Jessica Alfieri

writes everything you see here.

  • I’ll take Boardwalk.

    Jul 22, 2008 tagged as MTA, New York, subway

    Next time the communication of a major MTA problem gets screwed up, we’ll have someone new to blame: MIS Sciences.

    The authority has signed a $600,000 contract — $120,000 a year for five years — with the MIS Sciences Corporation, an Internet services company, to run a text-messaging service that will provide real-time alerts about subway, bus and train disruptions to millions of commuters. (The Daily News reported some details of the new text-messaging system on Sunday.)

    MIS is supposed to be able to distribute 1 million messages every five minutes, which is just a little better than the MTA’s previous best: 40,000 messages per hour.

    But this doesn’t mean we’re going to feel any better about the MTA.

    This system is designed to better communicate their shortcomings.  So we’re still going to focus on… THE SHORTCOMINGS.

    MTA is plagued by fundamental problems: sub-standard service and super-bureacratic management, which is unsurprising from a de facto monopoly.  Until that changes, these marginal improvements are kind of irrelevant.


  • Exceedingly Bad Odds

    Jun 25, 2008 tagged as MTA, New York, subway, turnstile jumper

    The fine for jumping the turnstile and saving yourself two dollars is sixty dollars.  How many New Yorkers are stupid enough to make that gamble?

    85,000, evidently (from whom $7.2 million in fines was collected this year).

    I find it hard to believe that your typical turnstile jumper averages thirty successful jumps for every fine, which is the only way to make this crime not even pay, but break even.

    I don’t know any jumpers, let alone habitual ones.  Anyone out there want to fill us in?

    (via Second Avenue Sagas)



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