Would You Shut Down the Third Avenue L Station?

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

To end the show today, we're headed back to the Transit Beat, something I know well. We're going to talk about something I read in Curbed about an NYC-specific pet peeve. Have you ever had this experience? You hop on the L train at Union Square, headed to Brooklyn. The doors close, and before you've even left the station, it feels like you're entering the next stop at Third Avenue. No one moves, and then you're on your way to First Avenue, just a blink away. Maybe you thought, was that Third Avenue stop really necessary?

That's what Joshua Wolk, a software engineer and strap hanger, wanted to find out. He crunched the data and found that the Third Avenue L stop is the most inefficient subway stop in the city. Wolk used a transit routing algorithm to see what would happen if the station closed. And his findings?

Closing Third Avenue would save 1,824 rider hours every week. He's now ranking the least efficient subway stations on his website, stopthestop.com. It includes a petition to close the L train's Third Avenue stop. So we brought Joshua into the studio today to tell us about this project. Welcome, Joshua.

Josh Wolk (1:15)

Hi, it's very good to be here. I'm excited to discuss Stop The Stop.

Brian Lehrer (1:19)

Glad to have you. So on your list, you've got 356 subway stops listed from the least to the most efficient.

Can you just describe how did you pull this data?

Josh Wolk (1:29)

Absolutely. So the MTA is absolutely wonderful in the sense that they have open API access for anyone. No login, no cost. It's extremely accessible.

So I fetched all of this data and I was able to run it through, like you said, this routing algorithm called Raptor. And I could simulate what would happen if you were to close a stop. And I was just totally shocked to find how much time would be saved if we close the Third Ave L stop.

Brian Lehrer (1:57)

And can you explain like what this time regained means? It's like 1,824 rider hours. How does that translate into my experience?

Josh Wolk (2:05)

Absolutely. So the equation is pretty simple. Basically, whenever the train slows to a stop and then slowly accelerates again, that's time wasted for the people who are currently waiting on the train. So at the Third Ave L Stop, about 95% of people are waiting while 5% are getting on or off. So you can take that 95% waiting and you take that aggregate time between everyone and then you subtract from it the amount of time it would take for those Third Ave L Stop riders to walk to the next nearest station, which is about a block and a half away at Union Square.

I actually double that amount just to be fair to the current riders.

Brian Lehrer (2:42)

And so I think the first thing some riders might say would be, hey, I don't want to walk any farther to my stop. How do you account for that?

Josh Wolk (2:49)

So that's a good question. There are certainly tradeoffs, but it's important to consider that the Third Ave stop is a total anomaly and that it is 700 hours more costly than the next worst stop in New York.

Brian Lehrer (3:04)

Okay. Are there any stations on your list that surprised you? Some others that are actually quite efficient?

Josh Wolk (3:13)

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't exactly a shocker, but Penn Station saves tens of thousands of hours every day. I don't go there too often, but-

Brian Lehrer (3:25)

You're missing out. Let me tell you.

Josh Wolk (3:27)

I think I'm fine in East Village. But yeah, that one's super efficient, so no one should touch that.

Brian Lehrer (3:36)

That's quite busy. That's got the ACE. I was really surprised all the way at the bottom, just after Penn Station, is the 72nd Street on the queue. That's one of the newest subway stations.

Josh Wolk (3:46)

It's good to hear, and I think that's a sign that the MTA really does look at the data when making these sorts of decisions.

Brian Lehrer (3:52)

So how serious is your proposal? Like, how many signatures have you got, and have you spoken with anyone from the MTA about this?

Josh Wolk (3:58)

Yeah, the petition's sitting at around 500 signatures, though I haven't really been pumping it. I think what's more interesting is that this has gotten a lot of traction online. So about 20,000 people or so have supported the petition over Instagram and Twitter.

But I think more important than that is just making sure the MTA takes the proposal seriously. So next week, I'll be talking with my local representative, and I think that process might be the best way to see some action.