February 22, 2005
Closed Token Booths = Safer Subways, MTA Says
Some day, people will marvel at how insane the MTA is. Some day as in today. For instance, after a couple subway incidents (like Saturday's murder at the West 18th Street station), the NYC Transit, a divison of the MTA, says that the subways are safer than ever, even the ones with closed token booths. That's because the stations will have "several measures to ensure straphanger safety, including intercoms and closed-circuit cameras and the continued presence of roving NYC Transit workers able to open service gates." The only way Gothamist can figure that actually being the case is if there were apathetic token booth clerks. Sure, there may be roving NYCT workers and cameras, but we would think that a continuous human presence would be a strong deterrant. Anyway, since there has been some confusion about the police's response to the West 18th Street subway station murder and how one officer couldn't get there in a timely manner because he went to a turnstile and didn't have a Metrocard, the NYPD, FDNY and MTA are looking at procedures on how to disseminate keys to the subway gates and Metrocards. You would think that the NYPD would have some kind of special all-access unlimited Metrocard...but then we wonder about those turnstiles where you swipe swipe swipe and nothing happens because it's dirty.
And a couple was attacked at the Union Square subway station over the weekend. They had bumped into a group of people on the stairs at East 14th Street, and it turned ugly. This happened at 8PM - which is prime time for Union Square. Gothamist doesn't know what this really means about the state of our subways, but self-defense classes are always a good idea. And sneakers, to run away quickly.
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MTA = Idiots
Things can only go downhill from here.
Crime will rise, and hell, the graffiti will be back on those trains soon enough.
Maybe we should try privatizing the system and firing the entire MTA board of directors. Worked for London (If i'm mistaken), Tokyo, Etc...
Is it wrong to feel a brief bit of relief learning that the murder on 18th St. wasn't completely random? I use that station sometimes and I use the train at Union Square multiple times a day.
Good riddance to the token booths. A few years ago some lunatic harrassed me in a subway station. Inexplicably he wouldn't let me out of station for roughly five minutes. I was knocking on the window of the token booth as the lunatic pushed me and hit me in the head. The wonderful token clerk stood there performing his mundane token chores, pretending I wasn't there. I hope he loses his pension as well as getting fired. If you think token booths make for a safer system - dream on.
How does a NYC cop not have a Metrocard? How can said cop not hop the turnstile (unless it's one of the revolving gate ones)?
It boggles the mind.
i agree with the chimp. the token booth clerks don't do anything, not even act as a deterrent to crime. i mean, seriously, they can't even stop turnstile hoppers. granted, they have phones to contact police, but the public with an intercom can perform the same function. we and the token booth clerks would be better off if the token booth clerks patrolled the platforms and the stations. i'm not wild about having closed circuit cameras all over the place. it's creepy.
this is not to say that the mta is not idiots. they are. they are worse than just regular idiots. they are secretive idiots. open the damn books!
It's good that someone agrees with the chimp. Apparently 'the gothamist' doesn't as evidenced by the article's opening statement comparing the decision to get rid of the useless token clerks as 'insanity.' Who needs to think when we have 'the gothamist' to do all the thinking for us.
I prefer a Token booth over closed circuit TV only. Even if the guy in the booth ignores you when you need, at the least there is a chance of him calling for help. IMO, if you need help and closed circuit TV is the only recourse, you're really screwed. Maybe when the guy on the other side of thr camera comes back from his coffee break, they'll know where to pick up the body...
You know, all of this talk linking subway booth clerks and murders has this very odd assumption underlying; the assuption being that it is an unavoidable fact of life that there are people roving the subways looking to assault and commit murder.
This is true in everything in life, to an extent, much that you cannot single out the subways. Are we going to fault the Police department for not having a crossing guard on every block?
But it's a strange assumption nonetheless. Seriously, I don't see why people are so afraid of getting randomly and senselessly murdered such that they have to hope that someone's always watching their backs. (deterring robbery is another story, but mugging incidents are rarely life-threatening)
To pin all of this on the subway booth clerks is insane. They are neither trained, able, nor supposed to deter crime. I actually feel terrible for them that New Yorkers expect so much out of them in dangerous situations. They are there to do a job in their booth, and if that job is redundant or no longer cost efficient, I can understand how the MTA want to scale back on that particular service. It's better to not have them there for the right reasons then to have them there for the wrong reasons.
"I actually feel terrible for them that New Yorkers expect so much out of them in dangerous situations. "
After being attacked while the token clerk ignored me doesn't engender wells of sympathy from me. Since you seem to be so concerned about the token clerks perhaps a compromise is in order. How about if we fire them, but you go over and blow them.
I agree with chimpie on that, but maybe in your case you were just unlucky to have an extreme ahole at the booth. Most, if not, all of the Token Booth operator’s are Aholes. But its still safer for them to be there then it is with a close-circuit TV.
But then you have to understand they deal with lots of crap every day. I understand why they act like they do, but ignoring someone in distress is unacceptable. NYkers SHOULD except alot from them, that’s their job. It’s not like they're going beyond the call of duty.
I don't doubt that the token clerks put up with a lot of nonsense and that it is a mindnumbing repetitive job. I'm sure there are some that are good people and I agree that I came upon a particularly a-holish one. Considering we don't use tokens anymore they serve no purpose and by doing away with the mindnumbing jobs maybe they can go out and find a more fulfilling job and the blow job from the guy above would be an extra bonus.
There's a huge difference between answering questions about the 4 train and jumping out of a sealed, safe booth to stop a robbery. Last time I checked, their duties fell more around the former than the latter.
If you want protection and security, demand more uniformed police officers on the platforms. Why pay a token clerk to call the cops when you can have the cop there already? But don't fight token booth closings, when tokens don't even exist anymore, for the sake of paying someone to sit and watch you wait for a train. I can understand the wish for having such a person around, but the token booth clerk really isn't a security guard... anything they do to help us citizens out in a crime situation is a nice service that shouldn't be taken for granted. (And I'm seeing that done here, often)
I love the safety messages after any crime report on Gothamist. Sneakers and self-defense classes just to take the train?!