It’s summer and New Yorkers know what that means: riding the subway can be unbearable from the heat. Plus, it involves other people–the inevitable moments you get crammed up into someone sweaty armpit or grab a glob of something unknown on the poles. The WNYC Data Team has been tasked on something quite timely. First, they’ve created a “Live Subway Agony Index” which we’ve embedded below and they’ve also created a guide to which subway cars are likely to be more hot (something key to know when faced with the choice of transfers).
According to WNYC, the Live Agony Index attempts to measure “agony” by “monitoring times between trains and adding unhappy points for stations typically crowded at rush hour.” Ratings with smiley faces mean “normal,” “meh,” “not running” and more. We’re happy to report that as of 8:50am this morning, all lines seem normal today so far.
Then, you can take their interactive quiz (embedded below) that serves as a field guide to what subway cars are more likely to be hot or have their air conditioning breakdown.
Finally, you can listen to the WNYC podcast on air conditioning breakdowns in the New York City subway:
