfully aware, the price of a ride is going up, so I suppose it is good to know where our fares are being put to use.  I already knew service would be suspended this weekend, but I walked up to the L nevertheless, to read the sign and make my “alternative transportation” plans accordingly. As I walked away, I saw others walk up and observe the sign. They appeared to read the sign several times, pausing to reflect, looking around, and ultimately staring at it blankly. “Surely, there must be more information here,” I swear I heard them say under their goat cheese omelette brunch breath.  In unrelated news, the goat cheese omelette at Cafe Colette is delicious.

The temperatures are dropping, but I’m still glad I can walk to work. Good luck to everybody else. The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted today to raise subway, bus, and commuter rail prices for the third time in three years. After all the changes and service cuts this past summer, you’d think the MTA would give riders a break, but the fare increases passed in the board vote 12-2. The MTA plans to see a 7.5% increase in revenue from the fare hikes. From The Times:

“The unlimited 7-day and 30-day MetroCards for the city’s subway and bus system will remain unlimited, as the board rejected a proposal to cap the number of rides they are valid for. But the price of the passes will jump significantly. On Dec. 30, when the increases take effect, a 30-day unlimited card will cost $104, up from $89, a 17 percent increase, while an unlimited weekly pass will cost $29, up from $27. Single rides will rise 25 cents to $2.50.”

The MTA is like most of our city, struggling with budget shortfalls and funding shortages. Looks like commuters are going to start facing their own budget shortfalls come soon.

Choire at The Awl posted this barbaric shot of the L Train’s subway notification sign, noting it’s “MTA TRANSIT DOOMSDAY in Williamsburg.” It is indeed! Although my train mysteriously appeared despite what the MTA overlords predicted, so maybe there’s hope after all? Good luck. Stay cool out there.