Besides leading to lost wages, chaotic after school pick ups, and missed medical appointments, the colossal systemwide breakdown of the MTA has also forced the citys mass transit riders to approach the commute more strategically. Below, tried and true tactics to arm yourself for the daily battle against an unwieldy and unreliable daily slog Use the Bathroom Ahead of Time. Self explanatory. You never know when a 2. Stay Updated With Transit Apps and Twitter Beefs. Besides checking the MTAs website for current service status, its smart to supplement with additional information from apps like Kickmap, which will show delays, and works offline, or the citys Transit app, which shows your best route options and upcoming train arrival times in addition to information on delays. As a rule, though, the real dirt can be found on Twitter. The NYCT Subway Twitter feed stays reasonably up to date, but the pro move is to dive into their mentions to see what other riders are saying about delays on your line The same advice follows for simply searching Twitter for your line of choice to see if anyone has pertinent news about the train youre about to take Leave Extremely Early. Extremely Late. For the day to day commute, most people we know now leave 1. You could also swing to the other end of the spectrum and leave late enough to avoid rush hour, if you have hours and a work schedule flexible enough to allow for it. Must be nice Doesnt mean your train wont get stuck indefinitely, but it does mean that you wont be crammed in with quite as many people when it happens. Pack Water and Snacks. Though eating on the subway is a controversial topicand food may soon become contrabandits arguably a safety precaution to at least bring water with you, and ideally, small snacks like nuts or granola bars as well. Getting stuck without light or air so long that people might get dehydrated or start to faint is not outside the realm of possibilityNote this doesnt mean its acceptable to break the no cooked food on the subway rule. Download Crack The Sims 2 Funky Business Casual For Women more. It isnt. Bring Extra Reading Materialand a Backup Charger. Even if youre not going up against a decrepit century old transit infrastructure, as a rule, if you leave the house without anything to entertain you, youll end up stuck in a line, waiting room, or traffic indefinitely, bored to tears. No matter how you slice it, keeping some extra battery power on your person can do wonders toRead more Read. Download extra podcasts and articles for offline listening or reading, bring more than one book, and consider backup like a battery case or external battery pack to keep you juiced when several extra hours unexpectedly get added to your trek home. Meditate The horrors and indignities of the subway have been known to serve as a catalyst for spiritual awakenings even before service quality took a nosedive. Mary Karr, for one, has cited wanting to kill everyone on the subway as one of the factors that pushed her towards converting to Catholicism as an adult. Last week, I experienced a panic attack for the first time. The scariest part, though, was that IRead more Read. For a less committed spiritual experience and a means of calming down if youre starting to feel edgy or on the precipice of a panic attack, consider turning to deep breathing exercises, or better yet, transit specific guided meditations. Youtube has a wealth of options geared towards stressed commuters, and meditation apps Headspace and Buddhify both have guided meditations for transit, as well. Verbally Abuse Andrew Cuomo. While Albany has systematically under funded the MTA for years, Governor Cuomo has made a priority out of relatively low priority glamour projects, such as adding Wi. Fi to every station in the subway station earlier this year. Which means that while youre stuck on an increasingly overheated and crowded subway platform, you can sign right onto that Transit. Wireless. Wifi network, and start firing off tweets MTA and NYCGov. Cuomo letting them know, in extremely specific detail, just how much theyre ruining your day, exactly how you feel about it, and exactly how youll be voting in the next election. Perhaps its more cathartic than effectual, but its garnering attention earlier this summer Cuomo complained, They tweet nasty things about me all day, the riders, but we cant figure out how to communicate with them. One more way to communicate go ahead and give his office a call at 1 5.