“If you have ever shown concern for me, please vote.”
For most visitors and commuters, New York City’s subway station at Seventh Avenue/53rd Street is only a stop. Or you can ignore it entirely while riding on the subway, and only glance up at your destination. phone when you roll into the station, or you’re changing trains. If you don’t commute there often, how can you remember it?
Sunny Ng, a software engineer, is a big fan of the Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street stations. And it’s important to keep that in mind when participating in Ng’s popular TwitterNYC subway bracket.
On Dec. 17, Ng tweeted his finalized bracket of the “top 256 stations” in New York — as voted on by his followers and members of what he calls “Transit Twitter.” Since then, hundreds of people have voted in Ng’s tournament and, of course, shared their hardened opinions on different stations.
“It’s such a daunting task to run a tournament bracket with 424 stations,” Ng told In The Know. “I ultimately decided to make it a go now, because in the last couple of weeks people have started to leave the platform, and I wanted to do it before it was too late.”
Ng grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, and spent years depending on other people’s cars or the unreliable bus system that ran every 40 minutes. Canada has invested over $100 million in public transit infrastructure, but there have been many shutdowns and overrunning expenses. have created significant delays to the projects.
In the U.S., urban transportation systems are not “world-leading,” a report by Investment Monitor In November. The American Society of Civil Engineers wrote in its 2021 assessment that 45% of U.S. citizens don’t have access to public transit and most of the current systems are run-down.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), is the largest transit system in the U.S.You can also find out more about the other features of this website. more New York City commuters use public transit Compare to commuters from major cities like Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C.
“It was incredibly frustrating and limiting,” Ng explained about living in the Toronto suburbs. “I already knew then that I wanted to live in a city where I can rely on public transit to go anywhere.”
Ng is passionate about public transportation so he created a real-time subway map called “Ng’s Bracket”. the Weekendest The MTA had its own version of it a year earlier. Ng built the MTA’s 2018 countdown clocks using real-time data streams and data feeds. goodservice.ioThis page shows the status of your subway system, broken down into stations and trains.
He also knew he wasn’t alone in his interest in the New York City subway.
“To be honest, I’m not that surprised about the response,” he explained. “There are so many folks on Transit Twitter that are very opinionated and passionate about public transit, so I knew I could always count on them to participate.”
Ng discovered that participants benefit from familiarity and ridership as the tournament moves into its final rounds. In earlier rounds, the more populated stations tended to win — even knocking out all of the Bronx stations before the fifth round.
“There were some quirky unique subway stations that were eliminated quite early on (e.g., Avenue H with its front porch and rocking chairs), likely because most people haven’t been or heard of them,” he said.
People who were familiar with stations had strong opinions.
“What’s fascinating about this bracket is that everyone has expressed their own criteria in picking their favorite station,” Ng noted. “Some judge by aesthetics and the views you can see on an elevated platform, some care more about the layout and user-friendliness, some think about the historical significance, some highlight the engineering marvels, some transit nerds care more about track layout and operational efficiency, and for some, it’s just vibes.”
Ng started off the final round of the tournament Dec. 28: Broadway Junction and Smith-Ninth Streets will battle it out for the top spot.
Ng’s ideal subway station is, however, a combination of the existing.
“It needs to be accessible, first of all,” he said. “I would love to see our stations also incorporate platform screen doors and entrances that integrate inside nearby buildings.”
From the 424 New York City Metro Stations, only 109 are accessible. Despite their environmental benefits, prioritizing public transit over single-occupancy vehicles, The systems that the U.S. currently uses are not inclusive enough Everyone will reap the full benefits
The platform entrance integration into buildings has also been proven to be “more inviting” for passengers, according to the Regional Plan Association’s 2017 review One of the newly renovated Second Avenue subway stations.
“Entrances should be located within buildings or off the sidewalk in pedestrian plazas, serve both sides of a street and provide stairs whenever possible,” the review said. “They shouldn’t obstruct sidewalks.”
Aesthetically speaking, Ng loves specific station characteristics that give the experience of taking the subway that much more “New York” feeling.
“I love the cross-platform interchanges at Queensboro Plaza and 7 Av/53 St [and] the interactive artwork at 34 St–Herald Sq,” he said. “Also, being in New York with its liveliness, it’s gotta have great subway performers, like 14 St–Union Sq, Delancey St/Essex St and Metropolitan Av/Lorimer St.”
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