© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
NYC to finally issue official ban on pooping in subways and buses
Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

NYC to finally issue official ban on pooping in subways and buses

How was this not already a thing?

New York City's government officials are reportedly ready to finally issue a formal ban on defecating in the city's subways, buses, and transit facilities this week, the New York Post reported.

Currently, the poop ban is just a temporary rule implemented in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Wait. There wasn't already an official ban on subway pooping?

When New York City was being hit by the coronavirus, city officials chose to lockdown the city, force social distancing, and set up a system to snitch on fellow New Yorkers who might violate quarantine regulations.

Several weeks after the lockdown began, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) finally asked for the subway trains to be cleaned every night.

The announcement caught many New Yorkers — and their fellow Americans — by surprise, since they likely assumed daily cleaning of the subway cars was already a practice of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — especially in light of the quickly escalating cases of COVID-19 in the city and the severe lockdown policies the local government had instituted.

As the virus spread through the Big Apple, the MTA also issued some other temporary emergency rules for the subway, including a ban on defecating on subways and buses.

According to the Post, the MTA is set to formally ban going No. 2 in Gotham's subway trains, buses, and transit facilities on Wednesday.

Other "bodily expulsions" are already specifically named in the MTA's formal rules as actions that can get a person a $100 fine. This new clarification from the MTA will specifically add "defecating" to the list of no-no's.

Nasty trains have been a problem for a while

The Post reported that people have long been griping about the nastiness of NYC subway trains and that complaints to the MTA about the "soiled" subway surged in 2019, but the government agency simply blamed the increased notification on riders being more vigilant, not on deteriorating transit conditions.

And it has not been just the public that has complained, the Post noted. Workers are tired of the filth, too:

[T]ransit workers have long complained of nasty conditions on trains. The workers' union, Transport Workers Union Local 100, launched a “Trash Train" photo contest last October to highlight the filth and protest cuts to cleaning crews.

The MTA issued a statement about the coming pooping ban and other rule changes.

"MTA rules are periodically tweaked to enhance clarity, and that's the case with the addition of more descriptive language," MTA spokesman Tim Minton said, the Post reported. "Ensuring the transportation system provides an appropriate quality of life experience for our workforce and customers is a guiding principle and top priority."

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?