Not only can you travel far and wide, but you can travel with efficiency. This is something that I never understood growing up in the south. In Austin, we had two options for getting from point A to B: either you drive yourself wherever it is you need to be, or you take a bus and increase your travel time by a factor of 5. Sometimes more. Taking the bus was a last-ditch option reserved for those who were desperate - their car was in the shop and 15 people had already given them the "prior obligation" excuse. But in New York City you can save money AND... wait for it... time (!) taking public transit. This lesson has only taken me three or four times to learn - after sitting in a taxi and watching the meter run up to $15, sometimes $20 to go fifty blocks (about 3 and a half miles) I finally learned that taking the subway is almost always quicker.
There are exceptions to the rule, of course, such as when there are delays due to construction or (my personal favorite) an unknown incident involving a police investigation. They never tell you the details of any such investigations, but I always assume that it's something worthy of being on this show. It's more fun that way. Anyway the MTA's website is actually really good about reporting delays and has a trip planner that easily outperforms Google Maps, which I'm quite fond of using.
A question that people often ask me is how many people own cars in the city. According to Wikipedia, 48% of people in NYC own cars, but less than 30% actually drive them to work. Most car owners probably just use their rides to escape the city on the weekends and during the summers, when there seems to be a mass exodus of NYC natives to places like Nantucket and The Hamptons. So, if Wikipedia is correct that means that of the estimated 8.2 million people who live here, close to 4 million of them own cars. Which seems like a lot, considering that I only know a total of three people who own a car here, and I was a personal assistant for all of them. I guess I need to meet more people!
Now, back to the public transit system. Being that it is one of the best and most complex networks in the world, it stands to reason that it needs a little upgrading every now and again. As it happens, one of those upgrades is going on right now, just half a block from our little studio. The Second Avenue Subway project is expected to take 4-5 years to complete, and will bring a much-anticipated expansion of service to Manhattan's east side. I took a few pictures of the above-ground construction going on, and this guy has some awesome pictures of what it looks like beneath the surface. If you enjoy reading updates from the people doing the construction, the MTA has a blurb on the project that can be found here.
Oh, and finally, you may be wondering what "Dynamite" means. The construction crews have been doing controlled blasting for the past few months as they make way for the new subway line. As I said, we are half a block away from where that's taking place. The first time it happened I didn't know that the horn that went off a few minutes before the blast was supposed to serve as a warning, and I just about crawled under my desk / kitchen table in my office / formal dining room / breakfast nook, thinking NY wasn't supposed to get earth quakes. The dynamite blasting is pretty intense, but I admit I may have overreacted just a bit. And here are those photos I mentioned! Until next time.
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| Our grocery store is hidden behind this massive spread of equipment |
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