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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday June 20 2020, @05:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the shining-a-cleansing-light dept.

New York MTA is battling COVID-19 with UV lights and infrared sensors:

New York City may be opening back up for business, but that doesn't mean everybody's ready to hop aboard its trains and buses yet. While daily ridership on subways and buses is up 380,000 compared with the period before the June 8 reopening date, that's still a fraction of the millions of riders who commuted in the pre-pandemic days.

[...] Last month, the MTA began shutting down the subway system between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.daily -- the first time it's ever done so -- to disinfect the cars. Foye made the point that it wasn't simply a cleaning, but actually disinfecting the cars, and noted it happens twice a day.

At the same time, the agency launched a $1 million pilot program to use ultraviolet light to sterilize its cars. The MTA plans to deploy 150 mobile devices at stations and rail yards to test the effectiveness of UV, and Foye said that the early research conducted by Columbia University has been promising.

Meanwhile, cycling naturally enforces distance, is faster, and costs nothing.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @10:10AM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @10:10AM (#1010314)

    And I'm a long time bicyclist.

    There is NO WHERE in the USA, even places like San Francisco or Los Angeles, where bicycling on the order of subway loads worth of people is feasible from an infrastructure point of view. There aren't enough bicycle racks, there isn't enough footspace, there aren't enough bicycle lanes, and there aren't enough bicycle paths. I am not saying we can't see an increase in bicycle ridership, but it would not be a societal benefit during the (hopefully!) wind down of the covid pandemic. Moving forward perhaps we can see bicycling move to the forefront with more building permits and county/city requirements to ensure the infrastructure is in place to do it, but as I sit right now in CALIFORNIA, I can tell you that most places in the past 10-15 years have been TAKING OUT bicycle racks, leaving you no place to park except if you want to risk someone running off with your bicycle because you chained through the wheel without anchoring it to a frame or pole near the building (poles supporting the front fascias of mini-malls is another thing missing on newer buildings in California and I assume new build structures in most other parts of the country as well! Without either of them bicycling is like having a lifted pickup truck with the catalytic converter hanging right out in plain sight. Some methed up junkie is going to roll by and steal it because they can.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @11:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @11:59AM (#1010331)

    Also a long time bicyclist, but not a hardcore roadie. For short trips I've had some success with small wheel folding bikes, take them inside with you, never lock the bike up outdoors. There are a lot of crappy folders, but there are a few that can be fun to ride (at low speeds).

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday June 20 2020, @03:18PM (2 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday June 20 2020, @03:18PM (#1010390) Journal

    That was a fucking retarded editorial

    Is it? I have lived and biked in NYC for 20+ years. it is the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to get around the city. I live in brooklyn and have commuted to manhattan, downtown, midtown, and uptown. I regularly ride all the way up into westchester and out to long island, sometimes to far rockaway, queens. all those routes mix onstreet, shared lanes, and protected bike paths. I prefer protected paths, but shared lanes aren't the horror you think they are.

    Also, given your attitude about cycling infrastructure capacity it seems you don't have much experience as a bike commuter, because when youare commuting the more cyclists are around you, the safer you are. as far as bike parking goes, many of the cyclists in NYC use foldable bikes they can pop into a bike bag and park at their cubicle. I have a full-sized folding mountain bike from Dahon that fits into a bike bag I can sling over my shoulder. I worked in high security buildings and it's never been a problem.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @03:51PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @03:51PM (#1010402)

      So at what point did you move north of NYC to that small town?

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday June 21 2020, @06:05PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday June 21 2020, @06:05PM (#1010712) Journal

        North of NYC Is westchester county, which has high property taxes we don't feel like paying. we have never lived anywhere north of NYC. Brooklyn only.

        are you mentally impaired that you continue to insist I live where I don't live?

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @03:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @03:55PM (#1010405)

    (hopefully!) wind down of the covid pandemic

    The media will try to milk it until the election at least. After pushing the Floyd story, the resulting riots got out of control, so you can see them beating the Covid drum again.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @04:52PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @04:52PM (#1010413)

    Bicycles work best in flat places where there's not much traffic. You have to have so many bicyclists that you can justify having their own dedicated signals that reduce the number of times that cars need to cross cyclists as they ride. There's ways of doing it, but by and large it's not economical. You'd be better off just building proper mass transit and then encouraging people to cycle the last little bit.

    The fact that there's a substantial number of cyclists that blatantly ignore traffic laws just makes matters worse. I've seen all sorts of craziness from cyclists riding the wrong way down dedicated bike lanes to them riding on the wrong side of the street so that they can turn at a higher speed. For optimal safety on the streets, there needs to be a substantial agreement about what kinds of behaviors are and aren't reasonable to expect from other road users and there's enough ill-behaved cyclists that it makes it very difficult to share the road with any of them.

    • (Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Sunday June 21 2020, @12:07AM (1 child)

      by ChrisMaple (6964) on Sunday June 21 2020, @12:07AM (#1010523)

      Bad drivers are a danger to cyclists. Arrogant cyclists, not uncommon, are a danger to everyone on the road. Try following a cyclist on a 40 mph posted road, going 7 mph for a quarter mile and blocking the cars behind him; he thinks it's O.K. because he's going to turn left some day soon.

      • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday June 21 2020, @04:38AM

        by Pino P (4721) on Sunday June 21 2020, @04:38AM (#1010578) Journal

        Try following a cyclist on a 40 mph posted road, going 7 mph for a quarter mile and blocking the cars behind him

        Is it any better if the cyclist is sustaining 12 to 18 mph (19 to 29 km/h), depending on hill and wind conditions, and keeping to the right* half of the right through lane until hand-signaling a left lane change about a block in advance of a left turn?

        * Assumes USA and other countries that drive on the right.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday June 21 2020, @06:10PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday June 21 2020, @06:10PM (#1010715) Journal

      That's not so. I previously lived in kyushu and only got around by bike. there not only was no bike infrastructure, but most times there weren't even shoulders to the roads, and sidewalks were inaccessible because of pedestrian fencing. Yet biking there was fine.

      I will confess that I prefer dedicated bike infrastructure, such as beijing has, but it's not a prerequisite.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday June 21 2020, @06:16PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday June 21 2020, @06:16PM (#1010717) Journal

      I disagree. you don't need flat places to bike. NYC is hillier than most people realize, and it's not a problem to bike here. also, I biked in japan a lot, and it's quite hilly. now, if you live in a very hilly place like san francisco or pittsburgh, you'd probably have to work up to it, but I'll leave it to those who live there to comment.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.