The Transit Authority is launching a sweeping new courtesy campaign that’ll nicely warn straphangers not to be slobs, block car doors or hog seats.
The “Little Courtesies Mean a Lot” campaign will start in May with posters plastered in subway cars, stations and buses.
“Riders can make their own ride more pleasant and easier if they just do these very simple things,” said TA President Larry Reuter.
Transit officials want riders to keep their trash – coffee cups, food and wrappers – off the trains.
“We’re going to ask them to be more courteous. Put their litter in trash cans, and the trains will be cleaner,” Reuter added.
The TA boss said the ads will urge straphangers to stand clear of car doors and move to the center of cars. Doing so will help speed trains during rush hour and reduce delays, he said.
The civility campaign goes hand-in-hand with the transit police’s crackdown on fare-beaters, beer-drinkers, smokers, beggars, peddlers and those spitting, littering and making noise.
The campaign comes on the heels of a TA survey showing trains are filthier than they were a year ago. Straphanger advocates blame the TA rather than riders for the increase in grime. There are fewer TA employees cleaning trains now than in 1995, transit officials admitted yesterday.
But the TA vowed that help is on the way. Reuter announced that some of its 1,000 welfare-recipient workers will be assigned to clean the subways by mid or late April to earn their benefits.