Subway Planners Get It Right

The one way to find out how well a job was done, or not done, is to perform a survey of those who live with the results.

1 minute read

August 20, 2004, 6:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

NYC subway planners did a major overhaul of the Brooklyn/Manhattan commute based on the restoration of 4 subway tacks over the Manhattan Bridge, then heard a lot of grumbling.

"In April, two months after the changes, transit workers polled about 2,000 riders, asking them this simple question: Do you prefer the way the service is now, or the way it was before? As it turns out, about 48 percent said they preferred the new service, and 29 percent said either way was fine. Only 23 percent said they preferred the old.Study the ridership information more closely, planners said, and the logic behind each route change comes into focus."

Thanks to Irvin Dawid

Read the full story: Lie or Not, Numbers Don't Complain: Subway System Planners Feel Vindicated by Survey

Thursday, August 19, 2004 in The New York Times

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