How do you know which carriage the conductor is in on the new york subway?
Aha, listen up, because I am now going to tell you a secret that very few NYers, even born-and-raised NYers, know… On every subway platform there is a “stripe stick,” which is a white horizontal board with black stripes on it, that’s about 6 inches wide, and about 6-8 feet long, that is facing the train, up over your head, either attached to the wall, or hanging from the ceiling near the edge of the platform. You see, NYC Subway trains are sometimes longer or shorter, depending on the time of day, and that “stripe stick” is there so that, when the train pulls into the station, the conductor, who stands at the center of the train, can tell at a glance if the train is centered on the platform and it is therefore safe for him to open the doors, or if it is off-center on the platform, in which case he should not open the doors so that folks don’t step off the train into an open pit. So, if you’re waiting on a subway platform and you want to know where the conductor will be when the train
