Straphangers Campaign
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The Straphangers Campaign (1979) or Strappies is a New York City-based transit advocacy group that focuses on critiquing the operations and planning activities of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and especially that agency's affiliate, New York City Transit, operator of the city's huge subway and bus system.
The organization is part of the broader advocacy group, NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group).
The group's main spokesman, staff attorney Gene Russianoff, often represents the Straphanger's positions at public hearings and in the local press. Its New York City focus sometimes finds the group in opposition to the interests of riders of suburban systems, including the commuter railroads, when it perceives the needs of the latter to be in conflict with those of city residents.
On its website, the group claims credit for a number of local achievements, from helping to secure $30 billion dollars (USD) for transit repairs since 1981 to saving Philip's Saltwater Taffy in Coney Island from closure. The website also contains a discussion forum primarily concerned with the tri-state (NY-NJ-CT) area's transportation systems.
The group's name is derived from the colloquial term "straphanger" for a transit rider, derived from the leather straps that standing riders used to grasp to keep their balance while the vehicle was in motion.
[edit] Pokey Awards
The Pokey Awards, a product of the Straphangers Campaign, tells the public which bus is the slowest in the city.
The Pokey Awards 2005 results (the slowest bus routes per borough):
| Borough in New York City | Bus Route | Average Miles Per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | M34 | 3.4 |
| Bronx | Bx19 | 4.9 |
| Staten Island | S61 | 11.9 |
| Brooklyn | B63 | 5.2 |
| Queens | Q58 | 6.9 |
The Pokey Awards 2006 results, announced on October 24 (the slowest bus routes per borough):
| Borough in New York City | Bus Route | Average Miles Per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | M14A | 3.9 |
| Bronx | Bx19 | 5.1 |
| Staten Island | S42 | 11.1 |
| Brooklyn | B35 | 4.9 |
| Queens | Q56 | 7.2 |
[edit] Other "awards" and surveys
The Straphangers Campaign also conducts annual surveys checking the performance of all subway lines. Key factors include timeliness, reliability (service breakdowns), seating availability, clarity of announcements, and cleanliness (dirtiness is colloquially called "schmutz"). A separate survey checks the performance of public pay telephones in subway stations.
New for 2006 is the bus "Unreliables Award" given to the bus lines that rated worst in "bunching," with major gaps in service (essentially, amount of deviation from posted timetables). The M1 bus in Manhattan "won," with 27.6% unreliability.
[edit] External links
- Straphangers Campaign official website
- Straphangers Campaign's "Rider Diaries" (Discussion Forum)
- 2006 Pokey and Unreliables Awards
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