New York City summers are notoriously hot. With temperatures easily rising above 90 degrees, what can be more irksome than gallivanting around the city with beads of perspiration around your neck?
Try descending into a mini version of Dante’s Inferno, otherwise known as the New York City subway. Here, the beads of perspiration effortlessly transform into embarrassing trails of sweat.
Although New York City subways – some descending more than 100 feet below street level – are sheltered from the sun, the platforms are by no means cool and breezy. Beth Fertig, a reporter from WNYC News, took a digital thermometer to several subway stations to see just how hot it can get on the platform. In one instance, the temperature on the platform oscillated a few degrees higher than the temperature above ground.
Thankfully, New Yorkers can escape from the overbearing heat by ducking into the air-conditioned carriages. Although the blast of cool air is a welcome respite from the heat of the platform, some subway commuters have a different take on the air-conditioned cars. The Metropolitan Walker suggests the industrial strength air conditioners make the heat worse by removing the hot air from the subway cars and depositing it in the station.
If arriving at work, school, or a date in sweat-stained clothes isn’t your cup of tea, Brian Fairbanks provides us with a rundown of which subway platforms to bypass.
What do you think of the temperature on the subway platforms? Too hot? Too cold? Or just right?
I just finished reading “When Things Bite Back,” a book about the so-called “revenge effects” of technology. In it the author mentioned that subway platform temperatures increase by as much as 10 degrees as a result of air-conditioned mass transit.
I wonder if people prefer that to no ac.