BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

‘Emergency Brake Confuses Many on Subway'


By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: January 18, 2010 The New York Times.

The emergency brake is a ubiquitous fixture of New York City subway cars, a cord that allows passengers to bring 400 tons of metal to a screeching halt.

Emergency instructions posted in the subway train tell riders not to pull the emergency brake.

But despite its name — clearly labeled in bold print — the emergency cord carries a counterintuitive caveat: In most emergencies, it is not meant to be used.

Every subway car in the city is equipped with a placard titled “Emergency Instructions.” The first instruction: “Do not pull the emergency cord.”

So what emergency, exactly, does this emergency brake refer to? The explanation, transit officials say, is simple. If someone gets caught between the train’s closing doors, or between subway cars, and is about to be dragged to an unenviable fate, pull the cord. The train will stop, possibly saving a life.

But in case of fire, crime or a sick passenger — in fact, any other situation that could fairly be described as an emergency — the cord should be left alone. Stopping the train between stations will make it harder for help to arrive.

The explanation is on the agency’s Web site, albeit accessible only after several clicks.

“We think that it is clear,” said Charles Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit.

An unscientific survey of riders seemed to suggest otherwise. Of 20 straphangers interviewed last month at the 14th Street-Eighth Avenue station, about half said that they had no idea when the brake should or should not be used. Those who knew that the brake should not be pulled in most situations seemed at a loss to explain when exactly it would be appropriate.

“I can’t remember the last time I read that thing,” confessed Zev David Deans, 27, an artist who lives in Brooklyn, gesturing toward the emergency instructions poster on an L train.

Mr. Deans said that transit officials could do more to inform the public. “They could put it in big letters — ‘Pull in case of ...’ — and then the few reasons why,” he said. “If it just says ‘emergency,’ you’re going to pull it for any reason.”

This confusion played out on a more dramatic scale in November, when a man was stabbed to death on a D train traveling through Midtown on an early Saturday morning.

As frightened riders scrambled away from the killer, a passenger, Vincent Martinez, pulled the emergency cord, stopping the train between stations.

Mr. Martinez’s action, which delayed police officers trying to meet the train, was later criticized by some transit officials. (Mr. Martinez, a security guard, declined to comment when reached by telephone, citing the continuing investigation into the stabbing.)

Panic set in after the brake was pulled, and the train stopped in the dark tunnel, said Paola Nuñez Solorio, 30, a photography student who was in the train car where the stabbing occurred and took photos of the aftermath.

“You felt trapped there with the killer,” she said in an interview.

But Ms. Solorio said that had she been the one standing by the emergency cord, she might have pulled it herself. She said she had not read the instructions about its proper use.

“This is an emergency brake, so you think, because it’s an emergency, ‘I will pull the brake,’ no?” she said.

Indeed, while it might make sense that stopping a train between stations is not the best way to get help, judgment is often clouded in an emergency.

“If people are intervening in a situation like that, it’s likely they are doing it impulsively, rather than in a considered, reflective way; they are not stopping to think,” said James S. Uleman, who teaches social psychology at New York University.

Dr. Uleman said it was confusing to label the brake cord with the word “emergency,” particularly since it suggested the necessity of taking action. He was also concerned to learn that the emergency instructions were often not placed directly under the cord.

“The signage is poor,” Dr. Uleman said. “They didn’t ask a psychologist how to design it.”

The emergency cord activates compressed-air brakes; an onboard conductor must then notify train traffic controllers, who can contact the Police Department. The braking system must be reset by the train’s crew before the car can start moving again, a process that usually takes 5 to 15 minutes and can delay tens of thousands of passengers traveling on a particular route.

In newer trains, the emergency cord is enclosed in a metal box that sounds an alarm when opened, precautions put in place after cord-pulling became a popular act of vandalism in the 1980s and ’90s. An intercom is also provided so passengers can talk to the train operator; in older trains still in use, there is no way for riders to contact the crew.

In 2005, subways began carrying bright red posters that remind riders to read the emergency instructions. Warnings are also printed on some MetroCards.

“Those instructions are not just up there to be read at the point of an emergency,” said Mr. Seaton, the agency spokesman. “We would wish that customers read those beforehand and become familiar with them.”

Emergency cords are pulled about 1,000 times a year in situations where there is no clear emergency, according to New York City Transit. In 2009, the agency recorded 15 occasions when a rider pulled the cord in some kind of emergency, like a sick passenger.

Several of the region’s transit watchdogs said the authority ought to revamp its approach to explaining the brake. But most acknowledged that the brake, when used properly, played an important role.

“There’s a reason they’re there,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney at the Straphangers Campaign. “If my hand was stuck in the door, I’d want somebody to pull the cord.”

Photo for the NY Times by Ruth Fremson.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[shortlineMCI]

I think a better solution to this dilema probably would be to devise a clear and concise way to communicate with the train's conductor. If an intercom device is pressed, or activated in any given car, the motorman, or conductor would be alerted by means of a panel in his compartment which would have corosponding lights to that particular car.

Many passengers do not know, nor care which one of the ten cars they are in, and this would solve that problem. I think this would be a wise way to spend the money that they say they don't have, instead of spending money to be used to give people the ablity to yap their traps on their cell phones and hear a one-sided meaning-less conversation.

I for one do not particularly car for the IND subway lines because of the locked doors. I am well aware that due to the shape of the platforms at the heads of each car, they cannot allow the the passengers the ability to open the doors. There's a huge space there, and it is a long way down to the tracks. I digress.

For all intensive purposes, you are hopelessly, and utterly trapped, with no communications. I love the messages that come out of the new electronic loud speakers. "we are sorry for this unavoidable deley"

Well, GEE, I feel a whole lot better now. Well, that's my rant.

Ken

[traildriver]

Good points.
On a positive note....all the new subway cars are designed (shorter than the ones that must remain locked) so that the doors may be unlocked to allow passengers to pass between cars (although now illegal).
In addition the new cars have intercoms to the crew.
The long cars are now reaching retirement age, and some are indeed gone, so that problem will soon go away.

[shortlineMCI]

Very happy to hear that.

[Hankg42]

As an example, the newer double decked New Jersey Transit trains have a passenger emergency intercom that sounds a tone and displays the car number and intercom number from where it was activated on the LED display board. I think that enables very quick response from the crew, although many could be false alarms. The buttons are very accessible at various points in the cars, including bathrooms (which they should be), but it may also be easy to accidently lean up against them.

[shortlineMCI]

Hello Hank

Very encouraging!