And every time something like this happens there is a whole forum full of discussion about platform barriers of the sort that you see in airport systems. Several foreign countries also have such platform barriers on their rapid transit lines, and others have modified barriers that are maybe only four feet high.
Maybe platform barriers are nice, maybe they are not nice. They certainly slow the service down, enough so to limit the number of trains per hour that the line can handle. There are other problems besides just cost and aesthetics. NYCT runs different kinds of trains on the same lines, and so doors will not always line up properly. Some places have sliding barriers that can re align themselves according to what train is going to be next on the platform. This of course costs even more money that nobody has.
LION does not foresee NYC or NYCT doing anything of the sort, but one never knows. Just putting up railings with openings that line up with the doors would probably be sufficient for all cases except for those who intend to jump in front of a train.
Bottom line according to the LION, be it a grade crossing or a subway platform, you cannot protect all people from all hazards all of the time.
The key to fixing (most of) these situations is to teach people respect again. Respecting the value of life, respecting others property, and respecting your fellow human being. I’m not going political (frankly this isn’t the time or place) but as a nation the largest decline in these behaviors and beliefs line up to the changes in our society which started in the 60’s.
I was reading about the subway tragedy in the paper this morning, and from what I gather from the article’s description of the woman who pushed that poor man in front of the train it sounds like she’s mentally ill.
Several days ago the syndicated columnnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that American society has to be more aggressive about getting the mentally ill off the streets. Since he’s a psychiatrist by profession I give him the benefit of knowing what he’s talking about. According to Krauthammer most of the homeless we see are mentally ill and on the street due to ill-advised “mainstreaming” policies, i.e. they’ll be OK as long as they take their meds. But what if they DON’T take their meds?
Granted, Krauthammer was writing in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting, but this subway incident seems to be another indication, to me at least, he’s probably right.
This could get political very quickly, so I won’t go any further.
In the meantime, if you’re riding the subway, DON’T go near the edge of the platform 'till the train pulls in and stops. You never know.
As to problems with the mentally ill, i can only say (as a professional) it’s a very difficult call to determine what illnesses would lead to what restrictions. And Krauthammer, even with his fine professional credentials, is simply wrong to say most of the homeless are mentally ill. 20-25% of the adult homeless (even lower if you include all the minors who are homeless) have a severe and persistent mental illness while conservatively 22-25% of the population of the US will have some mental illness during their lives (lifetime prevalence rate). That we all tend to draw false inferences based on sensational events rather than actual statistics is known as the availability heuristic. I should add, that most chronic severely mentally ill folks are more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators.
Schlimm, I think you are spot on with your analysis of the homeless.
I did have one question though: Wouldn’t the proportionality of homeless and/or mentally ill, vary by state? Case in point: New York State (New York City in particular) has long had a policy of turning out some mentally ill from its system due to budgetary issues etc, many of whom do end up as homeless.
Mental illness has had a change in the way it is treated because institutions cost taxpayer money. So, the prevailing treatment is to allow some mentally ill to be free in society under supervision (usually, supposedly) for medications, etc. This is a dream that has turned into a nightmare. But we are saving taxpayer bucks.
So then it is not about putting some railings on the subway platforms. Somehow I did not think that was the answer.
No not all homeless are mentally ill, but on the other hand they are all a danger to themselves if not to society. We can remove the homeless from the streets for their own protection, but then what to do with them. House them and feed them comes to mind, certainly there are some unused military bases that should be converted into some really nice homeless shelters where people will not feel trapped or in prison. Ach but that costs more money than building a few platform gates.We’ll get gates long before we give people any help.
GASH, LION does not like platform gates, the AMTK gates in Chicago are so overly oppressive, what with their pretending to be an airline terminal and all. LION would rather just go down to the platform by some other stairway.
If I may answer your question with a question, have you ever stood on a subway platform with hundreds of people and considered just how easy it would be for one mentally unbalanced individual to push someone in front of a train? Or in any station with high platforms and even a couple of dozen people? It would take a person of unusual strength to be able to climb back onto the platform given plenty of time but with a train bearing down you don’t have plenty of time.
If we here discuss the problem I don’t know that we will find an answer. But I am quite sure that if members of the concerned public do not discuss the problem then definitely no answer will ever be found.
Said person pushed another to his death twice this month alone. As a matter of fact, the MTA is going to revisit the issue of platform gates. LION does not suspect it will go any further than it did the last time, the costs of such gates have not gone down, although the cost of not having seems to keep going up.
Homeless people make the subway their home. The (E) train is most popular because it runs 24/7 and is 100% under ground. Makes it hard on the morning commute. One train recently made two round trips, and then the T/O checked on a guy who had not moved in all that time only to find out that he was dead.
Trains and people go together, and most foamers are mentally ill anyway.
Good story. The moral is if you’re riding the subway keep your head out of your “you know what”, keep your eyes open and your wits about you at all times. If you look like a potential victim you’ll surely wind up as one.
