Transportation and its effects on commuter life

We all know how much of a struggle it is to get on that Baruch bound train in the morning. Sleepy eyed, we put our headphones in and shut ourselves out. We try to avoid eye contact with the guy sitting across from you, don’t wanna seem weird and all. Then, a voice rapidly shouts out that due to signal problems, your Downtown 6 train has been delayed. You put your head down and sigh, feeling the awkward moment that will come when you walk into your Accounting class 20 minutes late, again. Yet, you persevere, knowing that its better to be late than miss class all together. So maybe the MTA has it out for us students, or maybe they just need some work. In the long run, they’re not too bad at what they do. Maybe compared to European nations they could be cleaner and more on time, but Germany and France don’t have to deal with millions of New Yorkers every, single, day. I guess we just need to take one for the team on occasion, and remember that the MTA is a symbol, and as “New York” as it gets.

An all too familiar image.

This article by Joe Cochrane of the New York Times focuses on the commuter life in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta is one of the world’s few major cities without a public rapid-transit system. With nearly 28 million people in metropolitan area, congestion and backups in various lanes are a daily struggle. Multiple hour long commutes, as well as delays caused by various holidays and aggressive weather during monsoon season only worsen the wait times. Yet, hope seems to be on the horizon. The Indonesian government, along with private investors have appropriated $4 billion into the public transit system for various projects, these will start between October and 2015. Further details and the full article can be found here

Commuters head to their various destinations.

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This article is about people switching over to Amtrack trains rather than taking air flights. As fuel and airplane ticket prices begin to rise, more and more people are taking trains for travel. Back in 2000, only 33% of people took Amtrack trains from New York to Washington. Now about 75% of people take Amtrack trains for many reasons. Taking the Amtrack trains are less troublesome then booking flights. You avoid the waiting process, airport security. You also avoid delayed flights as it is a common problem. 90% of all Amtrack trains arrive on time.

For full details, the article can be found on the New York Times website, here

Passengers ready to board an Amtrack train.

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This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of a possible proposal to change the subway cars of the New York City subway system. The proposal suggests articulated subway cars, which would be one continuous car, structured similarly to accordion buses. This new design would fit more people on the train and solve some overcrowding issues that are currently dealt with by the MTA. Though this proposal is being made now, these new subway cars are not likely to be active for a very long time since many current subway car models are relatively new. This new design could change the New York City subway systems for the better, as it already has for transportation systems of other major countries in the world. Full article can be found here.

Standing, that’s so 2013….

Browsing away, in the clouds.

This article is about the Federal Aviation Administration putting a work group to research if they should possibly relax or even remove the ban on electronic devices. There still is some debate on whether cell phones should be allowed during flight but general use of tablets are allowed. The rest of this article by Nick Bilton can be found, here.