A good news story about the New York City subway

Gryffindor, via Wikimedia

In 2006, I declared in my bio at The Scientist, where I was deputy editor at the time, that my favorite gadget was the New York City subway. An experience 15 years later has made that even more true.

A few Friday mornings ago, I walked briskly down the steps of the 79th St. downtown 1 subway entrance at the northwest corner of 79th and Broadway, just around the corner from our apartment. I had a quiet morning schedule that day, so it was already after 9.

I swiped my MetroCard and walked up the platform, toward the last few cars, since I wanted to make the transfer to the N/R in Times Square more efficient. The next train wasn’t arriving for a few minutes, so I went to pull out my phone.

That’s when it happened.