The New York Subway system is one of the most used subways in the world. With this comes the fact that as more people come and go more trash will build up. This would be harmless if it weren’t for the immense number of people who litter. These people throw trash of all kinds on to the tracks including food-related items. All of this litter creates problems such as track fires, flooding, and increased rodent and pest activity (Rats!). These all create disturbances and can create subway delays and can damage the subway system. These delays can  There are 700 fire-related delays every year not to mention the countless other delays created from flooded tracks caused by litter clogging drains. 

    There have been multiple attempts to solve this problem. The Keep It Clean Initiative was introduced to increase efforts to clean the tracks through more cleaning equipment. The only problem with this is that this specialized equipment is expensive-- and not very effective. Another attempt was to increase fines. This lacked a lot of effectiveness because officers not giving out fines to everyone who littered because they didn’t see the crime.

    With these previous attempts in mind, we wanted to make a solution that would be cost-efficient and still would be effective. Our solution is to dedicate resources to the manpower and equipment to clean the subway instead of spending immense amounts of money on high paid consultants. This would also be funded by a rise in the amount of money the littering fines are and an increase in strictness in giving out littering fines meaning that people with authority to give out fines should be vigilant and should not hesitate to give out fines. The way we will achieve this goal is to get a petition with one hundred or more signatures. From there we will send the petition to Governor Cuomo and the MTA along with a detailed description of our plans.

This is a problem that effects countless people. Litter on subways may sound like an insignificant issue but it can snowball and make commuters and school children late while inconveniencing people across the city. This problem may effect you and people who have never littered before. To help solve this problem and eliminate this inconveniencesign this petition.