Station skylights. Antimicrobial benches. Connectors to prevent riders from falling between cars.
A city artist’s ambitious vision for the subways would make the system a lot safer and cooler, and the MTA said it is considering some of his ideas.
Randy Gregory’s renderings, which include club-lit cars as dedicated performance spaces, were featured last night in a pop-up show at a Soho gallery with the help of the Riders Alliance. Attendees were to vote on which idea they liked best, and the winners will be submitted to the MTA.
Gregory created many of his designs while he was a graduate student at the School of Visual Arts and commuting to class on the 7 train from Sunnyside, Queens to Manhattan.
“It’s a very inspirational line,” he said. “As humans, we built this entire transportation system that runs for $2.50 a slice.— and you can go from Coney Island to The Bronx.”
He said small changes that may not cost much money could make straphangers’ rides better, such as stations being painted in the color of their subway line to give them more personality, or better lighting on stairs.
“I set out to create ideas that would improve the experience,” Gregory said. “It’s not solving a big problem. Sometimes, the problem is trying to improve the environment of the station, to give it some color, or just change up our ride a little bit.”
Some improvements he illustrated were free, such as being nicer to transit workers, or not hogging a subway seat.
Others were zany, like an odor detector that would alert riders to a smelly subway car before they entered. He also proposed reflecting light underground to grow plants like moss in the subway system.
The ideas were featured throughout the Soho show, which was hosted by transit advocacy organization Riders Alliance.
“We want to highlight some creative ideas for how to improve the subway, and to encourage other New Yorkers to bring their own ideas too,” said John Raskin, its executive director. “We want to showcase that sort of citizen activism, and show that grassroots contributions really do trickle up and get listened to.”
Gregory’s latest post, called “Love,” is a homage to New York’s transit system.
“Love the view you get of 5 Pointz when you enter Queens,” he said. “Love the view of the water when you go into Brooklyn.”
In addition to riding the subway at all hours of the day for the project, Gregory also met with the MTA to learn about how they make improvements.
“We welcome all ideas to improve the customer experience on the subways,” said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg.
“Especially when they don’t require a significant investment or divert funding from more critical needs.”
