Are crowded mass transit systems spreading disease?

Good policy for metro areas to open back up.

Yes, the policy appears to be based on saving cost rather than saving lives.

The newest report is that 50 MTA workers in New York have died of the coronavirus and 1900 have tested positive. 5200 more are in quarantine. That is out of a total workforce of 70,000.

That should be enough evidence that the crowded transit system is unsafe. It needs to change or shutdown.

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Seoul has a population density of 45,000 people per square mile and nowhere near the equivalent number of cases.

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50 fatalities is more than we have in all of Western PA.

Actually, the population density of Manhattan is 72,000 per square mile.

What are their restrictions compared to ours?

We did not do that here. Why you insist on making these false claims about this town knowing there’s three other posters who live in western PA I will never know.

You understand the most people who live in Manhattan and at least western Brooklyn don’t even have ■■■■■■■ cars right?

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But it sounds like it could be true and that is good enough for most to repeat it

In reality, the Port Authority Transit here did what SEPTA in Philly is doing now, just earlier. They blocked off the front of the bus/train to protect the drivers, reduced service and let the drivers decide what “at capacity” means.

Yep. Only 45% of New York City households own a car.

When I travel, I like to use mass transit. I’m not afraid of it and will continue to do so if allowed.

And most of them are in Queens, the northern Bronx and Staten Island. You need a car if you have to drive to the City or Brooklyn, not in them.

Yep. I grew up in Brooklyn, and owning a car was more of a liability and burden than anything else.

My parents had a car, and in 20 years they put maybe 50,000 miles on it - most of which was likely from having to move the car from one side of the street to the other every couple of days for the street-sweepers.

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You understand that cost-cutting measures are greatly increasing the risk of infection to both transit workers and riders. The real answer is to increase the numbers of buses and trains to make sure that there is more space between riders and better protections for drivers.

If local officials are unwilling or unable to do that I see no alternative to temporarily shutting down the system until the necessary changes are made. If this transit systems were a private entity I am sure that the national media along with city and state officials would be all over this crisis.

Temporarily shutting down the mass transit system in New York would cause much more damage than leaving it open.

This is clear to anyone with any understanding of how NYC works.

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You can’t shut down mass transit in New York without crippling the city entirely. Most people don’t have cars, those that do don’t use them in the city and it’s not walkable.

I can only assume you’ve never been there. Two crosstown blocks in Manhattan is probably significantly larger than the whole downtown where you live.

Famous last words of first time Manhattan tourists: “It’s just five blocks! It’ll be an easy walk!”

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Depending on where in Manhattan, “five blocks” can be longer than a mile.

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The transit system has been like one big pox party.

It is likely that so many people have already been exposed that they are achieving herd immunity so the number of cases will eventually decline.

Of course perhaps there should be a travel ban between the city and the rest of the country until they do.