Monday Morning Commute

Aldous Huxley once wrote "Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, if only for a few moments is one of the principal appetites of the soul."

Bleak? Maybe. True? Well, just get on the Monday morning subway and make your own judgment. How is it possible for so many people, crammed shoulder to shoulder, confined in oftentimes the most uncomfortable positions, to be so silent? Turn the IPod up, bury your face in your book, newspaper or magazine and try not to dwell on the fact that your weekend is over. Each is engaged in a very personal form of escape. But in trying to isolate ourselves and escape, if only for a moment or two, we all become participants in perhaps one of the biggest examples of mass avoidance.

* photo from Walker Evans

Subway Statistics

4.5 Million - number of passengers the subway handles daily
1.4 Billion - number of passengers the subway handles every year
842 - number in miles of track
468 - number of stations
31,000 - number of turnstiles
13 million - number in gallons of water pumped out of the subway system daily
100,000 - number in miles an average car travels between breakdowns
6,200 - number of cars in subway system
45,600 - number of employees it takes to keep the subway running
4'8" - distance between the rails (track gauge)
1 - number of years the average New Yorker will spend underground during a lifetime

* statistics taken from "The Works" by Kate Ascher