While most straphangers would be unwilling to add another minute to their already chaotic commutes, two elected officials have vowed to spend 24 hours on the subways.
Council member Ydanis Rodriguez of District 10 and assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz are embarking upon what they’ve dubbed the Riders Respond Transit Tour, a two-day interborough trip to hear what commuters have to say about the city’s notoriously dysfunctional subway system.
In a recent statement posted on Facebook, Rodriguez, who chairs the Transportation Committee, explained that the campaign is intended to get answers from locals before a City Council hearing on Aug. 8. “We know that the recent issues plaguing the subway system have impacted you, the riders most of all,” he said. “We’ll be travelling throughout the system in all five boroughs to get suggestions, concerns, ideas and more.”
The tour will kick off on Aug. 3 with the first 12 hours spent in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, and will conclude the following day with the final 12 hours in Brooklyn and Queens.
It is expected that the event will result in valuable feedback from a city that has been outraged by delays, track fires and other service interruptions sometimes resulting in dangerous subway conditions. Speaking to the New York Daily News, Dinowitz was hopeful, stating, “I think by visiting stations in various areas around the city, we can hopefully highlight particularly the issues that haven’t been talked about as much.”
