State of the Subways Report Card 2004

CREDITS

Since 1979, the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign has been a leading voice for New York City’s millions of daily subway and bus riders. The Straphangers Campaign is a project of the New York Public Interest Research Group Fund (NYPIRG).

The 2004 State of the Subways Report Card was made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which is a leader in supporting the assessment of the quality of government services. We greatly appreciate the guidance and interest of our program officer, Ted Greenwood.

The profiles and MetroCard Ratings were designed by Matt Glomski and Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign in collaboration with Li Howard and Trevett McCandliss, who designed the profile mastheads. Matt Glomski also analyzed the numbers for the report and oversaw its production. Gene Russianoff wrote the report.

Steven Romalewski, director of NYPIRG’s Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP), helped develop the profile criteria and refine our approach. Marty DeBenedictis, Christina Knight-Spielman and Meg McCarron of CMAP, and John Quinn of NYPIRG consulted on the management of data. Campaign coordinator Neysa Pranger supervised editing and production. Fact-checking was done by Laura Cheng and Campaign intern Demian Fernandez. Campaign organizer Michael Hernandez provided production assistance. Additional production was done by interns Kate Freitag and Eileen Maldonado.

The methodology for the profiles and the MetroCard Ratings was originally developed in close consultation with the University Transportation Research Center at City College. We are indebted to the analytic skills of Yuko Nakanishi and Robert Paaswell, the director of UTRC. At the start of our project, we received expert and generous guidance from Gary Henderson, who has headed past efforts at the MTA Inspector General to improve MTA performance measures.

We thank the following officials at MTA New York City Transit for their assistance: Martin Krieger at the Operations Planning Division; Lois Tendler and Deborah-Hall Moore at Government and Community Relations; and Executive Vice President Barbara Spencer.

We want to acknowledge the transit riders who gave us feedback on the original design and contents of the line profiles. Special thanks to our colleagues in the transit riders advocacy community: Beverly Dolinsky, and Andrew Albert of the New York City Transit Riders Council; Ira Greenberg of the Office of New York State Assembly Member Catherine Nolan; and Joseph G. Rappaport, now a columnist for AM-NY.

We are proud that the 2004 State of the Subways Report Card is being issued on the eve of the centennial of New York City’s unparalleled subway system. Our work to measure the performance of city transit will be highlighted in an exhibition on the Straphangers Campaign being hosted by the Municipal Art Society from August 26, 2004 to October 30, 2004.

Front cover photo credit: Michael Hernandez

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