Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Ride More Often

I get that elites have justifiable reasons for not using public transit, but the problem is too many of them (in urban hellholes where lots of people rely on it) never used it, even before they were 'elites'. Maybe use it a bit more often, and you'll know what people deal with, good and bad.
In a stern, bullet-pointed missive on Monday, the mayor described a star-crossed attempt at riding the subway to a speaking engagement in Midtown Manhattan. A train never came — and when the mayor resurfaced, his security vehicles were nowhere in sight.

“The detail drove away when we went into the subway rather than waiting to confirm we got on a train,” Mr. de Blasio wrote in the email, addressed to Deputy Inspector Howard Redmond, the head of his Police Department security detail. “We need a better system.”

...

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, is not a regular subway rider: Like mayors before him, he is driven most places in a police-issued sport utility vehicle. Still, at times, the mayor’s email resembled a typical rider’s lament. “We waited 20 mins for an express only to hear there were major delays,” Mr. de Blasio wrote. “This was knowable info. Had we had it, we would have avoided a lot of hassles.”