Slashdot Mirror
Why New York City Stopped Building Subways (citylab.com)
New York City, which once saw an unprecedented infrastructure boom -- putting together iconic bridges, opulent railway terminals to build the then world's largest underground and rapid transit network in just 20 years -- has not built a single new subway line in more than seven decades. As New York's rapid transit system froze, cities across the globe expanded their networks. A closer inspection reveals that things have actually moved backward -- New York's rapid transit network is actually considerably smaller than it was during the Second World War, and due to this, today's six million daily riders are facing constant delays, infrastructure failures, and alarmingly crowded cars and platforms. This raises two questions: Why did New York abruptly stop building subways after the 1940s? And how did a construction standstill that started nearly 80 years ago lead to the present moment of transit crisis? The Atlantic's CityLab explores: Three broad lines of history provide an explanation. The first is the postwar lure of the suburbs and the automobile -- the embodiment of modernity in its day. The second is the interminable battles of control between the city and the private transit companies, and between the city and the state government. The third is the treadmill created by rising costs and the buildup of deferred maintenance -- an ever-expanding maintenance backlog that eventually consumed any funds made available for expansion.
To see exactly how and why New York's subway went off the rails requires going all the way back to the beginning. What follows is a 113-year timeline of the subway's history, organized by these three narratives (with the caveat that no history is fully complete).
To see exactly how and why New York's subway went off the rails requires going all the way back to the beginning. What follows is a 113-year timeline of the subway's history, organized by these three narratives (with the caveat that no history is fully complete).
Are busy selling flamethrowers than doing any actual work.
There's no way the rampant corruption and cronyism around construction in New York City does not have a massive role to play in all this.
It's a real shame, as other cities now have much nicer metro options and I don't nee NYC getting better at all, anytime soon.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The statement...
... today's six million daily riders are facing constant delays, infrastructure failures, and alarmingly crowded cars and platforms.
should read...
New Yorkers should visit places like Dubai, Shanghai, St Petersburg in Russia or even Singapore City, to see what a subway should look like and function.
Sadly, Americans still think they have the best and greatest in the world.
There's already way too many Subways, just like there's too many Starbucks, too many McDonald's, etc.
#DeleteFacebook
Probably the Second Avenue Subway. Started in the 1920s, so if they're in the middle of it now, we can expect it done by the early 22nd century. Which is about par for the course given (union heel-dragging|Republican budget cuts).
the second ave subway
7 train extension
L train tunnel rehab
rebuilding dozens of stations
East Side Access for LIRR to Grand Central
You'd have to pay me to get me to ride a subway instead of just driving
And in cities like New York, London, Seoul, Paris, Mexico City, Barcelona, Berlin and others I've visited you'd have to pay me to drive.
I have better things to do in my life than sit in a car in gridlock traffic for two hours when I can get there in 20 minutes on the subway. Life's too short.
If it takes $20 billion to fix it right, is there a better transportation system that could be bought for that kind of money? $20 billion would put 5000 new electric cabs on the street and pay each driver $50k for the next 26 years. I'm not saying its better,
I mean, good, because it's very plainly very much worse. Subway trains carry hundreds of passengers each. Tens of thousands per hour at the very least. Adding 5000 cabs, even if they all took several people and ran constantly, is a drop in the ocean. Even if they could travel as fast as trains, which on the congested roads they just can't. Vehicles are nowhere near as efficient as trains.
People take up finite physical space. Unless you want to redefine who travels where, there are a limited number of ways to do that. Thinking outside the box is not magic.