New York City’s Subway Is Actually Safer Than Your Car
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has a point about assaults underground, but his policies aren’t improving anything.
Traveling in the subway remains much less dangerous than getting around by car.
Photographer: Adam Gray/Bloomberg
At a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in Washington this week, Representative Jerry Nadler of Manhattan and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy squared off over the safety of New York City’s subways. A snippet:
The number of major felonies on the subway is in fact down this year and down since 2019 (by 3.9% and 7.3%, respectively, as of the end of May, according to the most recent crime report provided by the New York City Police Department to the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority). But felony assaults on the subway in the first five months of this year were up 18% compared with the same period last year and 66% compared with the same period in 2019. Nobody was lying. Both Nadler and Duffy were making valid claims about subway crime, even if their numbers don’t appear to be entirely up to date.