New York Underground

I'm starting Subway Sojourner to document my thoughts and experiences as I ride the trains of New York City. Why record what you might presume to be a dull exercise in transportation? After moving here in 2000, I was struck by the array of activities people reserve for their ride on the subway. Ordinary chores like cutting fingernails, paying bills, and eating meals are often reserved for the train, while the opposite side of the spectrum includes the extreme side of human behavior. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, substance abuse, urination, and sex acts. Some highlights: adults drinking themselves into oblivion and/or vomiting, men urinating (which is more common than I would have imagined or hoped), and the most egregious things I've seen include a young man's midday masturbation on a busy station platform, and a man receiving a hand-job from a drugged out woman in the car. Who needs Broadway? All the theatrics of life are at your disposal in the subway.

The subway has 468 stations that connect via 656 miles of track. There are about 7 million paid fares per day on the subway and buses and around 35 million fares annually in the Times Square station alone, the busiest in the system. Turnstiles and trains are where many people are forced to spend a significant amount of time in close proximity to their fellow New Yorkers. This has the potential to reveal another side of ourselves, a side our mothers would not always approve of—I hope mine does.