Many places that are doing well (esp in Asia) have more extensive subway systems than NYC. However the people there might be more hygienic, or maybe the operators are cleaning more often.
Completely agree. Paris, London, and Tokyo all have better and cleaner subways than NYC. But NYC is about as good as it gets in the US.
Believe it or not, as nasty as NYC subways are now, in the 1970s they were far dirtier.
The New York subway could make almost anywhere look clean. Certainly every subway I've been on in Europe was spotless by comparison, and even the ones elsewhere in the US were pretty good.
Agree with you on the cultural events, but the NYC subway is definitely dirty compared to the systems of the two other cities I've lived in (Toronto and London).
I was mostly in LIC and Manhattan though. Maybe it's not so dirty in the other boroughs?
That's a weirdly long reply considering you seem to agree with the poster on everything, except that they committed the unforgivable crime of using the wrong word for the subway system, and the part about the smell.
I'm in NYC, and the subways may be powerwashed now and then, but I have to side with the parent here: They do still routinely smell. Not just the stations, either. It's a common sight, even during rush hour, to see cars that are completely empty except for a single scruffy-looking person with plastic bags for shoes; there's a reason nobody else goes into that car.
I'm from Scandinavia, and this summer I traveled back with my American girlfriend. She couldn't get over how clean and tidy everything was. Not just the cities and roads, but also the subway stations and trains: No cracked tiles, rusty beams or random brown water dripping from the ceiling, or puddles of mysterious green matter; modern signage, electronic boards, elevators, escalators; digital ticketing; and so on. The trains zoom in almost silently, and the cars are spacious and comfortable. She said she felt like she'd traveled 20 years into the future.
While you can talk about economic factors — budgets, age of the system, etc. — my thesis is that it also comes down to cultural differences. Scandinavia isn't just clean because of wealth, or a smaller population; it's that cleanliness and tidiness is part of the culture, and it's strived at almost subconsciously at every level, from the individual to the government. That only works thanks to the homogeneity of the population, where everyone share approximately the same values. NYC certainly is not like that.
I was in London recently - December 2019 right before Covid hit. Stayed at the W Leicester Square hotel, and was disappointed to see how many restaurants were closed early.
On NYC, it has the best subway system in the US, but by global standards, it is filthy, disgusting, and unreliable. Any criticism leveled at the NYC subway is countered by Newyorkers saying "but we have 24/7 service while city XYZ does not!" However that same 24/7 service is arguably a big contributing factor for the NYC subway's many ills.
Seoul, and perhaps Tokyo and Hong Kong and other cities, arguably have an even more hardcore workaholic and party culture than NYC, but get along just fine with subways that don't run 24/7 so basic maintenance and cleaning can take place.
maybe you went on different lines that the ones I'm using, but I never found the most of the stations clean. Or it's just still better than what you're used to (I don't have much experience with subway in other cities)
You clearly have not been overseas. NY subways are possibly the filthiest, Ill-running subway system in the world. Frequent delays, crime, the stench, the cost; every single aspect of it is no match for say Tokyo subway or Prague metro.
Improvement starts with self-introspection and realization. American exceptionalism is all I can see.
The NYC subway also has more riders (about 25%), more lines (about 2x), more stations (about 3x), and more miles of track (2-5x depending on how you count). It's also the only system in the world that I'm aware of that runs 24-hours a day, which impacts the ability to do routine maintenance.
NYC subway system is dirty, lol. I love it, but it's old and dirty.
(I live part time in Barcelona and the rest of the time here in NYC. The BCN Metro is very clean by comparison.
just in NYC because of its age. I don't think it's so bad in other big cities.
I don't care about the delays or capacity. I just wish NYC subway stations weren't so filthy. Yes, they've gotten better in the past 20 years, but every time I go to oversea, I'm reminded of how disgusting nyc subway is.
I live in a new york. Our subway is clean and regular, the bike share docks in my neighborhood are stocked and well-maintained. The busses, though sometimes crowded, run on time.
Public transport works well when your city prioritizes it. I spent my youth living in places that don't and I literally cannot imagine going back.
Have you been to other cities with underground metro lines? The NYC subway is the dirtiest, noisiest, most claustrophobic metro system I've ever used; it even gives London a run for its money.
There are other great cities out there. Many of them do things differently, and do quite well at it. Try Hong Kong or Singapore's underground, or in Europe, Vienna's - even the ones in China are cleaner and easier to navigate.
I agree with nostromo. A day in New York is a day endlessly pushing against roadblocks, those roadblocks being people, traffic, delays, dirt, bad neighborhoods, long commutes, noise, expensive living, expensive eating... and all of that just to live in your tiny box and think that you're a part of it all.
I'll take small to medium-size towns any day, over that.
On the other hand, the NYC system is not particularly dirty. I'm not from NYC and so haven't ridden the subway a lot, but I've never seen a single seat unusable because of filth. That shiny plastic stays pretty clean.
One of the reasons is that they have giant trains running next to them, in a way your other two examples don't. Trains create a lot of dirt and dust from wheels and brakes among other things. If you compare the actual platforms at Grand Central to a subway station they're pretty similar actually. Also both of your other examples close at night, the subway does not.
The subways are generally not that different in cleanliness from the corresponding streets and sidewalks above them. You could ask a different question, which is why NYC as a whole is not very clean, but that's a much more involved and complicated question than this facile complaint.
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