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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.