Personal Safety in the New York City Subway

[Prospect]

I wanted to talk about personal safety in the New York City Subway system, as I personally have been taking trains less because of this reason. There have been countless incidents of people being robbed, stabbed, and even shot while taking trains. From my experience, I've seen people exhibit such antisocial behavior in Lower Manhattan, specifically in groups of homeless individuals who need help with their state of mental health. There are the homeless that are down on their luck, and then the others who present significant dangers to themselves and others. The former I have personally helped, but I feel the latter need to be addressed, desperately. Some have lengthy rap sheets of violent, repeat offenses who seek asylum in the subway and surrounding areas. Now, I understand that the bail structure here is f***ed up, which is more or less one of the reasons such people aren't stopped until they kill, but what can people who take the subway do to protect themselves? Not everyone here can afford to take the express bus, or can have their shift changed at their jobs. Since the city isn't eager to address the chronic mental illness crisis here, incidents will continue to occur...

[BreeddekalbL]

Well you can only be hyper aware of your surroundings and it is legal to carry "self defense spray"

[Prospect]

11 hours ago, BreeddekalbL said:

Well you can only be hyper aware of your surroundings and it is legal to carry "self defense spray"

With this being New York, I'm sure many people are hyper aware, it's just doing so in such a way without attracting the wrong kind of attention. Yeah, carrying pepper spray is also a good idea, I have a canister too, as there's too many troubled souls roaming the trains who are comfortable getting up close and personal in your space. Also, people could benefit by waiting near the wall and not at the platform edge, as several deaths have been caused by EDP's shoving passengers into the path of incoming trains.

 

[trainfan22]

I must be the only one who still feels safe on the subway, the subway was dangerous as recently as the late 90s. High School students getting jumped, innocent ppl getting stabbed on purpose, entire subway cars getting robbed, it was horrible back then. Current day subway don't seem as nearly as bad.

 

 

I remember my 6th Grade teacher who was like 24 years old (this was in 2004) at the time said us kids were lucky with an capital L to be growing up at the time we were cause of the crime in NYC years prior.

Edited August 16, 2022 by trainfan22

[BreeddekalbL]

1 hour ago, Prospect said:

With this being New York, I'm sure many people are hyper aware, it's just doing so in such a way without attracting the wrong kind of attention. Yeah, carrying pepper spray is also a good idea, I have a canister too, as there's too many troubled souls roaming the trains who are comfortable getting up close and personal in your space. Also, people could benefit by waiting near the wall and not at the platform edge, as several deaths have been caused by EDP's shoving passengers into the path of incoming trains.

 

Yeah i never wait at edge of platforms 

[ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ]

On 8/15/2022 at 10:44 PM, trainfan22 said:

I must be the only one who still feels safe on the subway, the subway was dangerous as recently as the late 90s. High School students getting jumped, innocent ppl getting stabbed on purpose, entire subway cars getting robbed, it was horrible back then. Current day subway don't seem as nearly as bad.

 

 

I remember my 6th Grade teacher who was like 24 years old (this was in 2004) at the time said us kids were lucky with an capital L to be growing up at the time we were cause of the crime in NYC years prior.

I'm actually currently a student and I feel relatively safe on the subways in general, even if they aren't particularly busy. I find that for obvious reasons the subway because a bajillion times more "scary" at night, especially on the tails of lines in the outer boroughs when the trains are still relatively empty and going through some rougher neighborhoods or in underground sections that are just eerily empty. Also the stations in these communities where you have a lot of "blind" turns into stairwells and stuff; the mirrors they install aren't always reliable.

How safe someone feels is def gonna vary a lot by their individual commute, both in terms of route and time.

[LGA Link N Train]

I feel safe riding the subway at any time of day tbh. Although unless I'm assigned to go out flagging at a certain location or whatever the case may be in regards to doing work out in the field. I don't go out of my way to ride the subway when its unnecessary anymore.